Ireland day 1386. Tuesday 15 July 2025- Gymming and Chilling

Today’s summary	After breakfast, Val went to the beauty salon and I went to the gym. 30 minutes exercise bike (7km) and 30 minutes swim (1050m). Met Val for lunch in Donnybrook Fair afterwards and chatted to the manager. Had a relaxing afternoon while it bucketed down outside. Kerrigans chicken with cashew rice (delicious – thanks Val) for dinner.
Today’s weather	Brilliant sunny spells interspersed with torrential rain showers. Strong blustery westerly wind. Appx 18c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

The weather has definitely downgraded itself from summer to autumn, so heavy overnight rain last night has been followed by sunshine and showers today. Given the weather and the significant possibility that if we strayed too far afield we would get soaked, we decided to stay close to base for most of the day.

But even though we are trying to have a bit more “chill” time at the moment, we didn’t just blob around all day doing nothing – tempting as that sometimes appears. So as soon as we’d had breakfast, we started making plans.

First off, as my month’s gym membership still has three weeks to run, I thought I’d head over there and burn off some calories. So I spent half an hour on the exercise bike (7km) followed by another half an hour in the pool (50 lengths / 1050m). Then I came away feeling virtuous.

While I was away gymming, Val was making her self look (even more) beautiful at the salon. So she, too, was glowing by the end of the morning.

To celebrate our newly minted wellbeing, we met up in the café at Donnybrook Fair for lunch. We both had sausage rolls with salad, followed by cake which we shared. It was OK but not spectacular. We were surprised to see that the café tables were being cleared up by the store general manager. A good sign, we thought, when senior managers spend time on the shop floor. We had a quick chat with him – mostly about holidays in Spain, actually – then returned to the flat via the shops.

By this time it was already almost 4pm and much of the rest of the day was spent on nothing much at all. Very nice I have to say! I paid a brief visit to the shops to pick up some things I’d forgotten earlier. Val did some sewing and made a delicious dinner of Kerrigans chicken with cashew rice. Now it’s time to round it all off with some tv.

An abnormally laid back day, for both of us. But I suspect that actually we both really needed it.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Inside the gym foyer – unspectacular but it does the job	Looking back to the Grand Hotel – they gym is in the far distance. Rain and sunshine are making everything very floriferous

Donnybrook Fair – the grey blocky building in the middle of the parade	Agapanthus in full bloom in Railway Avenue. I particularly like them because they remind me of happy family holidays in the Scilly Isles (UK), where they thrive



Railway Avenue – looking washed clean after a recent downpour