After a wonderful trip in Croatia, we travelled to Switzerland for a short visit to meet friends, revisit some of my favorite places in Lausanne, and spend some time in the beautiful Swiss Alps. To me, going to Lausanne is like going back home. I spent five years in my twenties living there. Every corner of the town brings back fond memories, and I still have many friends living in and around. It was in Switzerland that I started pursuing photography, having been inspired by its gorgeous nature. I visited so many places around Switzerland, looking for great scenery that I dare say, I probably have seen more of Switzerland than some Swiss!

Our flight from Split to Geneva was with EasyJet, and unfortunately it wasn’t without issues again. This time, our flight was canceled altogether a few hours before the departure, but luckily we could book another EasyJet flight around the same time to Basel - at no extra charge. That worked out pretty well, but our trip from Basel to Lausanne was not only much longer, but quite a bit more expensive too. Oh well. At least it didn’t disrupt our plans.

We spent six days in Lausanne area, mostly meeting friends, and going to my favorite spots around the town. We did a day trip to Gruyères, which is home to the famous namesake cheese (which in my opinion is the best in the world), visiting the cheese factory, and the village itself. We also made a trip to Bern to meet some of my “Club Photo” friends who now live in different parts of Switzerland. Meeting my good old friends was certainly a highlight of this trip for me.

No trip to Switzerland is complete without visiting the Alps, of course. Swiss Alps is full of fantastic places to visit, but I wanted to take my wife to the best of the bests, so I chose the Bernese Oberland. I had visited this region a couple of times before, but it is so beautiful that I wanted to come back. Bernese Oberland is the larger area around three famous peaks of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (aka Three Sisters). There are two famous valleys there: Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen, and they provide excellent bases to travel the region. We stayed in Wengen, which is a village up the mountains in Lauterbrunnen Valley. This whole region is amazing for hiking in summer and skiing in winter. With a baby though, we had to choose the right itineraries. Luckily, there are numerous cable cars and funiculars, taking you to the most amazing places, where you can do smaller and easier hikes. Here is what we did over there:

Day 1: We went to Murren with cable car and train, and took a funicular to Allmendhubel, where we had gorgeous views to the Three Sisters from the side.

Day 2: We went up to Männlichen with cable car, and hiked down to Kleine Scheidegg always having the Three Sisters in front of us, and the Grindelwald Valley to our left. This is one of the most beautiful easy hikes you can do in the world, in my opinion. We then took the train back to Wengen.

Day 3: It was raining all day, but luckily a friend of mine joined us in our place, and we made an unforgettable fondue in the balcony with an unforgettable view.

Day 4: We rented e-bikes with a trailer for our son, and cycled around Lauterbrunnen Valley.

Our short stay in the Swiss Alps couldn’t get any better! But all good things will come to an end.

Our next destination was Faro, Portugal, and we had our flight and hotel booked in advance. But then again, our flight got canceled by EasyJet, with no replacement available on the same day, or even the days after. This is the third flight, and the third misadventure with EasyJet. This time around they didn’t even notify us via email or the app, and I randomly learned about it a day before, when I wanted to do the check in. Had I not done that, we might have gone to the airport, and then figure out there is no flight. Alas, customers seem to be of little importance to EasyJet.

We had to quickly scramble a solution. The problem was that our hotel arrangement in Faro, which was an all-inclusive resort, was non-refundable, and we would have lost all of our money, if we wanted to cancel. Fortunately we found a Lufthansa flight for the day after, and through phone calls with the hotel and Booking.com, we managed to modify the reservation accordingly. We secured a place close to Geneva Airport for one night, but then again, our Lufthansa flight got canceled! This is definitely a summer of travel from hell. So many flight cancellations. But luckily, we managed to rebook another flight around the same time with Lufthansa. You might have seen that there are hundreds or sometimes thousands of cancelled flights per day this summer. I certainly don’t remember anything like that before. It seems like we will still grapple with the aftermaths of the pandemic for the years to come.

On top of that, we had to worry about Covid test. Portugal, unlike many other European countries, still requires Covid testing, or EU proof of vaccination (American one doesn’t count apparently), so we had to do an antigen test 24hr before the trip. Luckily, we managed to do a (free) Covid test in Bern on our way to Geneva. But during the trip, no one asked about it! At the check-in counter, the agent just casually asked us if we are vaccinated, and we said yes, and that was it. Go figure.

The whole debacle was quite stressful, as you can imagine. What we learned was that for the foreseeable future, we need to be careful with flights and accommodation bookings on arrival (make sure they are refundable). Had we not have the non-refundable booking, we might have decided to forgo Portugal, and go to France or Germany by train. 

Per usual, here is a link to my instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/photopensieve/

Follow me to see the latest photos of the trip. I’ll end the post with an FAQ.

FAQ

Didn’t you already have travel insurance? You could have reimbursed the cancellation costs!

We did have travel insurance through SafetyWing, and also through our credit card. However, although they say they have “trip cancellation” coverage, if you read the fineprints, you see that they actually cover extremely unlikely cancellation reasons such as airline bankruptcy, for example. So don’t think your travel insurance is of much use when the airline cancels the flight…

How long have you been traveling, and aren’t you yet tired?

We have been traveling for just over two months now - the longest we have ever travelled. To be honest, before the trip, we were not sure we can make it so far with a baby, and I was telling my friends we might come back within a few weeks. I can’t say that it has been easy for us, and truth be told, there were even moments that we discussed cutting the trip short. But I can certainly say that there were many more occasions that we celebrated our decision to make this trip. So yes, we are a bit tired, but happy and enthusiastic for even more of this!

Have you made any changes to your travel gear?

Not much. We’ve added very little, and said goodbye to the beloved robotic vacuum, lovingly known as Jaroo, back in Caserta, Italy. We’ve added a bit to our wardrobe (guess who!), so we need to get rid of some stuff. I love traveling lighter. I wish there was a way to travel with just a small backpack each.

How many places have you stayed in so far, and what do you do first in a new place?

We’ve stayed in 18 places so far! We’ve had just a few one or two-nighters, and for the most part, we try to stay in a place for 4-6 days. We avoid hotels as much as possible, as they are typically pretty small, and don’t have a kitchen. The first thing we do in a new place is to baby-proof it as much as we can. We remove anything that is dangerous or can be damaged easily. Another thing we do is securing the easily accessible drawers with tape (which is a must-have), as our son loves playing with them, and hurting his fingers. We then do grocery shopping for the day or a few days, so we can cook. 

Any updates on traveling with a baby?

As I said before in another post, sleeping arrangement is one of the most crucial things about traveling with a baby. We try to book places that can provide a baby crib, as much as we can, as it is the best solution. We’ve also brought a baby sleeping tent with us, in case we don’t have a crib. But after a few times, we stopped using it altogether, and we might get rid of it soon. The reason is: 1) it typically gets too warm in there, so it’s not comfortable, 2) it has been hard for us to put our son inside, once he is asleep, as he tends to wake up in the process, and 3) it got deformed after our son used it as a toy, and jumped on it a few times, so it doesn’t stand fully upright anymore. Instead, when we don’t have a crib, we simply co-sleep. If available, I use another bed, and leave the larger bed to my wife and my son. We never co-slept before, and are not big fans of it either. But when push comes to shove, it’s not a bad solution at all, if done properly. Of course, if the baby is too young, this should be avoided for safety reasons. We also try to use pillows around him so he doesn’t roll off the bed.

What are you reading these days?

Before the trip, I thought he we might have time to read a few books in our spare time, but I was so wrong. Between sightseeing, cooking, cleaning, parenting, and researching and arranging new adventures, there is little time to do anything else. Gone are the days of having our evenings to ourselves! Nevertheless, I’m listening to an audiobook called “Italians Before Italy: Conflict and Competition in the Mediterranean”. It’s about the history of Italy after the fall of Roman Empire up until the unification and formation of modern Italy in the 19th century. That period of Italian history was always pretty vague for me, so I wanted to educate myself on that subject. It’s a fascinating history, not unlike a real-world Game Of Thrones, as rich families, city states, warrior kings, invading neighbors, and popes and emperors played each other for power and glory. Highly recommend it!