🇨🇭Here We Go Again! Swiss Edition

Swiss Nomad Fest 2024

Train to Liddes, Switzerland

Hello from beautiful Liddes, Switzerland!!

Last week we said “See you later” to family and friends in Washington State and boarded a plane from Seatac. We are back on our third tour of Europe!

I am writing to you from a dining room table at Coliving.frilingue at our first stop in Liddes, Switzerland. We are here for the 2nd annual Swiss Nomad Fest.

The dining room of Coworking friLingue in Liddes, Switzerland

We will be here through the middle of next week when we will hop on a bus to Aosta, Italy, and begin the trek back to Sarande, Albania through Corfu, Greece. We aren’t certain yet which path we will take, but it will look something like this:

Many Italian paths lead to Corfu, Greece

Our flight was uneventful. A big shift from last year’s return to America, when our flight from Spain to Chicago was turned around due to mechanical and medical problems.

The first leg was from Seattle to Keflavík Airport in Reykjavík, Iceland. The flight crew on Icelandic Air was friendly and helpful. We began shifting our sleep/sunlight schedule three days before. Following our 11 pm takeoff, we dozed for about 3 hours and then bugged the flight attendants for coffee at 3 am.

When we flew to Dublin two years ago, the window shades had been closed during the entire flight leading to the illusion that it was nighttime. During this passage, many people kept them open. This made it much easier to accept the reality that it was daytime. And it was magical to look out the windows at about 5 am Seattle time and see the ice and snow of Greenland beneath us.

🇮🇸Iceland

A few of our friends were excited to see Iceland through our eyes. This is pretty much it.

Boarding the metro while being blown around with wind and rain at the Iceland airport

We stayed only one night and were very fatigued from lack of sleep. We also had to wake up at 3 am to board the shuttle from our hotel to the airport. We will return someday and give Iceland the attention it deserves.

You might wonder why I am grinning in front of a metro bus.

This moment represented a huge sense of accomplishment. During our first tour, we amassed a huge toolkit of both skills and apps that allow us to get around in multiple countries. The real-time, worldwide, public transportation app Moovit is one of our top 5 apps.

Once we landed and collected our bags, I installed an Airalo esim on my phone so I would have access to maps and data anywhere in the city. Once I set Moovit to the Reykjavík area, I quickly found the metro bus to our hotel and the pickup location. It was a bit of a walk in the late-summer Icelandic downpour. But still, super-proud that my global skills still operated, and a great beginning to the year.

🥐 Bread!

Another highlight of Iceland was this croissant.

Enjoying a croissant at the Iceland airport. First European gluten in 9 months.

The past nine months in America have been a battlefield of food problems. It took quite some time to nail down the primary cause: gluten. Deana is undoubtedly gluten-sensitive. Not at the celiac level, but definitely sensitive.

But not in Europe! We ate tons of bread a year ago, especially in Greece and Bulgaria. We learned while in America that the way our grains are grown and processed has led to an exceptionally higher level of gluten in our breads.

The test would be how she responded to European breads. She happily reports that she enjoyed that croissant (and the donut that accompanied it) with no adverse effects. As well as the bread that came with our meal in Geneva!

🇨🇭Geneva

The next leg of our trip took us to Geneva, Switzerland. What better photo to represent Switzerland than this clock!!

Swiss Clock in Geneva

Getting to our hotel was less work than in Iceland. The hotel itself provides a shuttle. After dropping our luggage off, we took a short nap and then ventured out to find some dinner.

Public transportation is a miracle in Switzerland. Very simple to get from one place to another. The streets are quieter than in America due to the reduced number of cars.

We had an amazing meal, returned to our hotel, and slept peacefully through the night. When we woke up we were completely adjusted to the European time zone. A remarkable feat given we are now a 9-hour difference from Washington state. Timeshifter app for the win!

🚞 Trains and busses!

We rode two trains on the final leg of our trip to Liddes. It involved a few stops along the way. I began this draft at a small bar near the train station in Martigny while drinking wine and espresso. It is good to be back in Europe!!

Getting some writing done and waiting for the train at Martigny

🏔️The Swiss Alps!

And now we are here. Living in this small village in the Swiss Alps.

Liddes, Switzerland

It is just as serene as you might imagine from this photo. We are living, working and learning alongside 50 digital nomads as diverse as Israelis and Palestinians, Americans and Brits, Mexicans and Spaniards, Italians, Indians, Cypriots, Polish, and many many more.

The conversations are diverse, ranging from personal, business, global events and taxes. A small group stayed up til 3 am so they could watch the American presidential debate. Our new Israeli friend has dubbed my breakfast table “The Morning Philosophy Talk.”

Soon, Deana or I will write about the other activities here at Swiss Nomad Fest. For example, a few days ago we took a ski lift to a mountain 8,000 feet high and took photos of the even higher, snow-capped peaks across the valley. A quick check revealed that the highest ski resort in Washington is 7,000 feet. Today, we are going to a spa.

That’s it for now!!