Athlone Things to Do Tips by edwis

Viking Cruise

photos from our trip
At the shop, the owner tells us to come back at 3:00 PM, and he will take us on the Viking cruise at no charge. At 3:00, we climb up into the bright green Viking ship replica, complete with front dragon head. Then the gang from the local group home with their aides arrived, and the fun begins. We are all given plastic Viking helmets with two horns to wear on the cruise. The cruise with narration goes up the River Shannon into Lough Ree, the first of the three large lakes. We only go about 1/3 of the lake for it takes over four hours to traverse the whole first lake. As we pass the Lough Ree Yacht Club, about 10 three-person sailboats come all around our Viking ship weaving in and out for our entertainment. These are handcrafted varnished special class boats starting at 30,000 Euros each. Along the way we are served hot tea and biscuits. What a fun and educational day this turned out to be for us and the boys from the home.

walk around the shannon river

photos from our trip.

Athlone is full of very colorful buildings from the 1600-1700s. Joan ran each morning along the paths of the Shannon while I walked, watching fisherman and crew boats in the fog. Just beautiful!

“The Taco Shop”

We stopped at a trendy, chrome and glass upscale bistro overlooking the Shannon. While we were having wine and mussels, we notice that the menu has a page of Polish food items such as pierogi and golabki, and learn that the waiter and all the staff are from Poland. They come here for a “better life.” The mussels in a wine broth were the best (and largest) we have ever eaten, including those in Brussels.

I ask the Polish waitress where in town we can find out about going on a river cruise, which we read about. She tells me we have to go to the Taco Shop, where they know all about that stuff. I repeated it back to her, “we go to the taco shop, right?” The next day we are strolling along the river and come upon a Bait & Tackle Shop and it dawns on us, Taco = Tackle. We found the river cruise.