BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

It dawned on me, a few days into our trip, that I had a spare travel day on our Interrail passes. Our pass meant we could travel 5 days out of 15, and, with the night train having to be booked separately, we'd only planned to travel on four. I literally looked at a map on a train journey and thought "Hey! Bratislava is about an hour from Vienna, maybe we could pop over for a few hours when we get off the night train from Zurich?"

So that's what we did. We left our luggage in storage in Vienna train station, went for a quick coffee (it was 8am at this point which still feels early..) and got on the next train to Bratislava's central train station.

I'll admit, first impressions weren't great. I think Google Maps took us on a bit of a questionable route through an undesirable residential area which didn't help.. but we walked the half hour walk up towards Bratislava Castle, which is at the top of a hill meaning the views over the city are beautiful once you reach it. 

We looked over the river, and down over the rooftops of the Old Town, before making our way back down into the city.

The Old Town area was the prettiest part of Bratislava that we saw - some of the buildings were beautiful and there were plenty of bars, cafes and restaurants once you reached Michael's Gate. Vivienne got a piece of Oreo cake to take away, which meant she loved Bratislava and it was a big tick in her travel diary.

I'm glad we visited but also glad we didn't stay there and make it a larger part of our trip - a lovely few hours out, but it wasn't long before I was itching to get back and start exploring Vienna.

You can see a different selection of photos from our time in Bratislava over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - VIENNA!

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAIL WITH KIDS

Zurich was more of a pit-stop than somewhere on the trip that we were really excited about.. saying that, it was a wonderful city to wander in. We left our luggage in the train station after arriving at about midday, and set straight off to walk down the river and see the sights.

We walked uphill to find a park which overlooks the city called Lindenhof; it was sunny and full of people playing boules and chess, kids playing on the swings, couples sitting on the wall looking at the view and people going about their every day lives. We sat in the warmth and played cards, went on the swings, and took some photos of Zurich from above, before walking down into the Old Town to explore the narrow streets.

We took it easy and pottered down through until we reached the lake. I grabbed some food (currywurst!) from a stall there and we sat, people watched and looked out over the lake before deciding on a boat trip to kill some time and see a few other nearby places while we were there. We later wandered around what I think was the theatre/art quarter of Zurich on the other side of the River Limmat, but, to be honest, Vivienne was getting a bit tired at this point so we decided to walk back up slowly and find a good spot to eat, sort our luggage out and prepare for the night train - we were both *so* excited..

I admit, I get so nervous in train stations and airports and always turn up everywhere so, so much earlier than I need to.. I exceeded myself and we were in the station THREE HOURS before our train was due to leave. According to Google, at this point, it said our train had already left which didn't help.. 

Viv grabbed some hot take away pizza, I grabbed some dinner on the go, and we hung out waiting for our platform to be announced..

The NightJet was everything I'd hoped it would be - it pulled up and we found our cabin, a tiny little room with bunkbeds, a sink, a wardrobe and a welcome pack. We ordered our breakfast in advance and were told it would arrive with us at 6,15am (ouch).. we played cards too late and eventually settled down, ready to arrive in Vienna.. 

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

NEXT STOP - BRATISLAVA!

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

BLOWING KISSES AND HITTING HER SISTER | THE BEGINNING OF THE TODDLER YEARS

Well, Sylvie is definitely not a baby any more. 'Spirited' would be one way of putting it.. 'a loveable little terror' would be another. She refuses to walk, but I'm declaring her a 'toddler'. The baby stage is well and truly over.

She seems to be learning so much so quickly at the moment; everything from trying to copy words that we say, to make-believe playing, to really understanding a few commands, like 'pass me that' or 'take your dummy out'. She has a baby doll which was once Vivienne's which she's taken a particular shining to, trying to feed it and put a nappy on it.. and watching her 'role-playing' is so wonderful. She's gentle with it and cuddles it.. In these moments you'd think she was a considered and kind little thing through and through..

Obviously the toddler years bring frustration and fury for them too as they try to make sense of the world.. she is head-strong, loud.. (I was going to type 'unreasonable' but *obviously*.. she's only 16 months old) Vivienne, hand on heart, was so placid in comparison, whereas Sylvie is not afraid to really make her voice heard. 

We are so lucky that Vivienne is so patient as we make our way through this stage of giving kisses, cuddling, then hair pulling, hitting and pinching (those baby pinches really bloody hurt..). It's hard to start introducing discipline when I know she doesn't mean to hurt, or even really know what she's doing. Anyway, we're muddling through this ever-changing day-to-day life with our headstrong little girl.

The blog, recently, has been very heavy with things from mine and Vivienne's Interrail trip, so I thought I would also include a little Sylvie update, for this wonderful but often tiring stage we're currently at. All the little things she does and watching her learn honestly makes up for when she's screaming and attracting attention during 'the big shop'. Sylvie saying 'Mama' and putting her hands up for a cuddle makes all the difficult little moments melt away...

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Sylvie at 16 months

Says the words 'Dad', 'Daddy', 'Mum', 'Wav' (for Viv!), "Yessss", "Cock" (for 'look', we hope..) and also, due to her Dad being a huge Boro fan ' Up Bo-o' for 'Up The Boro'.

Eats well on her own; she loves omelettes, lasagne, pasta, cottage pie, fish, vegetables, yoghurt, fruit pouches and chocolate (we're still working on the Easter chocolate!)

Role-plays with her baby doll, giving it her dummy, putting it down to sleep, trying to dress it and change it's nappy.. She tries to draw with a pen (yesterday it was all over the couch), and loves her wooden garage and cars that she got for her birthday.

Has walked four/five steps max, has taken plenty of one/two steps but 99% of the time powers around the house by crawling. She can scale a flight of stairs so quickly.. but no rush to get up on two feet.

Loves playing peek-a-boo behind clothing/sheets, and will hide then surprise you. She loves the swings and the slide, and when you pretend to chase her from room to room.

She's still constantly looking for Vivienne - she follows her around the house and will ask "Wav?" when she's at school. 

Dances and shakes her head to music, and loves when we join in. 

Also, I can't not mention her hair. Vivienne had hardly any hair until she was two and a half, and it was so curly. Sylvie has a mop of hair that means that she looks like a mix of Ed Sheeran and Boris Johnson if we don't tie it up.. So funny, but we still don't know what to do about it apart from making her look like Pebbles from The Flintstones!

Sleeps well most of the time, she's currently getting back molars in which is loads of fun - full screaming in the middle of the night, but hopefully we'll be out the other side soon.

Loves the bath and loves swimming. Water baby.

MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

Montreux is just so bloody beautiful. It's a small town at the other end of Lake Geneva to Geneva itself. Later afternoon/early evening Vivienne and I collected our bags after exploring Geneva for the day, and took the train for just over an hour around the lake to Montreux. We went wandering out on the evening before finding somewhere to eat, and unfortunately couldn't see much because of the visibility, but the town lights sparkling on the water were  still pretty beautiful. We found an Italian place and ate dinner (bloody pricey but I guess it's Switzerland..), before heading back to our room and watching Netflix in bed before falling asleep.

In the morning, we dumped our bags at the hotel reception and, I swear, I think I ran to the water's edge to fully see the mountains that were now visible on the other side of the lake. SO beautiful. We wandered and saw the Freddie Mercury Statue and a sculpture piece dedicated to him, and stood on the viewing platform that jutted out into the lake to fully see the amazing view up into the Alps. We grabbed some breakfast on the go, and walked for about an hour around the lake towards Chillon Castle, stopping to take photos and look at the view.

Chillon Castle was quite interesting - very Game of Thrones-esque. We definitely could have spent more time wandering around it; I think Vivienne enjoyed it more than me and there was a kid's guide book that she worked through - definitely worth a visit for a few hours. 

Mid-afternoon, after catching the bus back to the centre to save a little time, we trundled back up the hill towards the train station; stopping, again, for snacks from the Coop for our journey and for picnic-ing in bed later. 
 

We were both so, so excited to get up to Zermatt and have a look around before skiing the next day. The journey took a few hours from Montreux up into the mountains, which left plenty of time for writing in travel diaries and playing Rummikub..

You can see a different selection of photos from our time in Montreux over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - ZERMATT!