rest day

Today was our rest day in Dingle.  We had lots of options for things to do - small bike trips or taxi trips to museums, and there was certainly plenty on the island that I would have liked to see if it hadn't been fifteen miles away or if it wasn't my rest day in the middle of a fairly demanding cycling trip - but I decided to take it very, very easy.  After a leisurely breakfast, I set out with another of the members of the tour group to visit a church and a convent we'd read about in one of the guidebooks in the B&B lobby.  These turned out to be actually quite interesting, and we also saw an art gallery that we both really liked.  Then we met up with another member of the trip and shopped for a bit, and then had lunch at a very nice seafood house - I had chowder that had at least an entire fish, and several mussels, in it, and then another appetizer called Crab Gratin which I could only eat about half of - and then continued shopping, and then had ice cream, and then continued shopping some more.  It was a lot of fun, and I got some good things - a travel wallet, which I needed since my existing one broke several days ago, and two pairs of running socks for much less than they would have cost at home (and they're not wool; wool is a big fad in running socks right now and I hate it), and a very nice green poncho sweater which was extremely expensive (at least, for a souvenir) but I really liked it.  All in all, a pleasant, companionable, unproductive, restful day.  My only concern is how I'm possibly going to bike forty-three miles tomorrow.