Lots of places in Ireland have local bike rentals, but they're all set up for day trips, and we couldn't find a reasonable way to rent bikes for the whole trip. So we packed ours in boxes and took them on the plane with us. Despite reading about it, we had a very inflated idea of how big the boxes are and how easy it is to fit your bike inside. It took us 2 hours to get them packed up before heading to the airport, and when we got in it took us about an hour to put them back together. We stored the boxes (one stuffed inside the other), along with the tools and bags that we didn't need for the trip (e.g. the pedal wrench), at the airport. It was supposed to cost 20 euro a week, but when we came back after two weeks the staff at the kept luggage desk said that sounded excessive to him, and he charged us 25 instead of 40. Here are our reconstituted bicycles, loaded up and ready to leave the airport in Shannon.    Co Clare, Ireland -- 7/7/2014