Heading Home and final thoughts, Munich/Switzerland, 2024

I flew to Paris from Zurich after a beautiful train ride. Switzerland is just beautiful.

I’d left my jacket on a train a few days ago and was hoping lost and found would have found it. No dice.

A quick 55 minute flight on Swiss Airlines (a great airline. They give you Swiss chocolate) to CDG. I stayed at the hotel airport since I had an early flight out the next morning. The room was nice and I was greeted with a little mini muffin, a bottle of apple juice and a little chocolate marshmallow thing. Yum.

The airport is clearly prepping for the Summer Olympics. This airport can be a bit confusing. I asked someone with an information vest on where I might find the hotel and his escorted me nearly the entire way there! Helpful!!

I had a solid night’s sleep, (I think I finally adjusted to the time…just in time to go home 🤣) and headed to the Air France lounge to have a bite before getting in the plane.

The flight boarded on time and began to taxi before heading back to the gate. There was a “technical problem” that needed to be fixed. Better safe than sorry. We were delayed for a little over an hour. They served us Perrier and little French snacks.

Soon after takeoff we had dinner. A small salad and some raw salmon (yuck, pass) was the starter and the main was a delicious beef dish with gnocchi. It was served with a very French mini baguette.

I slept through 3 movies, nearly 7 hours on and off. It was a lovely way to pass the time.

After the nearly 10 hour flight I grabbed a quick shower at the Vancouver airport lounge before waiting around for my flight to Seattle, then Sacramento.

It takes a long time to get to and from Europe from the west coast. (Trying to do it on the cheap added some time to this trip.) Whole on approach to Vancouver I saw some beautiful mountains which sparked this feeling that it was totally worth the time and expense to get to experience the kitsch of seeing the Willie Wonka filming sites and the beauty of the Berner Oberland.

It’s such a gift to get to do this. A book I read years ago suggested to live your retirement while you’re still young enough to enjoy it. The idea being to take the trips now. Do the bucket list stuff now. Don’t wait because who knows if we’ll have the energy to do it when we retire. I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job doing that over the last couple of decades with traveling and seeing concerts. It’s can be tricky, too, because trips like these need to be planned well in advance since the work calendar fills up 9-12 months in advance.

Speaking of planning ahead, I’m excited every time I open my phone.

Mike and I return to Europe in 71 days to visit Zermatt, Pisa, Lucca, the Cinque Terre and Brugge. Really looking forward to it!

Thanks for following along on this trip.