Gloucester County

Traveling tonight from Philadelphia to Zurich, where a car and driver are waiting to take us to Luzern.

We’ve been planning this trip for nearly a year, and it’s been Deb’s dream for as long as she can remember. We’ll even visit the home of her ancestors, near Zurich.

Mountains, lakes, glaciers, villages, valleys, rivers, and cities as this Alpine country welcomes Autumn.

We are approaching travel differently for this trip:

-Traveling by train will be part of the fun
-Minimalist packing has us going with carryons only and travel back packs that convert to day packs for hiking. That will make our train travel easy and factors in all the quaint , old hotel’s with no elevators.

There’s even a packable tote bag to hold the compression packing cube when we take them out of the travel backpacks and store the luggage at the hotel pre-checkin.

Deb’s been training at the gym for 6 weeks so she can haul all her stuff and do the mountain hikes! She’s watched endless hours of YouTube backpack reviews to come up with the perfect gear for us.
(Yes, it’s been an obsession.)

5,4,3,2,1 is the mantra for packing basics:
5 sets of underwear
4 tops
3 bottoms
2 pairs of shoes
1 jacket

Doing the above while planning layers to address three seasons (Summer temperatures in the valleys, Winter temperatures in the mountains, and Autumn in between) has added to the challenge. We’ve got thermal gloves AND swimsuits!

Going to be keeping score on how well this works out!
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Score 1: roller and backpack fit perfectly in a small overhead compartment on the 787.

Score (-1): Somehow neglected to close the hydroflask properly and dumped water into the water bottle pocket. Pocket is waterproof. Recover 1/2 point.Les mer