We Take Ourselves With Us

It was Thanksgiving! Which means absolutely nothing in Ireland--though, oddly, they still lean heavily into Black Friday sales. I guess capitalism gonna capitalism everywhere, made up history or no made up history. Being directly on the coast, Galway has changeable weather, but it was pretty clear that rain was in the forecast throughout the day. So, we rolled the dice and booked our trip to the Cliffs of Moher for ... (say it with me) Black Friday and set off for breakfast at Esquires, which was very well rated and showed gf options. We were greeted by a lovely, talkative older gentleman who apologized for our wait for a table, decried their short staffing, and shared that none of the young people wanted to work anymore. (To be fair to him, we saw the same proliferation of "help wanted" signs in Galway that we found in Dublin, but given its more remote location, I'm guessing Galway has even more of a challenge post-COVID. In fact, some of the restaurants had messages on ...

 We began our one full day in Luzern gazing out at the gorgeous lake. It's like a picture postcard.   A note about the weather--it's been amazing our whole vacation so far. With the exception of our not-so-golden circle drive in Iceland, every time rain is predicted, it either never materializes or appears as barely a drizzle. This was supposed to be a stormy day ... nope. We took the world's cutest elevator to the lobby for breakfast.   And, made plans to walk the city. We decided to hit some of the highlights Pascal pointed out the night before, finish the day with a sail around the lake, and grab dinner at a celiac-friendly Greek restaurant. Look at that sky--and those great looking kids! On the way out of the hotel, Ned stopped by an ATM to get some Swiss francs (CHF). This will be important as the day goes on. First stop--the Chapel Bridge, wonderfully festooned with flowers--as is pretty much every building: the Swiss love their flowers! The bridge connects the two ...