Fast to be slow

From Dublin, I now live in Ennis and usually get the train when going to Dublin. Hopping on the Luas to Smithfield, or taking a leisurely ten minute walk to the bike station there and making my way to wherever it is I need to be on one of these bikes is certainly the best way to travel and the fastest within the city. This speed is, of course, only relative, and is not in any way  hectic – these bicycles are really only, and thankfully so, designed for a nice easy pace. To be able to leave the bike at a station, say for example in Chatham Street and walk around the Grafton Street area as you do, and when finished, head towards the Merrion Row side of the Green (that’s where O’Donoghues’s is, often mistaken for Baggot Street…) to another bike station to continue my journey over towards the canal end of Baggot Street – wonderful!

I had an appointment in that area one Saturday morning, finishing up at 12.45. My train from Heuston was at 14.00 – this would have been the time to get to the station, have enough time to buy a sandwich and take my seat on the train, but with the bikes, it was a different and far more joyful story. I was at Christchurch before one and was sitting down on the grass in the grounds of the cathedral with my smoked cod from Burdock’s by five past one. I relaxed until about half one, took a bike back to Smithfield and walked back to Heuston with plenty of time to spare.

Granted, the weather was fantastic, but had it been raining, I would have had my rain gear, having cycled to the train station in Ennis, and I probably would have stopped off in Peter’s Pub for a pint and a toasted sandwich instead…hmmmm…sunshine or a pint and a sandwhich…sunshine or a pint and a sandwhich – will try both next time.

A time before that, I nipped down the quays to see the new Beckett Bridge, on one of the bikes of course – how else would you do it? There’s a photo to prove it.

Kieron O’Reilly of Dublin in Ennis