ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAIL WITH KIDS

Oh, well Zermatt was just a dream. The most idyllic little town hidden in the mountains; there are no cars, only electric buggies and horses, it's beautiful and small enough that you can walk around the entire place in one evening. The perfect little ski town.

We lugged our suitcases through the narrow streets form the train station up to our hotel, which was as traditional and old fashioned as they come but it had a balcony with a table and a few chairs overlooking the main street and you could peek up towards the mountains on the other side. I was *so* excited to be there, and so glad we were there for a few nights.

The evening we arrived, we explored and settled in our room, before heading out to find somewhere for dinner. Vivienne is a pretty good eater and had promised she'd try different foods while we were away; so we chose raclette with potatoes and some sort of jam, and rösti (pretty plain stuff for 'trying something new' but we both loved it!) I'd say we had an early night ahead of skiing the next day, but we ended up in PJs watching Friends on Netflix a little too late..

The next day we were up to have breakfast, collect skis, boots and poles and dragged our kit to buy lift passes to the starter ski slopes. I know I sound like a typical parent, but Vivienne did so well. She's always been a pretty cautious kid, but I was so impressed at how she took to skiing. we were on the baby slopes and practised snow plough and some turns, before going down a slightly steeper slope together (me going down backwards with her facing me). We skiied until about 1pm, then headed over to a different lift to make the trip higher and higher to reach the Glacier Paradise Experience.

The Glacier Paradise Experience (I'll link at the bottom), is at the highest point and has a viewing platform at 4000m, where you can see the Matterhorn on a clear day. Unfortunately visibility was zero they day we went up, which can't be helped, but we still visited the glacier experience while we were up there. It meant that we walked down a carved tunnel inside a glacier to a 'palace' which was full of ice sculptures, tunnels, slides, steps.. it was so bizarre. I think Vivienne felt slightly worried at the prospect of being in there too long "in case it collapsed on us", but loved it nonetheless.

Being so high up, it wasn't long before our hearts were racing and we couldn't catch our breath, we had some chocolate milk (Viv), beer (me) and frites before heading back down into Zermatt for our final night there.

We explored the chocolate shops (it's Switzerland, after all), grabbed some food and wandered around the beautiful town one last time. We wrote postcards, updated travel diaries, and packed up a little - the next day we would get the train to Zurich ahead of getting a night train to Vienna the following evening! We FaceTimed home and told Dav all about skiing, before falling asleep, exhausted, after what had ended up being a long and tiring day..

You can see a different variety of photographs from our time in Zermatt over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - ZURICH!

LINKS

HOTEL HELVETIA
GLACIER PARADISE

A SHORT FILM | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

So! We're back from our Interrailing trip and we've been home for a few weeks now; the Easter holidays are over we're getting back into the swing of the normal routine. 

It was *so* good. It took a lot of planning and going over and over details and checking the logistics of everything, but it went so smoothly and it was one of the most special things I've ever done with Vivienne. I'm working to put together some blog posts and organise the photos I took along the way, I'm going to be breaking the trip down into places to really go into detail about what we did in each place; but, for now, here is a short film I made of our travels. It was put together on my phone, and it's a little rough but it shows snippets of our travels and I hope you enjoy it!

AN ADVENTURE WITH VIVIENNE | INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

I suspect I might not be the only one out there to admit... 'family holidays' aren't really my bag. Yes, it's easier to go somewhere with a kids' club and yes, Vivienne loves all that stuff and yes it means there is time to actually relax.. but I just find it all a bit.. well, naff. Also, Vivienne was so excited with new holiday friends that, selfishly, I feel I didn't see enough of her last time we were away. Due to being a seasonal worker where it's often a case of "well I might as well take another booking in August because I may not get another later in the year" it's made sense for us to book places that we know Vivienne will make new pen pals and we can get some Autumn sun over October half term. 

For the past few years I've been dreaming of the idea of doing trips that are going to be real experiences, and I'd bookmarked Easter 2018 off in my mind with the hope of going somewhere exciting. Originally I'd hoped for a road trip exploring West Coast America and taking Viv out of school for an extra week; but then Sylvie came along and we decided to wait until she can remember something like that and really experience it too.

Then I thought about Interrail. I've never been and the idea of hopping on and off trains crossing beautiful parts of Europe sounded a bit magical. Would doing interrail with kids be too hard? Looking at dates for David and his work and everything that is already in the diary for next year we decided that the majority of the trip would be just me and Vivienne, and then David and Sylvie can meet us for four days at the end. (And in all honesty, part of me was a bit relieved when I considered the age she'll be at and the amount of stuff she'd still need..)

So I mocked up plans and itineraries and worked out a route that would be possible, with travel times that wouldn't be too much for Vivienne too. Quickly I realised that I'd have to stop myself from wanting to do all the places I wanted to visit in one trip.. I'd have to prioritise for this trip and do another stretch of Europe another time.

I wanted to mix cities with some more 'outdoorsy' experiences.. I went to different areas of Switzerland a lot growing up and I really wanted Vivienne to see how beautiful it was, it then made sense to do a sleeper train somewhere, spend a few days there and then go on to somewhere else. After a bit of moving ideas and places around on a time line, this is what I came up with..

We begin by waving off Dav and Sylv and flying to Geneva, staying for just one night. From Geneva we'll get the train around the lake to Montreux, again for one day and one night; from here we get the train to Zermatt for two nights, which will give us time to cable car up to the Matterhorn and do the Glacier Experience and hopefully have an afternoon on the beginners' slopes taking Vivienne skiing for the first time (fingers crossed!). On the morning after our last night in Zermatt, we'll travel up to Zurich and spend the day exploring there before getting the overnight train to Vienna. We'll stay two nights in Vienna - I've booked us a hostel room with a huge glass ceiling (mainly so we can smash it.. feminist joke there..) overlooking the city, and then we'll get the train to Budapest from there to meet David and Sylvie, and have three nights there as the four of us before flying home.

I've created a travel diary/book with our itinerary, costs so far, payments that still need to be settled and labelled pages with each destination. I've also bought a European travel guide and asked Vivienne to do her own research for what she'd like to see or do in each place. So far we only really have in what we're looking to do in Zermatt, and I read about some amazing spa pools that look like they're worth a day trip in Budapest.. I'm going to lend Vivienne one of my small cameras for the week and see what she comes up with. 

Mainly, sight-seeing and exploring aside, I'm *so* excited to spend some quality time with Vivienne. Often Sylvie needs more immediate attention at home and Vivienne is so good at understanding, but I do think it'll do her so much good to be a bit more free and for it to be just the two of us for a week or so. I'm optimistically hoping we can get away with hand luggage in the name of 'travelling light' so I think the next challenge is working out a real capsule packing list that will last us the entire trip! If you've travelled or Interrail-ed with little ones I would really love to hear any tips you've got or travel essentials; or if you have any recommendations for where we're going I'd love to hear!