A day trip to Bern

 July 18 was a day trip to Bern.

We took the bus from the hostel to the train station, then took a 1 hour train to Bern.

We walked around from the train station to the old town, and walked around exploring.

The Bern area is good at growing onion, olives, garlic.  Lots of olives here!

We went to the main cathedral in town, and walked around the church and then up, up, up the winding stairs to the top to get some views of the old town's red rooftops and the river.  Rachel climbed up all the steps herself, and Ava was in the carrier.  On the way down, we also saw the huge church bells.

We walked further downhill, through a neat street with old architecture.  Stores and homes were accessed through cellar doors that opened to the cobblestone street.  Then we crossed the river to a view point of a small area where bears are enclosed in a fence and roam for people to see.  The bear must be the symbol for the provincial area of Bern or something, because we saw many flags and bear symbols.

After a picnic lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, the girls caught the bus back toward the train station and Jason walked along the river.

We met at the city hall building, which had a wonderful water fountain out front that kids came to play in.  We didn't have bathing suits, but it was hot and we enjoyed getting soaked.

After that, we walked back to the train station.  We being able to fill our water bottles with clean, free water from decorative fountains.  Then we caught the train back to Lucerne, and drooled at the chocolate and pastry shops in the train station.

Bern transit center

Chocolate slabs

Pastry/pretzel shop

Bedtime story back in the hostel bunk bed

Exploring Lucerne

We had 3 nights in the Swiss Youth Hostel in Lucerne.  We spent day 1 exploring Lucerne.

After we slept in and nearly missed breakfast, we walked from the hostel into town to explore.  We had lunch at a river front cafe.  We dipped our feet in the river.  We walked through the beautiful covered bridges.  We caught an afternoon boat tour of the lake.  Everywhere it was clean, green, and lovely!  Mountains, lakes, green forests and meadows.

If you ask Rachel her favorite thing in Switzerland, she might say the raspberry/vanilla ice cream she had just before getting on the boat.  The boat was a paddle boat, but inside the boat you could watch the engine pistons run up and down.  Rachel met everyone on the boat, of course!

After the boat tour, it was getting late, so we found a BBQ stand and took dinner to a park.  Then we took a bus back to the hostel, and Grandma and the girls went to bed.

Jason and I went for a run and saw another sight in Lucerne: a lion carved into the rock above a lake and a nice little park.  It was so nice to have Grandma be able to stay with the sleeping girls so we could get out together and do little things like this.  Thanks, Grandma!

Lafayette, CO to Lucerne, Switzerland

To Switzerland!!

We have been dreaming of a big trip and hoping to travel internationally for years.  We decided this summer would be the time to do it.  Jason is a teacher and can travel in the summer.  Ava is 1 year old so we want to capitalize on traveling with her before she is 2 years old and has to pay for a plane seat.  We didn't want to go anywhere unsafe, and Europe in the summer sounded like a good plan for a 2 week time frame.  A seat sale on Icelandair trips to Zurich helped us decide on Switzerland, and we booked tickets last Dec 31.

Packing decisions included:
- cloth or disposable diapers?
(we decided to take only disposables and we were glad)
- how many books and toys to take?
(we took too many toys and too many books)
- how much food to take with us?
(we took applesauce pouches for Rachel and ran out, veggie/fruit squishables for Ava and had too many, a ProBar each for each day and got tired of them, and packaged oatmeal)
- do we pack a travel crib for Ava, or get cribs in our accommodations there?
(we did not bring our own crib, were able to get a crib in each place we stayed, and I think it cost us $45 extra for cribs total, which was totally worth it)
- how many clothes for all of us for hot, cold, rain, sun?
(I wish we had brought more t-shirts for Ava, another pair of pajamas for Rachel, but overall did well)
- do we take a stroller?  what kind?
(We brought our $10 Walmart fold up green stroller, which has been awesome to us and served its purpose very well on this trip)
- do we take a child hiking backpack or soft carrier?  Do we take a carrier for Rachel also?
(We brought 2 soft carriers but should have just brought 1 soft carrier total.)
- do we bring 1 or 2 daypacks, and what kind/how big?
(We brought a small REI flash pack that fell apart on us and a small other bag.  We would have been better off with a slightly larger daypack.)

We had some anxiety about the flights.  A 7 hour journey to Iceland, and then another 3+ hour flight to Zurich.  We left Denver at 2pm on a Tuesday.  We put the kids in care for the morning while I (Meggan) worked and Jason packed.

Tuesday July 15 - Wed July 16
Getting from Denver to Iceland went well.  Rachel watched a movie with her Daddy after fiddling with headphones to make them work, then she snuggled up and slept.  Ava slept some in my arms.  Interestingly, Ava was given her own seat-belt to attach to my seat-belt.  She was given an extra infant life vest, also, which makes me assume she doesn't get a life vest in North America.  We had ordered a complimentary infant meal for Ava and Rachel was given a complimentary meal, blanket, and sticker/activity book.  Adults didn't get anything.

In Iceland, we got to our gate but didn't see Grandma (who was flying in from DC).  We boarded the plane and still didn't see Grandma.  We didn't have TV screens on this basic plane ride, but eventually Grandma made it on the plane and she was able to help entertain kids.

In Zurich, we arrived and took some time to organize money/SIM card for mobile phone/train passes and then boarded the train to Lucerne.  Rachel had done a great job on the flights and earned a treat.  Of all the amazing chocolate and candy choices in the store, she chose Pop Tarts.  It cost me almost $10 for a box!  Yikes!

There are loads of train pass options to choose from in Switzerland.  Jason had researched many different choices and played with the math before we left.  We decided to get 'half passes'.  For an upfront cost, we then got 50% off almost every train, cable car, gondola, bus, etc. in the whole country.  We showed our half pass every time we showed any other ticket from that point forward, and this system seemed to work well for our situation.

Boarding the train in the basement of the airport and heading to Lucerne worked very well.  We kept it together for the 1 hour train ride and arrived at the train station in Lucerne with all our bags and smiles on our faces.  The train ride was lovely, and we got our first glimpses of beautiful lakes, green meadows and trees, and mountains.

We eventually figured out how to buy bus tickets and board the bus to get to our hostel.  Unfortunately, our bus didn't go all the way to our hostel stop so we had to walk a little while to get to the hostel.  Grandma had a day pack and a rolling suitcase.  Jason had his large backpack and pushed Rachel in the stroller.  I carried Ava in the soft ergo carrier on the front and had a large backpack on my back.  The stroller also carried 2 other small daypacks.  We were glad to arrive at the hostel.

We had booked 3 nights in the Swiss Youth Hostel Lucerne.  We had a small room with 2 lower bunk beds, 2 upper bunk beds, a small table, and a pack n play crib for Ava all squished together.  Lockers outside the room were next to the shared bathroom and showers.  A breakfast was good and included in the price.  There was no cooking facilities for us to do our own lunches/dinners.  The street and other people in the hostel outside were fairly loud.  The temperature for our time there was uncomfortably HOT!  There was an awesome children's play room that Rachel and Ava loved.

It took us a couple of nights to adjust to the time zone.  We slept in the first morning and almost missed breakfast, but eventually got better at waking up early.  Rachel slept well for the most part, but Ava had a tougher time and spent some time in bed with me for those first few nights.