Knock and Athlone

Today Travalon and I made the arduous journey to Knock. You would think a major pilgrimage site, with over one million visitors a year, would have a direct train line from Dublin, but we had to take the bus with very limited options. The bus was leaving from the airport at 8:50, so we figured we'd take the 8:10 shuttle, and we showed up for breakfast at 7:30... just to discover it doesn't open until 8:00. The woman did let us have some cold cereal, but as soon as the hot food opened up, people materialized out of nowhere and got into line so fast we had no hopes of getting any eggs before the shuttle arrived. That's OK, we told each other - we didn't need a huge breakfast, even if we had already paid 7 and a half euros for it.

The bus from Dublin did not go directly to Knock, either; we had to transfer at a substantial town called Athlone right in the middle of the country. I had been wondering what was in the middle of Ireland, since our tour only covered the coasts, and now I know. The ticket machine in Athlone did not accept our credit cards, even though it said it would, so Travalon had to hoof it to what they call in Scotland "the hole in the wall," i.e., the cash machine. While he was gone, I attempted to use my credit and debit cards with no success either. Then the machine did not accept 50 euro notes, so we had to get change from the concession lady. I bought a bag of popcorn from her, and Travalon bought potato chips, and this ended up being our lunch.

The trip to Knock was longer, but more interesting, since we stopped in lots of villages. We were expecting to have 55 minutes in Knock before the last bus left for Dublin just after two, but because another bus was late into Athlone, our bus driver had to wait, so we only had half an hour there. We explored the site and saw the old church and the wall where the apparition took place in 1879, but we didn't bother with the big, ugly, new basilica. I also bought a scapular, which I desperately needed, for like 65 cents. (Euro cents, not US ones.) Then we caught the bus back to Athlone.

Since Knock was so hurried, we decided to take our time in Athlone, which is not very touristy at all. We had a fine dinner of fish and chips and then ducked into a pub for half a pint (I was the only woman in there), then we went to Mass at Sts. Peter and Paul Church. Like in Knock, they knelt where we stand; like in Cobh, they received communion while kneeling. The music was, oddly enough, oompah stuff with guitars, an accordion, and a drum. Then we returned to the bus station and found a whole bunch of information about what is in Athlone, including the Medieval castle we'd seen near the church and the oldest pub in Ireland, from the year 980 AD. Had we only known... Also, there was a place we could have eaten dinner overlooking the river Shannon, since it was such a beautiful day. And they have Viking ship cruises on the Shannon. So if there is a place in Ireland we'd like to return to, it's Athlone.

The return bus from Athlone to Dublin did not take a direct route but meandered through a bunch of villages, so that was fun. Also, it was a double-decker bus with more comfortable seats and more legroom for Travalon. Some of the villages had great names like Killbaggen and Killcock; if "kill" means church, those names still make no sense. There were names I couldn't even begin to pronounce. We wanted to stop into some of those villages too, where people were very authentic, walking dogs and going for jogs and hanging out smoking in front of pubs. So very much like Wisconsin. We didn't see a single tourist shop in any of them. In Dublin, there is a tourist shop every five feet, and the pubs are what they think Americans are looking for in an Irish pub. But don't skip Dublin, if you come - the Archaeology Museum is excellent.

Famous Hat