For the Christmas Holidays in 2023 we decided to take the family to Tunisia. Somehow, even though we say no more MENA holidays, we keep ending up there and we do keep enjoying ourselves. We were shocked at how cheap the flights and hotel were and how short the flight was. We flew on EasyJet on the 24th December to Enfidha El Hammamet airport for CHF 700 for the whole family with luggage, and the flight took less than 2 hours and is in the same timezone as Switzerland. We had booked a car at the airport with Avis for...
Canada and US trip - Part 4 - Toronto and New York City
What do you do when you have 10 days without the kids and a chance to go on a holiday. Plan a 2700km car journey and 900km train ride across the US and Canada, taking in the culenary and natrual beuty along the way. Finishing up in New York. Part 1 - Journey to Halifax and Halifax area Part 2 - Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick Part 3 - US Road Trip - Main to Niagra Falls Part 4 - Toronto and New York City Toronto Our next stop that day was Toronto. We had...
Canada and US trip - Part 3 - US Road Trip - Main to Niagra Falls
What do you do when you have 10 days without the kids and a chance to go on a holiday. Plan a 2700km car journey and 900km train ride across the US and Canada, taking in the culenary and natrual beuty along the way. Finishing up in New York. Part 1 - Journey to Halifax and Halifax area Part 2 - Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick Part 3 - US Road Trip - Main to Niagra Falls Part 4 - Toronto and New York City Maine USA The following morning we stopped at the...
Family holiday in Lithuania 2023
This year we decided to do our holiday away with the kids as a camping holiday in Lithuania and Latvia. We drove with the kids and the dog in a very packed car, with 4 bikes on the back and a completely full roof box for what was supposed to be a 2 weeks of camping across Lithuania and Latvia. I am no stranger to long drives and so when we were planning our holiday, I didn’t even think twice about booking the trip to drive there. It seemed the obvious way to get there and allowed us to use...
sirens airplanes and ambulances in a Rega baltic medical adventure
Our fun family trip to Lithuania and Latvia took an unexpected turn when just as we were finishing up our week of camping in the Curonian Spit, our 5-year-old daughter began complaining of very painful sores on the insides of her thighs. For a few days prior, we had been trying to keep them clean and covered with bandages but to no avail. On the last day of the Lithuanian leg and as we were on our way to Latvia, Samantha was in so much pain and discomfort that we decided to stop in Klaipeda and find a hospital to...
Hellfest done Right
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...