Final stop in this month’s travel series is the idyllic country of Switzerland.

I count myself extremely lucky that my parents and my husband’s parents genuinely like each other and we all enjoy traveling together. Last summer we all travelled to Switzerland in honor of both couples 50th wedding anniversaries. Rather than throwing a big party, they preferred spending time as a family and we were happy to oblige!

Although this book was printed by the same company as my Patagonia & Sweden/Norway books, I mixed up the design just a bit. Daily intro text was flipped to the left page and I took out the 4 images at the bottom for a cleaner look.

Our itinerary included visiting six different towns (Zurich, Lucerne, Bern, Murren, Zermatt, Lausanne) in ten days, all accessed via public transportation, so we were on the go quite a bit. When people ask me what my favorite part of the trip was I find myself answering it was all of the in between moments, such as playing telephone and other games on the train, that I cherish the most. The chance for us all to connect and be present with each other.

Beautiful hotels will always earn a layout or two or three in my books…

Someone asked me how I choose the image for my daily intro layout and the answer is that I like a strong representative image that will remind me of the big picture of that day. It is not always the first thing we did that day. Sometimes it is an “only” image, i.e. one that does not have other complementary images that would tell a compelling story in a double page spread.  It usually is an image that makes me happy.

Speaking of things that make me happy, these Swiss cows with their sweet jangling bells will forever have my heart.

As will solo sunrise photo walks that allow me to capture the beauty and quiet of a place at my own pace…

Last week I mentioned my kids know I like to take a picture of a hotel room right when we arrive, before it is full of bags and messy beds. On this trip they made my day when they told me they had resisted eating the delightful snack left for them upon arrival at our final hotel because they knew I would want to take a picture of it 🙂

Our final afternoon of vacation was spent exploring Lake Geneva – this is also the name of my hometown in Wisconsin so it was a special outing on many levels.  The time we spent on this little boat reminded me so much of my favorite marketing campaign and after taking a few representative photos I put away my camera and made the most of this precious time with these most precious people in my life.

This book was made for the four grandparents as Christmas gifts so I ended it with a love note to them all.

Thanks for following along with our family travel stories this month!