We wanted a real vacation, for no purpose other than to just have fun. No connotations of a honeymoon and no business purpose. Just a break at the nicest time of the year in these parts. This two week trip takes us to St. Moritz, Zurich, Lugano, Milano, Como and the Villa D’Este, and the spa town of Abano near Venice. I have already been everywhere on this itinerary and written on Global Thoughts; still, there is plenty more to write (although I won’t duplicate the previous notes) and the purpose of this itinerary was to see things again for the first time with my Wife, and to focus more on the experience of enjoying things together than to worry about what we ought to be seeing and how to go about it. This trip was also meant to be relaxing with more nature and eating, and less sightseeing and shopping.

Swiss Air upgraded us to First Class as part of a promotion and this turned out to be lots of fun. Swiss is still one of the best airlines in the sky. Food very good (there are plenty of vege choices and no need to special order); seats really lie flat and come with a thick duvet which is like a sleeping bag and takes away the rough edges of an airline seat; good service, but the audio-visual equipment is dated and we’d prefer portable players that let you start and stop the programs as you wish (which will be the newest thing going around airplanes in the coming year). Because the seats are like units, you can’t sit right up close next to your companion, and unless you get a middle pod, you will be sitting far apart. But the part that is fun is that there is an ottoman opposite your seat and the meal area is very large, so one person can sit on the ottoman for meals and you can sit facing each other having a very nice meal. (And besides, I am thin and so the seats are big enough for me and my wife!) At Newark they use Virgin’s upper class club and you get a full dinner there with chocolate cake par excellence and this Sony home theater room where you can watch a good movie. At Zurich, if you go upstairs before exiting passport control, there are lounges and you can shower and clean up before leaving the airport. You can check your bag at the departure airport all the way through to a railroad station anywhere in Switzerland. Karen kept worrying the bag wouldn’t get there, and was amazed (and laughed a mighty laugh) to see two people and a big wagon in the Zurich railroad station carrying nothing but her suitcase to the train which was to take us to St. Moritz. Beautiful weather and ride to St. Moritz on the 3.5 hour ride – you will never get past the first page of a newspaper on this ride, and I’ve taken this ride before a few years ago. 

St. Moritz – The Carlton hotel is soon to become an all-suite hotel, but meanwhile it is the smallest of the 5-star hotels in the city and remains a very friendly and personal place. The rooms have very tight roll-down shutters that make it dark for sleeping if you want. At Badrutt’s Palace, a world-famous hotel a few minutes walk toward town, they had a chocolate buffet and I tasted about 15 deserts plus some seconds, guided by the hotel’s pastry chef. Karen chose the safer route of a pedicure in the hotel’s spa. In town the culinary highlight is Hanselmann’s conditoria with sandwiches, pastries and coffees. Bought some cute smiley-face salad servers at a kitchenware store in town and got some 50%-off sweaters on close-out at the Lamm cashmere store across from city hall. Go upstairs at that store to find good values. We brought along a $12 travel version of Scrabble which we used quite a bit. The clip-in pieces fit snugly and won’t move if you do. Hotel breakfast featured good cheeses, eggs and breads (and egg covers with the hotel name on it) and the dinners at the hotel were among the best we’ve had anywhere on the planet and are a real good value. Dinner at Badrutt’s Palace was more expensive, not as good, but we were treated to a staff wearing black tie and tails with table-side service. The hotels all have good piano players in their lobbies and we are here this last weekend of August at the tail-end of the summer season; all the hotels will close September 12 for about 2 months. We were often the only ones in the lobby during the evenings and the dining rooms were generally close to empty. Although St. Moritz is in a German-speaking canton, the whole place seems Italian, especially the staff. At the Villa D’Este, our waiter said he works at the Carlton Hotel during the winters.

Sun and clouds in and out; the weather forecast calls for 2 days of rain and we want to get to Diavolezza to see the glacier before the rain comes (turns out after a few hours it was sunny again). In the morning there are open carriage trains so you can enjoy the fresh air on the one hour ride; go to Alp Grumm and work your way back to Bernina Diavolezza. There was a carriage full of crazy Italians sightseeing and boy were they a racket. At the top of the Diavolezza mountain they had Chris & Mike’s Boogie-Woogie Brunch with two guys playing dueling pianos on a platform facing the glacier. The gondola ride to the mountain top was mysterious with lots of clouds, as was the view at the top. Back in town, we took another gondola up the mountain overlooking St. Moritz and a very expensive taxi ride to get there. The lift is behind the Kempinski hotel and casino which is in the middle of nowhere, but what it does have is heated toilet seats on the lobby level. We took the very colorful bus back and climbed the mountain back to the walking path to our hotel. Dinner at Johri Talvo, home of the $35 salad plate (actually a mix of cold salads), but a very good one. It is consistently rated as one of the country’s top 10 restaurants and is listed with Relais Chateaux. Considering there were only 17 people eating dinner and 13 people serving, they have to charge good money to deliver their product. The chocolate presentation was excellent and they picked peppermint from the garden for the tea. A famous model, Anna Paula, was sitting across from us. The Suvretta House hotel nearby also has a gorgeous dining room and is a 5-star property for the more discreet set. 

A nice activity is just to walk around town and enjoy little things like the playgrounds along the lake. Took the ski-lift to Piz Nair. You take 4 lifts to the top of the mountain overlooking St. Moritz. It takes about 40 minutes each way and the ride is magnificent; there are glaciers at the top at about 9,500 feet. The hotel gave us a lift ticket to use during our stay all around St. Moritz. On television, cartoons show Swiss-style sliding doors. Our last night here we go to the Kulm Hotel for a concert as part of a classical music festival meant to drum up business at this slow time. The orchestra comes from England, the price of the ticket was very reasonable, the audience appreciative and the concert magnificent. The bar tender wants to close up (all dancing – no drinking, says the waiter about us) but the piano player keeps playing till midnight. Walking back to the hotel on the path the moon hangs over the lake with its shadows; during the morning you see clouds hovering over the lake and the trees throwing its shadows over the lake draped with snow-capped mountains. It is a beautiful view. There are many construction cranes presumably building condos by the lake; will it spoil the ambience that is St. Moritz? 

Zurich – Clouds along the way make our ride mysterious and very different than the ride coming out. We are doing enough training to wonder if a Swiss-rail pass might have been worthwhile – for instance a 3 day any-day pass. Our superior deluxe room at the Hotel Widder features a large fresco including a Jew being burned at the stake, but it is otherwise a very historical and interesting room. It is one of my favourite hotels with a mix of old and new. They brought fresh berries to the room instead of chocolates and a bottle of champagne which we brought with us to Italy. Breakfast in their skylight room with open roof is a delight. The menu is a la carte but it is all you can eat and included in the room rate. The gravalox was from Scotland and some of the best we’ve had. Springley’s Coffee Shop is one of my shrines and its chocolate cake did not disappoint. Neither did its cappuccino or mini-sandwiches, eaten here with fork and knife. These tuna sandwiches look small but are very filling. Saw Chagall windows at a famous church and an onion holder used to slice onions at a kitchenware store. They were out of stock and the clerk wouldn’t take a credit card and ship – if she didn’t have it to sell right there, she didn’t want to deal with us. Dinner at Hiltl, a vege restaurant behind Jelmoli and Co-Op City department stores. Good fruit juices and Rosti dishes (potato pancakes) which the Swiss claim is a Swiss creation. Night-time walk in the emerging nightlife district one block parallel to the riverside street across the river. Surprisingly busy here and we had a gelato. One complaint in this rather advanced country: Hotels use 1-ply toiletpaper and public restrooms use these pull-down linen sheets to dry hands, something Americans stopped doing a decade ago. Visited a supermarket to buy Ricola tea granules (something my mum likes), the LandsMuseum with a funky dance hall set up in its courtyard. Shopped at Jelmoli, Globus, Coop City and C&A. If you see something here that you like, even if it is made in Italy, buy it because there is no good reason to believe you will see it again in Italy. Fashions are different. That night we ate Kosher at Café Shalom in the Jewish Community Center. The buffet is pricey at about 60 francs (about $45) and it is tasty but very salty. It is a 5 minute tram ride from Paradaplatz (a central intersection off the Bahnhofstrasse) and when we came off the tram someone saw us consulting our map and figured out we were looking for the Café Shalom. Walked along the Quay (riverside) to see the Opera House and the Kronenhalle Restaurant – noisy and pricey but pretty to see. Consider instead a place with a big round window and garden a block away along the river closer toward the twin-spired church. Widder Hotel piano bar had a very good pianist; their conference hall is beautiful and worth seeing; the staff also very helpful. The Delano Grand Hotel is closed for 2 years for renovations and I had wanted to go there for tea. The Bauer Au Lac Hotel at the end of the Bahnhofstrasse has a very pretty outdoor sitting area with a view of the lake. We start the next day with folk music and yodeling to Radio Eviva. There is no BBC World in this hotel nor in the next hotel in Como, and the television remote was inoperative. I tested the Economist's Big Mac Index by walking into McDonalds to price Big Macs: A Big Mac in Italy is about 35% less pricey than Switzerland ($3.50 vs. $5). A bit more shopping and walks in the parks. In the train station they have a stand selling vegetarian sandwiches which were excellent and those, along with Luxembourgi chocolate pastries by Springley’s, kept us happy and fed on the 3 hour express to Como on a train that had electric window shutters. Twas a nice ride with pretty scenery.

Como, Italy – The Hotel Barchetta (pronounced Barketta) Excelsior is right on Piazza Cavour in a perfect location. It is a 5 minute ride from the train station on a piazza at the entrance to the city center and right near Lake Como ferry piers. Our room is a suite on the top floor overlooking the lake. We were upgraded as the hotel was not full. There isn’t much to do here except walk around and eat gelato with the day trippers but we found plenty to keep us occupied, and we didn’t want to be constantly worrying about sightseeing anyway. Concierge sent us to a good fish restaurant overlooking the lake just next to the funicular station Ristorante Terrazo Perlasca – you can’t miss it. Good salad, fish and desert. Good gelateria a block past the Duomo cathedral on Vittore Emmanuelle street. Our suite has 2 patios and bathrooms, lots of curtains and shutters, flowers and champagne. Ciao-Ciao-Ciao Como. If you see that clothes here don’t fit you off the rack, you can buy materials in Como and make your own (ie: Trombetta, piazza St. Fedele, right behind Duomo with a little church and odd-face clock). Food at this hotel sucks, so we started off right with a cheese-tomato-zucchini pizza and orange juice and pastry breakfast on the street. Other nearby hotels are Palace, Albergo Terminus and Metropole Suisse. There are no 5-star hotels in Como; these are all 4 stars. Walk around the nearby parks and city center; there is music by the piers. The Holocaust memorial in the park is not being kept up well. 

Sidetrips to Lugano, Switzerland – Train ride is about half an hour. Took a taxi to the Principe Leopoldo Hotel for a beautiful photo-op overlooking the mountain passes. Hotel kitchen closes at 2pm so we headed back into town where we found that all kitchens close at 2pm (and dinners must end by 10). Al Porto café is good for chocolate mouse round cake and a clean bathroom. Walked around town, gardens and parks. It is a lovely city with a heaping touch of class that Como lacks, but it is also more geriatric. There is a funicular that runs between the town center and the railroad station; it takes about 2 minutes to transfer. I had to tell the station clerk when the next train was to Como because he had his timetable wrong; I had looked it up on the internet before leaving the states. Karen was very impressed. Lots of school kids on the trains; no checking of passports really. The train missed its connection in Chiasso (a border town) and we chose to wait 45 minutes for the next train rather than to take a taxi across the border to Como (probably should have just taken the taxi). At the camera shop, the cashier wouldn’t take partial payment in cash and the rest with credit card – that kind of transaction seems to be a real problem in these countries, perhaps due to VAT audits. We had this problem at restaurants and shops. A hotel preferred to give me back cash rather than reduce a minibar charge which was outrageous saying it would drive his accountant nuts. Near Chiasso is Fox Town, a big outlet shopping mall that has good deals. This is best visited if you have an idea what is being sold in Italy so that you know if you are getting a good deal. We had not yet been to Italy on this trip, so we didn’t go there; prices of things such as Alessi are coordinated at list price with a catalogue to avoid currency arbitrage. Fast dinner by the lakeside at the snack bar at the Palace Hotel – yechhhh. One thing about Italy – when food is bad (ie: at a tourist trap or a lousy hotel), it’s really bad. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen in Switzerland. One evening we took a taxi across the border to Lugano for dinner. It was a bit pricey – 70 francs going; 90 coming back, but we couldn’t eat there Friday night and get back in time for the sabbath so we had to go Saturday night and spend the money on the taxis. However, the restaurant Locanda del Boschetto (pronounce the ch as a K) had wonderful fish baked in a wood oven. Desert was so good that between Karen and I we had 4 of them including a tiramasu that was superlative. Instead of hot vegetables they seem to serve cold vegetable plates here. Actually, that’s healthier because the vitamins disappear with the cooking. Drove back along the Lugano lake. 

Walked around the park at midnight – everyone in Como is holding hands at minimum and it is a very romantic place to be. We watched and mimicked – there are no babysitters in Como. Everyone is out with the bambini even at this crazy hour – presumably the 12 year olds are also out with their friends. If you are with someone, you will feel young at heart here.  In the later afternoon, we took the funicular up the mountain to see Como from high; walk 25 minutes to the panorama vista of the lake right across from the Villa D’Este and pass some of the nicest homes in the Como area on the way as a bonus. In the afternoon, the view of Como is glary but you can’t see the city from the funicular or the top anyway and the panorama is nice at that time of day. Walk along the piers for afternoon photos on the lake; there are two piers and both of them are just as good for photos.

Sidetrip to Bellagio – Use the Servizio Rapido speed ferry to Bellagio. It takes about an hour each way and is twice as fast as the regular service. It is still cheap and takes long enough. The service runs several times a day. The timetable is a page or two past the regular ferry timetable; most people don’t bother to turn the page to notice it. The views along the lake are nice with some very pretty villas; a taxi will cost much more money and take the same amount of time. In Bellagio, 2 hours is enough. See Villa Melzi gardens, a 10 minute walk from the ferry. Hotel Villa Serbelloni is nice but the concierge was snooty. Town was a tourist trap with lousy food and not much to do except see day-trippers eating bad gelatos.

Villa D’Este – This is one of the top 10 hotels in the world. We stayed for one night as a treat. It was an enchanting 24 hours. We had a top junior suite on the lakefront. Karen loved the gardens. We had a complimentary hydrotherapies in their spa – you basically sit in a big jacuzzi alone in a room and it whusshes around you a lot. I didn’t care for it but the timing was great considering it was 90 degrees in Como (although without humidity). It is one of those amenities that comes if you book through the American Express Platinum Travel Service – you pay a rate that is close to rack rate but it is discounted a bit, but you get upgraded and various amenities that make it worthwhile to book through the program. We saw others who had booked similarly. The dinner was lovely with excellent food, fresh pasta and mushrooms, salad bar with fresh corn, fish, deserts and petite fours. At this time of year dining is al-fresco and we are sitting at a corner table right against the lake. Food and beverage has improved since I last visited. Dancing on the terrace till midnight with a very good pianist. 15 couples dancing of all ages and sorts paired up – lots of good dancers. The music is more American and modern than I expected – the coffee here is also served American style. 80% of their guests are presently American. Room is very pretty with lots of art, chandeliers, heavy drapes and a terrace. Karen is having fun and admits that her initial reaction to news of this vacation (she cried and said she didn’t want to go away) was a mistake. She was inspired by the views of the hotel gardens in the evening and at night. She bought the Villa D’Este cookbook, which is sold only at the hotel souvenir shop. We haven’t found it sold on the internet. The cookbook has nice pictures of the hotel as well as fairly straightforward recipes. We are having a real good time with all the scenery, food, dancing and personal time. Lucky thing that the weather is perfect and there have been no complications. This may be a real nice hotel but I still prefer my own pillow.

Next morning we are having breakfast at a lakeside table. Karen’s red hair glistens in the sunlight and the water has lines moving across like a striped bass. Last time I was here with my mum and aunt – I told the hotel that I upgraded to a wife. Went to optician in the village of Cernobbio by the hotel Ottica Piffareti telephone 031.512.309 and bought 2 pair eyeglasses (remember that if you have customs stamp the receipt, you get the entire VAT back; in our case, the optician didn’t charge it, trusting that I would send him back the stamped receipt); along the city pier nearby you can see the hotel from the lake. Walked along the hotel gardens and up the mountain to the fortress; miniature golf and rolling around in the gardens. Lunch with great pizza and real tomato sauce. Hotel is closed Nov-Feb. The train to Milano is cheap and easy and :40. The scenery in Italy ain’t the same as it is in Switzerland. Views from the trains there are gorgeous and run along people’s backyards; in Italy the trains run in industrial zones with blown-out windowed factories to look at. 

Milan – We are at the Hotel Grand Duomo, a 5-star property right along the Duomo. We are in a junior suite overlooking the Duomo cathedral and the piazza Duomo. The hotel is overrated and you can get more for your money elsewhere (ie: the Park Hyatt), but for location and the room with a view over center court, you can’t beat this. Also, for the first time on this trip, I like their pillows. Orientation walk around the area and dinner at Bruno’s on Via Ganzega past Piazza Diaz, 4 minutes walk past the piazza Duomo. Excellent antipasto, biscotti, fish and desert. Wine is cheaper than water. Bruno’s is so good we will eat here 3 times in 3 days.  Hotel breakfast is not much but the people watching through the windows overlooking the walkways past the Duomo is a fascinating fashion show. Everyone on their bicycles and scooters on their way to work looking real cool. They eat whole pizzas and are still thin. Take a lift to the top of the Duomo and look out over the steeples. The front part facing the piazza is under scaffolding for 2 years. Saw crypts and the museum. At the Rinascente department store, my other shrine in these parts, people are snuggling on the escalators. Karen has never seen so many fabulous dressed people in 24 hours. It is still hot here and the first thing we need are cheap T-shirts, not so easily found around here. The subway requires coins; there is no staff or change kiosks. Signage is good, clean stations, fast-closing doors, nice seats in the stations, signs tell you to the half-minute when a train is coming and when the second train is coming too, and there is in-station TV. Walked Monte Napolean shopping street and scoffed at the designer store windows. They have designer baby carriages for 750 Euro. Via Spigna shopping street has a great pasta and delicacy shop at #50 called Armandola, and the people watching there is beyond compare. Guys just hang out there on the street eating their pasta. Across the street from Armandola at the corner of Via Manzoni and Piazza Cavour is Brek Café, a cafeteria that is good but offers limited choices. Very busy at lunch. Sat in the municipal park nearby and walked to Pinoteca Brera, a noted art gallery. Mostly church stuff but Karen liked The Kiss in room 37. Walked to the metro by Castello Sforzesco (at least see the front of this mammoth building project) to the Last Supper further across town. Viewing takes 5 minutes but you need a reservation. Either use the internet or a hotel concierge and book before you come to Europe. The fresco looks 3-D when you step away from it. The Museum of La Scala across the street from the Last Supper is worth seeing and it’s a shame that we were the only visitors in the entire 4 floor museum; it is a tribute to the opera. Buy a combo ticket at one museum to all 3 of these. If you go to the Last Supper first, they will let you trade in your ticket toward a combo ticket. Or at least do this before going to the La Scala museum across the street. Took the street trolley back to the Duomo. There is a religious interfaith conference going on in Milano and the ceremony is directly below our balcony in the piazza which we of course watched. Gelato with real chestnuts in the Galleria shopping enclave which runs off the Duomo. Dinner at Gennaros on San Rafael Street, one of the Galleria exits, where the food was excellent and the locals eating happily. I have no problem ordering a second dessert; it’s cheaper than a drink, right? Round the corner is El Drago pizza, right by the De La Ville hotel. 

Now it’s shopping time. First, previewing at Rinascente. The store “First” moved and became rather pricey. Lunch at Bruno’s – good gnochhi pasta and dynamite melon. I even skipped dessert. Walked to Madina Milano for cosmetics for mom; see www.madina.it; can now order by phone in the US. The store’s proprietor said the New York store didn’t work out well – the boys weren’t good... I am having trouble finding fall clothes yet; summer has still not closed out here. Angelo Santagostino’s for instance is not stocked. Several stores on Pasarella or Coso Europa right behind Vittorio Emmanuelle running off Piazza San Babila such as Boys, Del Mare 1911 had some items for me. Alessi store on Corso Matteoti 9, just off Via Monte Napolean, carries the full Alessi line. Can now buy it in the US online at alessi.com. A good gift is gelato spoons, something not sold in the US; I bought 30 of them in the basement of the Rinascente for 2 Euro each. Luis Spagnoli carries women’s clothes and Carmela is the manager in the store in the Galleria. For sports shirts with names and numbers on them, there are 2 choices: Genardi and Team Sports. Team Sports is on the piazza Duomo behind the Duomo, and Genardi is a few blocks down Vittorio Emmanuelle and to the right, 1 block behind the Star Rosa hotel. Football Team doesn’t do VAT refund but didn’t charge for lettering and gave me 10% off; Genardi gives tax back but charges for lettering. Same products and prices. Auto Grill has several locations and it is a cafeteria with cheap and decent food. We were at the Rinascente with me literally limping around till closing; they are open till 10 at night. Cash-back desk at the top floor will give you back cash for your VAT refund or credit with a 10% bonus but the credit can only be used at this store without expiration; they hope eventually to make it transferable to other Rinascente locations in Italy. They give back the refund only in US Dollars (no Euros) and take a hefty commission for the currency exchange. If you are shopping Milano, come back closer to October for better shopping. For me, summer closeouts are worthless because I need stuff in my size which is an unusual size and the first to sell out. We bought a cheap suitcase to bring stuff home in; it barely made the trip back. 

On our last day in Milan, we took an early morning walk through the Galleria to see people going to work. The Hyatt has very nice rooms and is just off the Galleria. Another interesting boutique hotel on San Rafael Street (same street as the Grand Hotel Dumo) is Gray. Popped into the Carnival de Venise factory at 1 Luiggi Anelli street, telephone 02.58.301.500, attn: Roberto for neckties. Serapian is 5 blocks from the Loretta metro station near Corso Buenos Aires on Via Jommelli 35. Karen bought a nice handbag; get there by 12:30 or else they close for lunch. Today at Bruno’s for lunch we had mushroom gnocche and sacher torte. Co. Import at 6 Piazza Diaz had funky looking housewares and things like shower caps for kids. Get to the train station at least 30 minutes in advance if you have luggage (which of course you will after shopping in Milano); the lines are long and it is far from the ticket windows up the escalators to the trains (and no carts allowed on escalators unless you go around the train station which is huge). When you board the train, you have to validate your ticket at the yellow machine or else the ticket can’t be used, says the conductor. The ride is 2.5 hours to Padova, then half an hour taxi to Abano.

Abano, Italy – The hotel dining room at the Grand Hotel Abano is the best on this trip. You can eat anything you want from the menu and if you can’t eat from the menu, they will make things you can eat. They are familiar with kosher people like us. Among the mostly Germans here, we also met an Australian egg farmer who was looking at equipment, and some Libyans (the father never took off his sunglasses, even at the bar late night). It’s a bit geriatric here but there is music in the streets and relaxing, this spa town 40 minutes drive from Venice. Important words to use in Italy are Molto Benne (very nice), Grazie Mile (many thanks) and Bona Sera (good day). And of course, Ciao.

After a good breakfast (one day we ate on the terrace outside the breakfast room and that was really nice), walked to Ricami Rosa (exit hotel, left to Martiri Street (1st light, about 5 minutes), then right 2 blocks. Nice unusual house linens and tabletops. Walk in town and down another street to a gelateria. Not as busy these days due to changes in German social insurance laws that sharply reduced reimbursements for spa treatments. Spa treatments and a gastronomic delight for dinner – salad bar, fruit bar, cheese and dessert trolleys, fish, pasta and soup. Maurizio is the maitre’d. Dancing with an orchestra in the lobby to a more distinctly old-world European flair, concert in the town center and a piano bar in the town fountain circle rounded out an evening’s entertainment. Games in the hotel garden such as Scrabble and Annagrams (a game played with scrabble tiles). Buffet lunch with antipasto and BBQ fish by the pool if you wanted it. Spa treatments and mineral baths in the warm and cool water pools. Rounded out the day with an acapella show on German TV which Karen found humorous, and a final gelato for the road. 

On departure, it was an easy departure from Venice airport. Denim Air, an outsource for Swiss Airlines on this route, is fine. Zurich airport has just opened a new Airport shopping complex and terminal meant to reduce transfer times. Karen was consoled by Sophia Lauren in the first class passenger lounge when I mistakenly thought she had run off shopping and left her stranded in the lounge (she wants to pin one of those Swiss cowbells on me). Good pizzettas on boarding and very friendly crew. Karen liked the cheese cart, one of which had some kind of plum filling and was very good.  On the flight back, someone had a heart attack over the Atlantic forcing us to return to Shannon, Ireland to offload him lest he die over the ocean. It caused a 3 hour delay, but we played Scrabble whilst we waited in Shannon, earning us the envy of our cabin mates who eagerly looked over our shoulders. 

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