As noted in my last post, 2022 has been busy with “other” things than going on trips and taking pictures. That didn’t mean that we didn’t go on trips at all though. In fact, we managed quite a couple of weekend trips around the country… And of course – in Switzerland, that’s difficult without going at least *a bit* into the mountains :)
Once we felt we had settled somewhat into life as parents, and gotten the first couple of feeding, sleeping, and general baby-handling routines in place, we took a weekend out of the calendar to get a bit of fresh mountain air. This coincided with my wife’s sister visiting too, so we wanted to really make it count. We didn’t want to really rely on having to go to restaurants and such though (having no routines in place for that, yet), and also didn’t want to have to drive for too long, so ended up deciding on a holidayhome in the mountains above the nearby Vierwaldstättersee – and just bringing everything we needed with us (as this included bringing all the baby-equipment too, it resulted in a quite fully stuffed Ford Puma).
Overall, it wasn’t exactly a new area for us, having visited the nearby Rigi (revisiting the photos from the last trip, we actually spotted the house we were in this time!) and done several hikes nearby too, but the specific place, high above Gersau, was still something special. It was the last house at the end of a long, narrow, private mountain road, and had an absolutely magnificent view over the Lucerne part of the lake. On top of that, due to the location, there was not really anyone else around. As we had brought everything we needed for the weekend, we could just fully relax (as much as is possible while still keeping a 1 month old girl happy, obviously) and enjoy the views. As noted in my last post, I was restricted to my 50mm lens on the entire trip, but tried to make the best of it – mainly on a hike up to the nearby Vitznauerstock, where the views were even better!
Later in the summer, we spent five days in Ticino (this time in Tegna, rather than Lugano), but incredibly enough, I ended up taking only 5 photos in total – all of my daughter inside the holiday apartment… Ah well…
However, October came around, and armed with even more baby-handling experience (and again with my 24-120mm lens!), we wanted to continue our streak of going somewhere interesting during autumn. This time, the choice fell on Davos Wiesen, where we spotted a decent-looking, family-friendly hotel. The important thing for us was that we (the parents) would be able to also actually relax, and not spend our energy finding workarounds for the things we were so used to doing at home – feeding, handling bottles, changing diapers, putting to sleep, and all those other every-day things that just need to work. The hotel, which had half-pension, a baby-pool and even provided purés for the little one, seemed like the perfect option. And it really worked well! Our daughter behaved admirably (as usual ;), and the uncomplicated surroundings made things much easier for all three of us. We even managed a decent little hike (restricted by the limited offroad-capabilities of our stroller though), and ended the day with a very excited (and afterwards tired!) girl that got to try out a pool for the first time in her life.
The area is also know for the many impressive railroad viaducts, which we managed to have a quick look at before heading home to Bonstetten.
