GENEVA, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

Ah! So! Here we go.. I've been so excited to blog about our trip, and finally all the editing has been done, I've scanned the polaroids in, the films have been developed and I'm ready to put it all out there.. 

You can see more about our plans here, but in short, we travelled to Geneva, Montreux, Zermatt, Vienna and Budapest, and did a quick few hours in Bratislava. I've decided to break it all down place by place, I'll add links for anything relevant where I can, and I'll be cross-linking to my photography blog too, where I'll be sharing a different selection of images (I didn't want to overwhelm this blog with photography-related content, and overwhelm my photography blog with family content..)

You can see my blog post for Geneva on my sallytphoto.com blog here.

We packed up, had backpacks with snacks and our travel diaries, and Dav dropped us at the train station, which would take us straight to Manchester Airport. I'm so glad I added a full case, my romantic idea of only having backpacks for the trip were soon dashed when I realised we'd need such a range of things; we needed clothes for ski weather and warm weather, hiking boots and swimming costumes.. it wasn't ideal lugging a huge case on and off trains but definitely better than not having everything we needed.

We arrived in Geneva late on the Monday night, and by the time we were checked into our hotel it was about 10pm and too late to eat out anywhere. In the dark we walked down to the Lake and looked across at the twinkling lights, and had a little wander before grabbing a take away pizza (to Vivienne's delight) to eat in bed. In the morning we grabbed a pain au chocolat to go and I think she immediately thought Geneva was the best place ever.. 

We armed ourselves with cameras and a few essentials, and walked through the city up to La Jonction. I'd researched Geneva a little and La Jonction looked so bizarre and so interesting that I really wanted to see it for myself.. It's the point where the rivers Arve and Rhône join but the waters don't mix. It was a bit of a trek to get there, and Vivienne wasn't best pleased (until we found a small petting zoo at the top of the hill just before we reached this point) but once we reached the point overlooking the rivers on a railway bridge it was all worth it. 

I was so excited when Vivienne showed an interested in using the camera I'd lent her for the trip - it's an Olympus Pen PL7 - and she loved going back through what she'd taken and keeps asking me to teach her how to edit.. Further down the line I think I'll blog a selection of her photos from the trip too.

After La Jonction we walked back through the city and headed towards the Old Town, which was uphill through narrow streets towards Cathedral St Pierre. There are two towers which you can climb in the cathedral, and one had a really panoramic view over the entire city. On a clear day you'd be able to see mountains in the distance but we happily settled for overlooking the rooftops, harbour and the Jet D'Eau. We stopped mid-afternoon for a drink and some chips (we didn't realise this would become a daily tradition at the time..) and wandered back through Geneva and down to the Lake. 

We walked to the Jet D'Eau, which you can see above, but it happened to be off by the time we reached it, we hung out by the harbour for a little while, watching people catching fish, and hanging out in the park nearby, Vivienne loved spotting the super-cars that race each other down the streets and admiring the graffiti (I think it was what she photographed most).

We picked up our bags from the hotel and jumped on the train an hour round the lake to Montreux, stocking up first on crisps and a few treats from the shop in the train station.

Geneva was somewhere I chose to start the trip for mainly logistical reasons - it was easy to fly to and move on to where we wanted to see next; but we ended up really loving wandering around this city. 

You can see a different selection of pictures from Geneva over on my blog here.

NEXT STOP - MONTREUX!

Links
La Jonction
Cathedral St Pierre
Jet D'Eau
Geneva Old Town
"Things to do in Geneva" By HandLuggageOnly

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!

FESTIVAL PLANNING WITH A KID AND A BABY

Another post for fellow list-lovers.. when I was pregnant last year we accepted that Glastonbury this year was probably going to be too much of a push with everything else going on. In hindsight we probably could have managed to go.. but never mind, we'll just have to be at the next one to make up for it.. Instead we booked tickets to Deershed festival, designed for families and only 25 minutes down the road. Two nights camping, family facilities for babies and easy to nip out if we'd forgotten anything.  

I love a list, and we used pretty much everything on here for the two nights and three days we were camping. The MAM baby bottles really are amazing for travelling as they self-sterilise in a microwave, and the cheap as chips baby camping travel cot with insect netting was perfect and Sylvie slept in it brilliantly.  

We'd been planning on buying a 'proper' tent (i.e. Not just a festival throw-away one and not one from China that doesn't stay up à la Glasto 2015..) for a while now and we ended up choosing a tunnel tent with a bedroom at each end. 

We also decided not to take a stove this time and just be a bit lazy - we thought camping for the first time with the baby would be enough to think about - we took wrapped breakfast food like brioches, croissants and fruit.  

The whole weekend went really well, it chucked it down a few times but Viv wasn't fazed and Sylvie was well covered in the buggy; our washing machine broke on our return which was perfect timing with four loads of muddy washing ready to go in but I guess you can't have it all, can you? 

So! Here's my list for camping with a child and a baby..  

- Tent
- Inflatable beds (we found some double air beds for £10 each in Aldi.. I only went in for some milk..) and a foot pump
- Sleeping bags and a good few extra blankets.  
- Camping travel cot. I'll put a picture of what I bought at the end of the post, it was less than £15 and was 'pop up', and comes flat packed in its own bag.  
- Baby sleeping bag. We have a great GroBag one which opens in the middle to allow for buggy straps so Sylvie could wear it when we were out on the evening. 
- Clothes, waterproofs and wellies for everyone. We allowed a few extra outfits for mud and lots of layers for day to evening. We also took trainers and flip flops as well as wellies.
- Sun cream, hats and sunglasses
- Warm PJs and socks and jumpers for bed too. 
- The buggy and the rain cover. We also took two small umbrellas which we used a lot walking between areas. 
- Picnic blanket with waterproof back. 
- Camping chairs
- A doormat for taking wellies and shoes off at the tent entrance. 
- Towels
- Washing up bowl, soap and scrubbers
- Hand sanitiser and surface wipes  
- Bin bags and carrier bags
- Food. We took a crate of water, individually wrapped brioches and croissants, crisps, sweets, fruit, we made up some sandwiches for the first day, some drinks for me and David and baby food and milk.  
- A full baby bag with nappies, sacks, feeding spoons, bibs and muslins, bottles, Milton sterilising wipes, extra clothes, a few toys, calpol, sun hat and extra socks and blankets for Sylvie. 
- Toiletries including toothbrushes, deoderant, make up, hair spray and dry shampoo, hair gel, hair brush, make up wipes. 
- Lanterns and extra batteries. Again, a lucky Aldi purchase. 
- Glitter and coloured hairspray for Viv (she had som very specific festival hair ideas..) 
- Pillows (we gave Vivienne a dark pillow case because of the aforementioned coloured hairspray..) 
- Extra tissues and loo roll
- A few activities like books and pens for Vivienne  
- Cash
- Some basic medicine and first aid kit  
- Camera and spare cards and batteries
- ID wrist tag for Vivienne which we filled out with our numbers and names
- Ear protectors for Sylvie
- Phone chargers and power banks

SUMMER'S HERE + WE LOVE THE LAKES

Oh the Lake District is just heaven isn't it? I realised about a week or so before that I had a full free weekend after a Thursday wedding and suggested we four went to my Grandma's caravan in the Lakes for the weekend to do a whole lot of not very much. The sun shone and it was just bliss. On the first day we took a few hours' walk (Viv did pretty well and baby was in the carrier) and then got the boat back across the other half of Derwentwater, went for food, played Boggle, put the kids to bed, drank wine.. On the second day we went a bit further, ate more food.. sunbathed on the grass.. 

Viv's old enough now that we feel comfortable with her playing at the top of the hill at the play area and she just came back to 'check in' every so often. I remember playing in the same places, paddling in the same rivers and exploring the same patches of woodland so it's really special to see her enjoying the simpler things and not just asking to watch things on YouTube.. I definitely hope to get back for a simple trip away before the weather gets colder again this year. Summer feels close enough that we can just about touch it..