[sup?]

In 2014, having just been married, my wife and I went on an international trip to the UK, mainly to watch Federer play at Wimbledon and then for a week to Switzerland to drive through the Swiss alps. I have written team-bhp travelogues of all our subsequent vacations to Iceland, Norway, Austria/Italy/Slovenia and Scotland, but somehow never got around to writing down our very first international vacation. While all our vacations are relatively frugal, this one was especially so considering we were still at the early stages of our career with not much in terms of savings to speak of. We avoided eating at restaurants by carrying a bunch of ready to eat stuff and survived on buying only junk or cheaper stuff like bread and cheese from grocery chains.

Since we wanted to have a fun driving experience, we decided that we wouldn't fly or use the euro star direct from London where we had completed the first leg of our trip, but would take the euro star to Paris and drive from Paris to Switzerland. In this post, I want to cover the Swiss leg of our trip. The quality of mobile cameras almost a decade ago means the pictures I post wouldn't do justice to the places we visited on our trip. But without further ado, here goes the trip.

Day 1:
The Eurostar was scheduled to leave St.Pancras at 5.40 AM and arrive in Paris a little after 9AM. From there we had a train to Vernon at 10.20AM where we had booked our car rental. Now this convoluted rental booking was thanks to our being on an absolute shoestring. Any car bookings at airports/rail stations was costing about 12k INR more than if we booked in one of the Parisian suburbs. So in the hope of saving a few bucks, we booked our car rental from Vernon instead of Paris and booked tickets on a suburban train to get to Vernon.

All this meant we started out day in London at an ungodly hour. The 3.42 AM bus at East Putney was the only viable option for us to get to the station. We were up at 2.45 AM. We got ready quickly while my wife packed toast for breakfast/lunch while helping herself to a great deal of the Museli our hosts had provided us. We got out of the house at 3.20 and what was usually a 10 minute walk to the bus station was made doubly difficult by the luggage we were carrying. We got on the bus and got off at what turned out to be the last stop for the bus. We had marked out the whole area on the offline google maps and we started to walk in the general direction of the station from the bus stop. What seemed like a half a kilometre walk turned out to be much more than that and the icing on the cake was the fact that there was more than one railway station in that area. After a little bit of confusion we finally managed to get to the right station in time. The immigration was done in double quick time and after changing a little currency, we got on the train and we were off to Paris.

The Eurostar rolled into the Paris Gare du Nord a few minutes ahead of schedule. We were pretty relaxed considering how smoothly things had gone so far that day. But then started the drama. We were supposed to get to Vernon from a suburban train station of St.Lazare. Google told us it was only a station or two away from Gare du Nord. After navigating Parisian crowds, rude French people and the language barrier we made it to St.Lazare with barely any time to spare. Imagine our shock when we realised that there were no suburban trains from St.Lazare. After asking around and getting no help as usual from people who refused to speak to us because we couldn't speak French, we finally found someone who told us we were at Hausmann St.Lazare which was an underground station and the St.Lazare for the suburban trains was a street away and a different station altogether. Total chaos. We somehow made it to the train puffing and panting as the doors were closing.

After an hour's journey on the French version of a Mumbai local, we got to Vernon. At Vernon, we got off at the station, loaded up our offline maps on the iphone and headed to the Hertz rental where we were to pick up our rental car. It was a mile's walk to the car rental, and when we got there it turned out to be a gas station/convenience store/hertz rental all in one. Here, the language barrier turned out to be worse than it was in Paris. Neither of the attendants could understand a word of English and it was the same with us when they spoke French. Despite the communication being in sign language most of the time, they were infinitely more courteous and getting our car was quite smooth. We got a grey Punto from them, which was kind of a disappointment after the Astra in London. You do not want to travel 5000 miles and end up driving a car you see every day on Indian roads. Not that we had much choice. After making a few purchases at the convenience store for the road, we were on our way in our "Gazole" Punto! I took the wheels first and soon we hit the highway with 700 odd kms still separating us from Giswil in Switzerland.

We were cruising at 130 kmph on these roads only to see almost every other car pass us by and become a speck on the horizon in a matter of seconds. God knows what speeds they were going at and we did not attempt to go any faster than what we already were. Not that with the underpowered Punto at our disposal, we could have gone much faster. The weather was a bit warm, but in the interests of saving fuel, we did not have the AC on for long periods of time.
We exchanged driving duties only once in the interest of saving time. The roads in France are top class and driving was a pleasure.

As we got nearer to the Swiss border, we perceived a marked change in the surroundings. The greenery was becoming more enchanting, the hills were getting higher, and the temperature was dropping considerably. As we were hitting the border, we could feel the transformation being complete. There was Switzerland, in all her majesty.

A couple of kilometers into the border, there was a policeman, who looked more like a door-to-door salesman, selling vignettes. We forked out 40 of the very best for the sticker which gave us the right to drive on any highway in Switzerland for a year. Off we went then, on towards Giswil. The deeper we went into Switzerland, the more enthralling the landscape. I had heard so much about Switzerland, and seen so many postcards and pictures; but the cynic inside yours truly never believed that any place could actually be this beautiful. Boy, was I wrong!

One minute, there would be a lake of the deepest hues of blue on your side, only for it to be replaced the next minute by a mountain of a green you would think can only be achieved via Photoshop. Looking at some of the cottages dotting the mountain sides, I couldn't help but think how pleasant life would be if I could just settle down to live in one of those forever.

Finally we got to Giswil, which was a dream like village surrounded by mountains. We got the address right and managed to get to the right apartment where our host greeted us. Our hosts' apartment was a large 3 bedroom flat on the ground floor. We got one of the bedrooms for ourselves and the French windows of the room opened up to the beautiful mountainsides surrounding the village. We were worn out by the 700 kilometre drive and nodded off pretty soon after dumping our luggage in the room.






Day 2:
We got up at 7 AM to brilliant sunlight pouring in from the windows. The entire village was glistening in the sunlight, accentuating the beauty of the place. Enthused by this ethereal sight, we decided to explore the village and its surroundings for a bit. We got out of the house and walked a bit in the lush green meadows when we hit a stream running through the middle of the village. On one side, it was leading up to one of the mountains surrounding the village. We followed the stream through the meadows and woods and grassland for quite a while. We passed farms, a quaint little church on a hill and a few barns along the way. The entire village reminded me of "Heidi" on cartoon network. We must have walked a couple of kilometres along the stream at which point it widened and ended at something resembling a dam. From the foot of the mountain we walked up a little and settled down near a cottage taking in the atmosphere. We took a few selfies along the way and I now had mastered the panorama mode enough to capture a few stunning pics. It was well past 9 by now and we trudged back to the house with the intention of exploring more of the village later in the evening. The previous night, we explored the sightseeing options around Giswil and decided to do the Geneva-Ouchy drive recommended by a friend. The drive starts at Ouchy in Lausanne on the bank of Lake Geneva and continues along the lake to Montreaux. It was half past 10 by the time we finished a stupendous breakfast of sandwiches with different varieties of Swiss cheese our host so generously provided us. We embarked upon the 200 km drive from Giswil to Lausanne. About 5 minutes into the drive, on our right, we saw an exquisite blue lake that was probably the most stunning sight we had as yet seen on our trip. There was nothing to do but stop and take in the beauty of the lake. We stopped over for about 15 minutes and couldn’t stop raving about how blue the lake was. Finally, we let go of the lake and continued the drive to Lausanne. It was nearly 1 PM when we hit Avenue'd Ouchy along the banks of Lake Geneva. The lake was a very popular destination apparently judging by the number of people crowding the banks. Lake Geneva's waters were of a much darker hue than the turquoise blue of Lungern that we saw earlier in the day. Several small fishing and leisure boats dotted the horizon across which there were some amazing mountains. It was a picturesque sight. We walked along the lake for a while and the exercise resulted in hunger pangs striking us. Being on a budget, we could obviously not afford the cafes dotting the lakeside. We walked into the city to try and find a convenience store to buy some junk to assuage the hunger. We got a bag of peanuts and onion rings, got back to the lake and settled down on a bench to have a peaceful lunch by the lake. We walked off the lunch and by around 2.30 decided to start the lakeside drive. We had noted down 5 points along the lake which would take us till villeneuve. Along this road, there was also a train track beyond which was the lake. We stopped at a couple of places along the lake where there were no people and spent a few quiet minutes at each spot. In a little while, out of nowhere, there appeared a castle along the lake. Such was the appeal of the castle, that we immediately pulled over and walked in. This turned out to be the Cheateau de Chillon. By this time, the sun was starting to set beyond the lake and threw its evening light on the castle to give it an other-worldly charm. The castle on the bank of the lake with mountains across the lake, the setting sun's rays shining on the castle made it all such a quaint setting, it was time to whip out the iphone and go bonkers on the camera button. It was with great effort that we pulled ourselves out of the castle and set a steady pace back to Giswil. We arrived at Giswil just as it was getting dark around 8PM. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with the Maggi we got from India. Thus ended our first full day in Switzerland. The undoubted highlights of the day were Lake Lungern and the Cheteau de Chillon.

Attachment 2304746




Day 3:
The previous night, we booked tickets to the Jungfrau peak. On umpteen travel websites, Jungrau was ranked as the top destination in Europe. It was with considerable anticipation that we were looking forward to the trip to the top of Europe. There were 2 choices of route to get to the Jungfrau peak. One was to take a train from Interlaken to Grindelwald and take a connection from Gindelwald to the peak. The other was from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen; from where there was a connection to the peak. We chose the Grindelwald option since it was the earlier train starting at 6.30 AM in Interlaken. We were up by 5 AM and out of the door by 5.20 or so. The moment we stepped out of the house, we realized we had made a terrible faux pas in not checking the weather forecast. There was a steady drizzle and the we could tell that it had been raining heavily all night. We did know that going to Jungfrau on a cloudy day was a waste of time, but we had no option but to go on. We got on the road to Interlaken and reached the Bahnoff in under 45 minutes. When we entered the platform, we were asked for tickets; on displaying the mobile ticket confirmation, they informed us that we needed a printout of the ticket. It was shocking to us that a country as advanced as Switzerland would need printed tickets; whereas even IRCTC accepts mobile screenshots. The weather had literally put a dampener on our plans and this pissed us of even more. We rushed back to the ticket counter and explained the problem the guy at the counter and asked if he could make a print for us. He told us that it would be unfair for him to give us a printout for free and that he would have to charge us 5 francs. I wanted to piss on his sense of fairness, but with the train all set to leave in a couple of minutes, I had to swallow the anger rising inside me, and shut up and paid him. With the ticket in hand, we ran on to the platform and got in just before the train started. Things were looking quite grim still with the rain pouring down relentlessly. We were just hoping against hope that the sun would decide to pay us a visit and the trip would still be salvaged. While the train journey was pretty it was not as enchanting as the previous day's sights. In about an hour the train made its way to Grindelwald. At Grindelwald, we got off and got into a waiting train set to take us to the peak.
From Grindelwald, the train was a mountain train with just 3 wagons. The train made the climb steadily and snow-capped peaks surrounded us on all sides. The train made stops at 3 different stations on the way. At these stations, we could get off the train and go to the viewing points at these stations and peak through them. I tried that once and all I saw was snow falling in torrents. The temperature was dropping steadily as the train went higher. My wife borrowed one of my woollen tshirts, and I was wearing the flimsy windcheater from one of our product releases. An hour later we had reached the Jungfrau peak. We got off here and the station led directly into the Jungfrau observatory. Here, it looked like the whole of China decided to visit Jungfrau on this day. There were no less than a thousand Chinese tourists with a few Desis and Europeans scattered here and there. There was a massive elevator that must have taken us up 12 floors or so to the top of the building.
The top of the building had a set of stairs which took us to an observatory deck. A monitor on the wall inside showed us that the temperature was a cozy -2 outside. But with both of us being not very sensitive to cold, we walked up to the deck. The snow was falling quite heavily outside and was blinding me every few seconds by melting on my spectacles. It was the first truly good sight of the day. We clicked a few pics on the deck and came back in. Having booked the good morning Jungfrau tickets, the last train we could catch back down was at 1 PM which was about 3 hours away. Without any improvement in the weather, we knew there would be nothing to see from the peak. But after forking out 300 francs to get there, we could not get ourselves to go back home without actually seeing anything. We decided to wait for an hour or so and see if by any miracle, the sun would come out. Meanwhile, my wife saw that they were selling ice-creams at the cafeteria. Having demolished the ice-cream, we set out to explore more of the building. We saw a few pics, one of which was of a group of cricketers who played a match on the peak a few years back. At one point in the building, we came across an entrance that led outside on to the peak. We took it and walked in the 2 feet of snow for till we came across a danger sign which warned us not to go beyond that point. We tried to make a snowman, but with our bare hands, it was impossible to handle the snow. After playing in the snow for a bit, we went back inside, in better spirits for having enjoyed the snow out there. With most of the building explored, there was nothing to do but go to the cafeteria and wait it out. With half of China there, it became quite noisy and the noise finally got on our nerves. We knew that our holding out there on the peak was of no use since the sun seemed to have taken a vacation for the whole day. Around 11, we got on the train back and this time decided to go back via Lauterbrunnen. Near the end of the hour's journey to Lauterbrunnen, we spotted an awesome blue lake by the tracks. In a few minutes we got off at the station with almost the whole day in front of us. Since we had nothing else to do, we decided to hike back to the lake spot, We estimated that it cannot take more than half an hour to the lake. Once we started the hike, in a matter of 15 mns we reached the lake. The lake was not in the same class as Lungern, but was still extremely pretty. We spent a little while sitting by the lakeside and finally returned to Lauterbrunnen around 1 PM. In a few minutes the connection to Interlaken steamed in and by 2 PM, we were back at Interlaken.
With nothing planned for the rest of the day, we decided to explore a bit of Interlaken. There were 2 lakes flowing through the city. We stopped at a few points to take some pics, but with the rain in no mood to relent, we decided we might as well get back home and spend some time in Giswil.
It was around 5 PM when we got back to Giswil. Overall, despite the snow and some good views on the train, we were pretty disappointed with the Jungfrau trip. We decided we might as well spend the rest of the evening taking a walk through Giswil. Once again we came across the aforementioned stream running through the village. Having explored the stream in the direction of the mountains, we decided to do the opposite this time. We kept following the stream through woods and meadows and on and on it went. At one point we seemed to have hit a cul-de-sac at an abandoned industrial site. But we got around it and the stream flowed into another lake. We went to the edge of the lake and could see the mountains beyond the lake. Suddenly, both of us saw a brilliant rainbow across the peaks of 2 mountains across the lake. What a sight it was. The rainbow, the lake and the mountains together just took our breath away. I took out the iphone and began to click away. The rainbow was stayed on for the next 5-7 minutes before starting to disintegrate. In a few minutes, it was gone. All the disappointment of the morning at Jungfrau being a bad egg was forgotten. The sight we had just seen could not have been bought with any amount of money. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time. With our spirits at a high, we walked back to the house. This was to be our last night at Giswil and we were already quite sad that we were going to leave. We randomly picked Giswil and what a place it turned out to be. Having spoken to our hostess earlier, she suggested that we go see a falls called Giessbach. We decided that the next morning that would be our destination after which we would head to our next destination, Lucerne.





















Day 4:
Woke up to yet another beautiful day. This was our last morning in Giswil, so we decided to take a walk around the small village. We went roaming along the stream and forests for about an hour, re-living the past few days and our shockingly good luck at having "discovered" and stayed in this quaint little village. Then we had breakfast; as usual hogged the free cheese(s), bid adieu to our wonderful host Melanie, and set out towards Geissbach Falls. Enroute we stopped at Lake Lungern again , how could we not!! We stayed there for a little while, staring at the ethereal blue of the lake, hoping that staring enough would imprint the memory of that surreal color in our minds. Finally we set out (for real this time) to Geissbach. Reached the place easily, and parked at the entrance of the Grand Hotel Geissbach. A short walk on an inclined road led us to the most picture perfect scenery one can imagine! Tall, majestic falls on one side, making crashing and roaring sounds. Thick, dense forest foliage surrounding the falls on three sides. Beyond the forest, Lake Brienz, a beautiful blue lake, bordered by mountains. How the milky white color of the water falls turned into a lake so blue is something we couldn't get over. But the kicker in this whole scene was the hotel itself. It was like a movie set. A 7-star hotel, designed like a castle, with a backdrop of waterfalls, forest, lake and mountain. Just imagine the view from a top-floor room of the hotel ! After spending some time ooh-ing and ahh-ing, we decided to take a walk in the forest. After walking for about 2 kms, we hit upon a spot, where the foliage parted to give us yet another breathtaking view of the lake and mountains.

All the hiking had us hungry (as if we needed a reason to be hungry), so we decided to splurge on some ice cream! Swiss lactose products certainly live up to the hype, and we had some very tasty ice cream. We sat at the site for some time, taking in the magical surroundings, wondering what it would be like to stay at the hotel. Finally at around 2pm, we left the site and headed towards our next destination, Lucerne.

All the way to Lucerne, we kept discussing how great Giswil had been and whether our accommodation at Lucerne would be even half as decent. We found the place easily enough, turning off the main road into a small street. As we pulled up in front of the house, we realised that it looked extremely old. Like it belonged to the previous century. But when we finally were shown our basement room by our host, we were pleasantly surprised. The interior was such a modern setting with every kind of modern comfort available.

The house had a small shed outside, with 2 bicycles for our use. There was a small path , and a flight of some 80 stairs leading down right to one edge of Lake Lucerne. This was the kicker. We could literally hang out at the bank of lake Lucerne from the backyard of the house. It was surreal. After lounging near the lake for a while, we decided to visit the city centre which was nice enough and called it a day.










Day 5:
On this day, the plan was to visit Rigi which had access via cog rail or cable car. The previous night we checked the GPS for the distance from Lucerne to the Cog rail station at Vitznau. It was supposedly only 15 miles away. There was a train every hour to the peak, so we decided to catch the 9.15 am train from Vitznau to Rigi Bahn. We set off at 8.30 am, with loads of time. As we kept driving, we hit the bank of lake Lucerne and this turned out to be the most scenic drive of our entire trip. The lake was a dark blue, and was glistening in the bright sunshine. Across the lake were a row of majestic hills.

After making some inquiries at the station’s ticketing office, we came to know that while Vitznau had the cog rail, while a village 6 kms from Vitznau, called Weggis had the cable car station to Rigi Kaltbad, which was a couple of stations from the peak. So we decided to up on the Cog rail to the peak, hike down a little to the cable car station and come back to Weggis via the cable car so we experience both modes.

Within minutes of starting, we were looking down upon some of the most gorgeous views we would ever see in our lives. The Rigi peak is sorrounded by 14 lakes in all and wherever we saw, horizon was full of lakes surrounded by small peaks. We got to the top in less than half an hour.

We hiked to all corners of the peak and took in all the views. After exploring the peak to our fill, we sat down at one of the few lonely spots on the peak and took a nice little nap. It was very fortunate that we decided to hike back down to take the cable car back. I doubt if we will ever do a more breathtaking hike in our lives. Each bend on the way down was dazzling us and the hike took far more time than we estimated because of the views.

The ride on the cable car was much faster than the cog rail and we were probably down in 20 minutes. From the cable car the village itself looked like it was from a painting. It was a quaint little place on the bank of a lake. When we got out at the station, we realized that the walk to Vitznau was along the bank of the lake. Along the bank there were trees of various hues under which people were taking their afternoon siestas. We were sad to be leaving this place and decided that if we ever came to Switzerland again, Weggis would be our base. We got to the car at the station in Vitznau and drove back to Lucerne which is where the day ended.

















Day 6:
Schauffhausen was the only thing on our itinerary for the day. So we got up lazily only to be greeted by a steady drizzle. The rain didn't actually dampen our spirits enough to prevent us from using the bicycles in the house to get to the local coop to refill our food stocks. We were hoping the weather would improve by the time we were ready to leave, but that was not to be. It was 10.30 by the time we got on our way and the rain was only getting heavier. Schaffuhausen was over a 100 kms from Lucerne and the weather made sure we took over a couple of hours getting there. The parking lot for Schaffhausen was huge and there was quite a crowd there despite the weather.

The waterfall was not really impressive and we felt a little let down having driven all the way in pouring rain and having gotten pretty wet on the way to the waterfall. We spent about half an hour looking at the falls and decided that was more than enough time spent here.

We drove back to Lucerne by early afternoon. We rested up a little and went out around 7 PM to have dinner. We found a nice little cafe at a corner and decided to have Pasta there. We ordered only one between the both of us and it turned out to be a prudent move considering how big the serving was. The pasta was just out of the world and we went back home pretty happy despite being lighter by about 15 franks. We did not see anything brilliant on the last day unlike the rest of our trip but the brilliant pasta kind of made up for it. We got to sleep around midnight with a 400 mile drive back to Paris ahead of us the next morning.

[Excommunicado]

The title of this thread is such an antithesis. You can't put Switzerland and frugal/shoestring in one sentence sire. Most/All BHPians are pretty well off financially hence there won't be any outburst here, thankfully.

Anyways, you mentioned watching Federer at SW19 and you become my friend instantly. I judge people based on what sporting icons they like and you sir are a kind gentleman.

As for your trip, it does seem lovely. It has to be, because it is Switzerland. God I envy you.

[prashantrana]

We just did a trip last year (Swiss-Paris), just after the lockdowns ended. Got some great deals in Flights and Hotels. I wanted to drive so bad but in the end decided to take the swiss rail pass. Beauty of swiss can't be captured by any camera, you have to literally experience it. As tourists were still starting to trickle in the countries there was less rush. Although Top of Eiffel Tower was closed as on the day we decided to go, it coincided with the local holidays and the place was jam packed. You can't prebook the ticket and it has to be booked at the spot. Google Maps and Matrix saved the day with routes and train timings. Interaction with locals was pretty much less. Thoroughly enjoyed the trip. (Although it was expensive )

[sup?]

Originally Posted by Excommunicado

The title of this thread is such an antithesis. You can't put Switzerland and frugal/shoestring in one sentence sire. Most/All BHPians are pretty well off financially hence there won't be any outburst here, thankfully.

Anyways, you mentioned watching Federer at SW19 and you become my friend instantly. I judge people based on what sporting icons they like and you sir are a kind gentleman.

Of course it’s all relative in terms of budget. What I meant was that we were miserly in eating out, rented a Punto instead of a more fancy car, saved on fuel with a sedate driving style, rented a little away from cities to reduce airbnb rents. Of course when you think of someone going to Switzerland and calling it shoe string, it’s a contradiction in terms.

And watching Federer at Wimbledon was a dream come true. Was totally worth the 30 hour camping we did in the famous Wimbledon queue

[Transmission]

Thats some enviably pretty shots, thanks for sharing!

I'm not sure if I missed it or if you havent talked about it - but what did it all cost flights, stay, travel, visas everything? I know its nealy a decade old but for someone thats new to all this, I'd still be thankful if you could provide a number for mental notes - which being a numbers guy I am I'll be sure to add in inflation

[sup?]

Originally Posted by Transmission

Thats some enviably pretty shots, thanks for sharing!

I'm not sure if I missed it or if you havent talked about it - but what did it all cost flights, stay, travel, visas everything? I know its nealy a decade old but for someone thats new to all this, I'd still be thankful if you could provide a number for mental notes - which being a numbers guy I am I'll be sure to add in inflation

There are 2 reasons why I didn’t make a note of the costs associated, one is the time that has passed like you pointed out, while the other is that this was a 2 week trip with one leg in the UK and one in Switzerland and so dividing up the exact costs would be difficult. But since I have done 4-5 trips (all Pre-pandemic) after this to Europe all within more or less the same budget, let me give you a breakdown.


Flights: Pre pandemic used to cost about a lakh or so to and fro both of us together. UK in 2014 was the cheapest at 86k and I think Norway was the most expensive at 1.05 lakhs. Add a hefty 30% increase to this as I hear they have gone up like crazy.

Stay: The airbnbs on this Swiss trip cost us an average of 6k a day, so 36k for a 6 day trip. This should even today not be more than 50-55k if you are driving and can get accommodations outside the cities. And I can tell you that the farther away from the city the accommodation is, the prettier it will be.

Car: Rental for a week was about 30k, which should only be slightly more expensive now. Fuel, since we drove from Paris to Switzerland and back was about 35k, but if you rent in Switzerland itself, the rental cost might go up but the fuel cost will go down.

Visa: for Schengen was around 12k till 2-3 years back. Shouldn’t have gone up by much now.

Food and miscellaneous: Being on a budget, we carried Ready to eat Indian food for at least one meal a day and spent only about 500-1000 INR a day outside on junk and an occasional meal outside. If you want to save on food and not carry stuff from home, I would suggest shopping in coop stores anywhere in Europe since they are pretty cheap.

Overall, the all of our Europe trips have cost us between 2.2 and 2.5 lakhs all in for 2 people. Norway and Iceland were also done in this budget except that we did camping in both these countries as they have great camping infrastructure and hotels are inordinately expensive there.

Post pandemic I would expect at least a 30% increase in overall costs because of the current world political and economic situation.