This year (2023) I decided to go to Hellfest again after having gone in 2022 and realising that it is a fantastically dun festival and fully deserves to be rated as one of Europe's best festivals. Last year we drove over from Switzerland with an overnight stay on the way there and a long drive on the way back. This was ok, but it was long, a bit expensive anyway, and by the time we got there camping places were few and far away from the festival site. So this year I decided I wanted to do it a little...


Caribbean trip Pt-4: Guadeloupe
I continued my trip through the Caribbean with a final and longest leg of the trip which was 1 week in Guadeloupe. For this part of the trip I would again have a car and would be doing a French course each week day that I was there and then sight seeing in the afternoon/evenings and on the weekend before I fly home. The journey for this part of the trip started with me going to Ferry terminal in Dominica to get the ferry to Guadeloupe. As appose to the last ferry that I took this one was a lot...

Our Christmas holiday to Egypt
For Christmas 2021 we gave the kids 4 options to chose from for the family holiday. Christmas in Lapland with Santa, Skiing in Austria, a week with the Grand parents or Christmas in Egypt with Pyramids and Mummies. Guess what they chose, much to my own delight? Jump to conclusions of trip -> So, the planning for Egypt began. We have travelled in a number of MENA countries and knowing some of the difficulties with these places we decided to book a private package trip, to still have some control over the travel plans but to have someone else...

Family Train Trip to Prague
For Easter 2022 we decided to take a trip to Prague with the children by train directly from home in St-Cergue. We love taking train trips and have taken a few epic ones over the years, so when we thought about a trip to Prague we looked to see if there was a way to get to there by train. It just so happens that there is in fact a direct sleeper train from Zurich to Prague operated by the Czech railway company. The tickets are only released 60 days before the journey and for popular weekends they sell out...

Upgrading Audi A4 (B8) to Android Auto
We have had our Audi A4 (B8) for a long time now and it has served us well. It is not as nice as the one I wrote off in 2016 but this car is still going strong despite being an 8-year-old car and having driven over 170,000 kms. But every now and again we talk about getting a new car, and for me, one of the main reasons I would like a new car is because the old entertainment system in our Audi seems very dated. While I get great Bluetooth connectivity for phone calls that is the only...

A long driving holiday from Switzerland to Portugal
In September we did something that is turning into an annual thing for us as a family. We loaded everyone up in the car, put the bikes on the roof and drove across the continent to a rented accommodation for a week. This year it was Portugal via Andorra on the way there and Bordeaux on the return, which is over 3,500km. The stops being perfectly located to be able to spend the night with the kids, explore the places a little in the morning before continuing the journey. Even though this is not the first long trip with the...

Jura Parc in the Valee de Joux

Night snow shoe and Fondu in La Givrine
Having lived in the mountains for a while now we have found that on the full moon in the winter it is very bright. You can see as if it was dawn or dusk (and sometimes even brighter than that). We had also heard that you can go out snow showing to a couple of restaurants in the evenings out across the snow. This weekend we decided to do this with friends and it was a great experience. We rented our racquets in Les Rousse at a resonable EUR 7 per day and headed for Le Trelasse near...

Via Ferrata Morez
Although I have been climbing for years (mostly sports climbing) Via Ferrata is not something I was aware of until I got to Switzerland. It is a form of climbing where there are wires, hand holds and foot holds of iron placed into the wall. While this is a little...

Grand Massif Season Pass - Winter + Summer
The Grand Massif is a great place for skiing and summer activities and the season pass is the best way to enjoy it. When choosing where you want to spend your season skiing from the lake Geneva region you have a few options with the 4 Vallees in Switzerland, Port...