For the first time in a long time (possibly ever) I’ve been on holiday on my own. That’s not exactly true because I stayed with friends, but I did all the travelling on my own and boy are things different to my memories of flying.
As a child it felt like I went abroad a lot, but it has reduced as I’ve got older. Since leaving university my international travel consists of flying to Canada (2005), Japan (2008), taking the ferry to Ireland (2010) and flying to Switzerland in 2011 and 2015. Looking at that list three of the trips were to visit the same friends and one to visit my sister so thank goodness they enjoy living abroad otherwise I may only have left the UK for my honeymoon!
Travelling on my own
Security at Gatwick was interesting. I was expecting the limit on liquids, but I did not expect to have to take my boots off, and to give me the full experience I was randomly selected to be tested for explosives! The departure lounge was like a shopping centre; I think I just walked around for half an hour looking at everything, well beyond the alcohol and perfume shops I remember.
As I was staying with friends who have two children, it was great that I travelled on my own as I could fit in the back of their car and didn’t need to hire one. It also meant I could drop into their lives and spend lots of time seeing what their lives are like in Geneva and particularly spending time with their children who I’ve only met a few times previously. I’ll discover if I made an impression on them when I hopefully see them in December.
Switzerland
It was a lovely time to visit Geneva. Yes I didn’t have many clear blue skies, but the colours of the trees were amazing; brilliant yellows and reds. I think I took more photographs of trees than people, but found it was not easy to capture the vividness, this is my best attempt.
On my last full day, we went on a hunt for more blue sky. So drove through the clouds to the top of the Le Saleve, we went over the top and wow…! Mont Blanc and the Alps were visible beyond the bed of clouds with the autumn foliage in the foreground.
I was lucky to have a window seat on my return flight to get a similar view lifting through the clouds, although it didn’t have the same impact because the mountains weren’t completely visible.
Future travel plans
I would like to do more travelling, and I would like my children to experience visiting different countries, however we don’t have any current plans. One thought is to visit EuroDisney while my daughter is still enchanted by Disney magic, but to be honest I can’t see this happening as my husband has never gone on a package type holiday. Another possibility is to visit my sister in Malaysia, it took us about five years to visit her in Japan so I wonder if she’ll be in Malaysia long enough for us to save up.
I hope you will come and visit me in Malaysia, but don’t take 5 years this time.
The photo of the clouds and the mountains is beautiful!
I thought you’d like the blue sky. Unfortunately, it was overcast most of the days I was there, but that means it was even more beautiful when we got to the top of the mountain. I’m not going to promise when we’ll come out, it will take even longer to get my head around it now there are four of us to come out.
Travelling in a plane without children is a distant memory! How lucky! Looking forward to the day I fly without thinking about anyone else! Thrilling. Looks like you had a lovely trip.
And your flights are much longer so just think of the relaxing you’ll be able to do (but you know you’ll miss the kids the first time you do it).
Yes had a great time, and it is always lovely to catch up with friends.
Didn’t we also visit Belgium after uni, for a weekend minibreak?
Oh yes, so we did. Oops, how did I forget that? Obviously time we went away for a weekend again 😉