Europe and England 2023
In May and June 2023 I jetted off for a six week adventure in Europe and England. Travelling mostly by rail to see the sights of Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and England, culminating in a long-awaited catch up with good friends in Weston-Super-Mare after three long years!
Revisit the journey below, either by following along with the journal entries or checking out the highlight videos!
Zurich
Chur and Arosa
Albula Line, Chur to St Moritz
Bernina Express, St Moritz to Tirano
Return to Chur
Glacier Express
Lucerne
Heading into Germany (Stuttgart)
Hamburg (Miniatur Wunderland)
Dusseldorf and Wuppertal
Brussels
London
Weston Super Mare, Bristol and Bath
The Way Home
The Map
The Journal
Day 2: Zurich
I'm not sure if it's a thing, but Zurich feels like it should be one of those arrangements where cities form "Sister City" partnerships because Zurich has quite a lot in common with Melbourne. Right down to the interchangeable weather at the near drop of a hat. To say that the day has been long is an understatement. Realistically the 8th of May for me has been around 36 hours long. As I flew out of Singapore just after midnight and was chasing the timezones backwards on the very long flight. I...
Day 1: Singapore
Hello from Singapore! It has been a mammoth day that is drawing to a close as I await my flight from Singapore to Zurich. It is 11:21PM as I write this and my flight is due to depart at 1:45AM, it is approximately 28 degrees outside, and I'd say very high humidity. My humidity sensors are tingling. I've taken a bit of a walk around the airport to scout some things to do but honestly this place is massive. All four terminals of Melbourne could fit into one terminal here. Being a hub airport...
The Final Countdown
It seems fitting to use the title of a song by a band name with my destination. The bags are packed, the batteries are charged, and the book is ready to go. I'm now writing part of this post while waiting for the time to head to the airport. Melbourne has decided to give me a taste of what's to come with the forecast for Switzerland looking like rain for the entire time I'm going to be there. My final luggage weight came in at 18.7kg, well below the 30kg limit so I've got weight to spare for...
7 days to go
Time to start thinking about packing. My dry run a couple of weeks ago resulted in me using about 10kg of my 30kg allocation from Singapore Airlines. Plenty of space for taking a few more items of clothing and leave room to bring souvenirs back. I've been starting to look at some of the forecasts for places I'm going to be in Switzerland for the first few days. So far it is going to be incredibly close to the temperatures I am leaving. Lows of 8-10 and highs of 16-22 for areas I'll be in for...
10 days to go
It's been a long road getting to this point. For most people it would be a six-to-nine month process planning an international venture. This trip was supposed to happen in 2020 so I've had a bit of time to plan it... I've had four different plans, two that were in place for 2020 revolving around a little thing called Coronavirus ID 19 that had me plan one trip in two directions (just reversing the trip if border closures meant I couldn't move between countries in Europe, I would just do the...