Travel Day, Switzerland, 2021

I was originally scheduled to fly from Sacramento to San Francisco at 6:30am. I’m so pleased the new flight had a very reasonable departure time of 11am. I was able to walk the dog and spend some time with Mikey before I headed to the airport.

I love hanging out in airport lounges. The bathrooms are nicer, there’s all sorts of yummy foods and coffees and being away from the frantic airport vibe is just lovely. It made the 8 hour layover very enjoyable.

Knowing I’d be sitting on the plane for 10 1/2 hours I walked through the airport several times. (My phone tells me I got in 8671 steps. Not bad.)

On one of my walks I went to my flight’s international gate to see if I could get a seat change. I got assigned a kind of crappy business class seat (I use the Seat Guru site to see which seats are best.) The gentleman that helped me got me into seat D4. Yes! Good seat!

Here’s a time lapse of one of my walks from the United Club to the international gate where my plane was.

Here’s the plane. For my fellow plane geeks it’s a Boeing 777-300er. A pilot I sat next to from Sac to SFO was piloting a 777-300 to Taiwan later that day and I got to ask him some geeky questions about the planes. Nice guy.

The flight was 99% turbulence free and after a lovely meal (cheese ravioli, Parmesan starter, delicious) I laid back and slept for nearly 4 1/2 hours, which for me is probably a record. I woke up refreshed and had a Swiss breakfast, deli meats and cheese, fruit, mini croissants and an espresso.

Customs was a breeze. I’m glad I had all of the paperwork filled out and a QR code to prove it. Had a lovely conversation with a woman from San Mateo who was arriving to spend a month with her Swiss parents.

It’s was 5pm and I was debating whether or not to do a quick run over to the Freitag Flagship store to grab a couple of things on my shopping list or to just hop a train to Bern. As I was vacillating I saw luggage lockers so I threw my luggage in and hopped a train to the Freitag Flagship Store.

I’ve been looking forward to visiting the Freitag Flagship Store for a long time.

Freitag is just cool. They make all sorts of custom bags, wallets and backpacks from recycled materials. Find more info here. They use old truck tarps, old seatbelts, old bicycle inner tubes, and even old car air bags to make their one of a kind products. Mike an I splurged on a couple of messenger bags we found at a little shop in Gimmelwald a few years ago. Today I went to grab a bag for my brother in-law, a little something for Rachel and a wallet for myself. (And maybe a few more things…) I’m not a shopper really but I love what Freitag is doing and I like the look to their stuff so, yeah. Souvenirs purchased.

The train system here is remarkably easy to navigate. The app allows me to look in real time what trains are available to where I want to go. Google maps showed me the stop for the Freitag store and the Swiss Train App allowed me to purchase a ticket.

I stored my bags at 5pm, took the first train to The Freitag Store, shopped, and by 6pm I was on a train to Bern. Easy peasy.

This seems like a good stopping point for now. Thanks so much for following along. I am thrilled to share this with you.