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Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast, the podcast that talks all things travel and all things transformation. I'm your host, Jessica Grace Coleman – but you can call me Jess – and this is a solo episode on my Switzerland Cat-Sitting Round-up, although it really should be called Switzerland and France Round-up because I did a quick jaunt to France while I was there… but I'll talk about that later.

So, if you've heard my past episodes – numbers 55, 56, and 57 – you will have heard my round-ups for the Basque Country and the pop-up spin-off, which was in Bilbao and San Sebastian. After that, I flew to Switzerland via Madrid – I went from San Sebastian to Madrid, had a six-hour layover, and then flew to Zurich. Then… I was in Switzerland! 

Basically, I've done a lot of cat-sitting and dog-sitting in the past for friends and family. I've also been a part of Trustedhousitters.com, where you pay an annual fee and then you can apply to house-sitting/pet-sitting jobs all over the world. I did a couple of those as well, pre-pandemic, and it's a really good site. But I think since COVID, and since more remote workers and people can travel and work, it is a lot more competitive these days, but it’s still worth doing. And if you can find friends or family who want cat-sitters or pet-sitters of any kind, and if you're trying to work remotely and travel, then it's a great way to save money. And for me, it's particularly good because I am a huge animal lover.

So, I did cat-sitting for a lovely cat called Mr B – he has a longer name, which is in Lithuanian, and I won't even attempt to pronounce it because I am terrible at that kind of stuff – but his owner Evelina told me it means ‘little devil’ in Lithuanian. He's a very lovely cat. Pretty low maintenance, actually, which is good when you also want to explore the area and you've got work to do and stuff like that. 

My friend Lydia… I met her last year in the Basque Country pop-up coliving villa, which I went to again this year, though Lydia wasn't there this year, and last year she got me in contact with her friend Evelina, who is from Lithuania but lives in Zurich. She thought we might have some stuff in common because we've both written books, and we both have our own podcast. 

So I started talking to her on WhatsApp and we actually went on each other’s podcasts. Hers is called Footprints of an Expat – and I'm technically not an expat, but we talked about all kinds of travel and all that kind of stuff, my story and everything. So the link to that is on my media page, on my website, traveltransformationcoach.com, or you can just search Footprints of an Expat in your podcast platform, wherever you listen to podcasts. 

And then she also came on my podcast – quite early on, I think, let me just check… Yes, it's number 18, Interview with Footprints of an Expat host Evelina Rimkute, if you want to look at that. So, we got in touch with each other, we went on each other's podcasts, and then she knew that I travel around and work remotely, so she asked if I would be interested in cat-sitting for the month of June, more or less, when she was going away. 

And I immediately said yes, because I think I might have been to Switzerland as a child, like driving through on the way to another country or something – I remember being in a car and looking out and seeing amazing little Swiss chalet-type mountain villages. Maybe it was Austria or something, I don't know, it's all kind of blurry because it was a long time ago – but, I mean, I love mountains, I love lakes, I love the cute little houses with the colourful shutters, and I've always wanted to go to Switzerland and explore it a bit more. So, when she said she needed a cat-sitter for a month, I was like, “Yes! I am there.” And it fit really well because it was just after the pop-up and then I had a week in between, which is when I went to Bilbao and San Sebastian. It worked really well.

So, I flew to Zurich. It was evening when I got there, so I stayed the night in an Easy Hotel in Zurich and basically just got in and went shopping for a bit, because I knew the next day was a Sunday and a lot of the grocery stores would be closed. So I got some food, some random bits… and I’m not used to the Swiss prices, especially in Zurich. I went to this little corner shop, and little corner shops are always more expensive than supermarkets… and I got a few items and spent quite a bit and I was like, “Oh!” But I was getting free accommodation for a month, so I can’t complain; it was a great way of doing it.

So, I stayed the night in the Easy Hotel. I think I just watched some Netflix and went to bed because I was quite tired. And then, the next day, I got up and I got an Uber to the place,

Fahrweid. I'm still not sure how you say that – it's a German-speaking area, so it might be the V. I got there – Evelina had already left, so she'd left me her key – and I got in and I said hi to Mr B… and he is absolutely gorgeous. If you have followed me on social media at all, I think I've posted some pictures of Mr B – though it might just be on my personal profile, though, now, saying that. But maybe after this, I'll post a picture of him because he's an absolutely gorgeous cat. 

I got there, I unpacked, and I chilled out for that whole day. I don't think I did much work the next day. I think I recorded some podcast episodes, and did some admin, but I basically chilled out for a bit because I needed it after the last five weeks of madness. It was great madness, but it was madness.

Her place is really nice. It's way bigger than I was expecting. Very spacious, very light, very airy, and she's got a great balcony. So, yeah, a really great place to spend a month. And it was about 15 minutes on the train to Zurich. You have to get a bus first or walk to the station. So, like, half an hour, 40 minutes in total, and then you're in Zurich city centre. So a really great location as well. 

Usually, I go through my calendar when I do these round-ups and talk about things I did day by day. I also make notes day by day so I can remember them properly afterwards. But, for Switzerland, it's a bit different because I really didn't do much in terms of exploring and all that kind of thing for the vast majority of the time. I did fit in some trips and day trips, which I will talk about, but this is the digital nomad lifestyle, like the real gritty version, like the real deal, the truth about the digital nomad lifestyle. 

I had spent five weeks working the whole time, but I wasn't getting enough work done because there were so many social events, professional events, you want to explore the area, you want to hang out with people, have wine, all that kind of stuff. And, as I said in the previous episodes when I talked about this, I didn't want to work a lot during the San Sebastian week because San Sebastian is a really nice place. It has a great vibe about it, and I wanted to enjoy the place. I didn't want to be working 50 hours a week that week. So I did enough admin and podcast work and stuff to keep things ticking over, but I didn't do any of my editing work. 

I have two businesses: The Travel Transformation Company and Coleman Editing. I've been doing Coleman Editing since 2014, so I've been self-employed, working from home, since 2014. And I still do some of that work as well, but I didn't do any of that that week. I didn't do enough of it when I was at the villa either. So I knew that, when I got to Switzerland, I needed to knuckle down. I needed to be a hermit for a bit. I just needed to get on top of work, both for my clients – because they were expecting the work – and because I hate having outstanding stuff. So, for my own mindset and well-being, I wanted to get it done.

And also, the money is a thing. A lot of my clients pay half the fee upfront, half on completion, so I needed the money so I could continue my travels and go on a few day trips without feeling guilty about it.

So, I got there, and I'd say for most of the time, like three weeks, I was mostly working in the apartment. I did leave for some stuff, which I will talk about, but this is the reality of digital nomad life. I spent about three weeks, including weekends, just doing as much work as I could. I had two big projects that I wanted to get done while I was there, and I got them done. I set a goal and I did it. 

I talked about this in one of the emails I sent out – and you can sign up to my email list at traveltransformationcoach.com – and it's called Parkinson's Law, where the amount of work you have to do, it will fill whatever time frame or deadline you give yourself to do it. So, I talked about it in the email. I was editing 8,000 words a day of this guy's book, and it was like 150,000 words, so it was a long one. And when you've got that to do, you sort of spread it out throughout the day. You get things done in between and it takes all day. And I looked at how long it would take me to finish this thing and it was going to be weeks and weeks and weeks beyond my Swiss trip. 

And I was like, “Oh, God, I can't do that. I've got another project as well. I've got all my other stuff, podcasting, admin, other client work, client contacting, all that stuff.” And I was like, “If this goes on for so long, it's going to be awful.” Actually, the work itself wasn't awful – it was quite a fun book to edit – but I sort of redid everything. I looked at my diary, I looked at how many days I had, and I looked at my other stuff I needed to do. And I basically doubled my word count. 

So, instead of 8,000 words a day, I was going to strive for at least 15,000. And, at first, I thought, ‘I'm mad – I’m not going to be able to do this.’ Depending on the book, sometimes you can edit things quickly, sometimes it takes a lot longer. And I also had lots of other stuff to do, which took hours a day to do. But I set myself a goal, 15,000 words a day, and I did it. I stuck to it, no matter what. Even if I was still going at midnight, I was like, ‘I'm going to get this done every day. I don't want it to roll over to the next day because that's a slippery slope.’ And yeah, in three weeks I got that project done, I got my other project done, and I got everything else I needed to do done. So it was a bit of a hermit, but I knew that was coming; I planned for it and I'm glad I got it done. 

But apart from that, what else did I do? So, most of my trips out during that time, I have to say, were to the local Lidl, which was the cheapest supermarket there. I'm going to talk about this a bit later, but the Swiss prices are interesting. Some things were the same as what I would pay at home. I went for a drink, had a glass of Prosecco, and I was like, ‘I think I’d pretty much pay the same for this back home.’ But then I went to the supermarket and a cucumber was three times the price, but then a bottle of rose wine was not much more than the cucumber, like the cheapest one. And I just couldn't get my head around the prices. 

Anyway, I went to Lidl. My friend Sunny came to visit for some of it; Evelina told me that I could have friends over, as there were two bedrooms, and my friend Sunny is constantly on the road. She doesn't have a base, she is a full-on 100% twelve-month-a-year digital nomad. So, she was in Europe anyway for her 90 Schengen days – after Brexit, I also get 90 Schengen days before I have to leave – and she came to visit for a bit, staying with me in the apartment. 

One time we went to a local Irish pub. I love Irish pubs – I love all things Irish – and it's right next to Lidl. So we went there for some drinks, and we went on ladies' night, so we got 10% off Prosecco. Yes!

I also went for a day trip to Lucerne with Sunny, which was amazing. Now, my memory is terrible – as I've mentioned before – so what I'm going to do is go on my Facebook page and look at my albums, because I did one for pretty much all my day trips and my little trips in between. So I have a Switzerland album, and it starts with Mr B. Then I went for a little jaunt around the neighbourhood. 

Actually, before I went to Lucerne, I met up with my friend Lydia, who had got me in contact with Evelina; on one Saturday I went with my friend Sunny and we hung out with her friend Elisabet as well. It was her friend's birthday party, and he'd hired this house on the lake, on Zurich Lake. We had a barbecue, there were drinks, and everyone was chilling out. It was a really, really lovely day and a lovely lake – I love lakes. We just ate, we drank, and I dangled my feet in the lake – but it was a bit cold for me to go in. But some people did. 

So that was a whole day and it was really nice, and we went around Zurich a bit before; Lydia showed us around the financial district, and there's one road with all the really, really fancy shops like Chanel and all the designers, and Tiffany's and stuff, very nice. And then we went to the lake, had a great time, and that was a Saturday. And then I think I just worked that entire week, like Sunday to Friday.

Then, on Friday, me and Sunny went on a day trip to Lucerne. Which is… I can't remember exactly, but it’s around an hour and a half away from Zurich, maybe something like that, on the train. And it was beautiful. It's such a fairy tale place. There are turrets everywhere.

There's this long old bridge, I think it's called the Chapel Bridge, and it’s a covered bridge with flowers lining it all along, over the river, and it's just a kind of fairy tale place. All the bridges, the turrets, the rivers… it was so nice. 

So, we got there, we went along the bridge, and we sat down. I think Sunny had some food, I had a beer. We'd taken a packed lunch as well because we figured it would be a lot cheaper that way. We found this Rathaus Brewery and I think rathaus means town hall or city hall in German. They had their own beer that they brewed there on the premises, and I'm not a massive beer person – I'm more into cider if anything – but it was really nice and we sat right next to the river, right next to the bridge. It was a really nice sunny day… absolutely gorgeous.

We also did a little wander around the Old Town, and I really like the Old Town of Lucerne. It's got some great buildings and stuff, but on the buildings, a lot of them have murals and paintings and all kinds of stuff going on, and there are statues everywhere and cute fountains and it's just really, really nice. It has a nice vibe to it.

We then got on the train again for a quick jaunt. We were thinking about going up Mount Pilatus, I think I'm saying that right. But we didn't realise quite how expensive it was. So we paid for the train and then we realised it was like 80 Swiss francs to go up on this little train to the top of the mountain. And I was still waiting for my client money to come through at this point, so I didn't feel I could really justify it.

And, across the road from the entrance to the little funicular/train that goes up the mountain was a really, really nice area where you could sit right next to the lake and the hills surrounding it. It was so nice. Sunny lay down next to the lake, and I walked around for a bit and found a bench in the shade because I don't do well in the sun. And I just sat there for a good couple of hours, just chilling and looking at the lake. I wasn't listening to podcasts or music, I wasn't trying to work, I wasn't doing anything like that. I just kind of disengaged and just sat there and breathed. 

I joked afterwards that it was like an ‘introvert recharging station’ because I'd been so busy in Spain, in the coliving villa, in San Sebastian and in Bilbao. And then, for the past week, and I think a few days before that, I'd been flat-out working. so I just sat there and I just did nothing and I just looked at the view. Well, I took some photos and videos, obviously, but that was so nice. And then I went for a little walk. It was this cute little tree-lined path, with the hills in the distance. It was just absolutely gorgeous.

And then we got the train back into Lucerne itself, and looked around some shops. There's this big lion statue that we went to see. It had a bit of scaffolding around it and it didn't have the usual water under it, so it didn't look quite as majestic as usual, but it's really cool. It's actually really quite a big sculpture carved into the rock face, and I think it's just called the Lucerne Lion. 

We wandered around the Old Town again and then we had dinner and some wine. I think I spent about 30 Swiss francs on alpine macaroni and cheese, and I wouldn't usually spend that much money on macaroni and cheese, but it was very nice. Then we had some ice cream and we left just as the sun was setting – we took some pictures over the river and it was just really, really nice.

So that was the main day trip I did with my friend Sunny. She then left to go and help out at a new coliving a few hours away in Switzerland that they were currently doing up. So it's a house, I think, that used to be a hotel, and they're renovating it. Alpiness Coliving. I think it might actually be called Alpiness Coliving [pronounced Al-penis], but we call it Alpiness because I'm not sure about that name otherwise! She sent me photos and videos from where she was and it looks absolutely beautiful, so that will be on my list in the future to go and visit, definitely. 

Then I got back down to work. I went to visit Zurich again to see my friend Lydia; we hung out for a bit. And then, looking at these photos, there's literally nothing in between these. Literally, I was in the apartment working most of the time. There are photos of me and Sunny at the Irish bar, which is called The Willow Yard, having our prosecco by the road, but that’s it.

Zurich is a really lovely place. And, as I said, it's great location-wise to then visit other places. So, once I'd got my two main projects done, Evelina was coming back for a couple of days in between trips, and going somewhere else after that, so I took the opportunity to leave while there was someone looking after Mr B. I mean, he's very independent anyway, but just knowing there was someone there made me feel better about leaving to go off for a few days.

I spent quite a while booking this and looking into this. I had originally booked a night nearby Interlaken – it was actually a little village called Ringgenberg. Then I found out that Evelina was coming back for a couple of days, and I’d already booked that – it was non-refundable through Booking.com – so I had to work around that. There were already other places I wanted to go to, so I did a really weird route. So, I probably wouldn't recommend doing this route-wise, but this is what I ended up doing. 

Okay, so I started off in Zurich. I got up, I took the bus to Dietikon station, which was the nearby train station. I got the train to Zurich and then I got the train to Bern, which was I think nearly two hours, something like that. I'd seen pictures of Bern online, and my friend Lydia had actually been there a few days before, so she had some recommendations for me to see. I only had a few hours there before I had to head on to Interlaken, but again, I'd taken a packed lunch so I didn't need to sit down and eat anywhere, and I ate on the train – so that was time saved, money saved. 

So, when I got there, I just had a list of things I wanted to do, like the touristy things, and some cute things I'd been told to go see, and I just bashed them out one after the other – while still having time to sit and enjoy the view and stuff. So, I went to the river in Bern, and looked out over the water. It is the most wonderful turquoise blue colour ever. Like, it is absolutely gorgeous. I could just stand there and look at that view for hours. I looked in some shops, and I looked at the famous clock tower. 

Bern is also where Einstein lived for, I think, seven years, and I think it's where he came up with the theory of relativity. Is that Einstein? I'm having a moment where I'm second-guessing myself now. So there's the Einstein house, and there was an Einstein souvenir shop with a rather terrifying life-size Einstein figure in the window, which kind of creeped me out, honestly. But, yeah, they’re very proud of their Einstein connections.

They're also very proud of their bear connections. And I did look this up, I can't remember exactly, but it was something like the founder of Bern said he would, I don't know… the first animal he killed or something would be the mascot for the town. It was something like that.

And he went out and killed a bear. So, not very nice. But now they love bears, so there's bear stuff everywhere. I bought this little bear brooch thing with mountains on it. So cute. 

And, they have – randomly, kind of in the middle of the city, like about a ten-minute walk from the clock tower – they have this bear pit. And that sounds horrible, I know, but it's actually not a pit. It's a very nice garden next to the river – a very long, quite large enclosure – for these bears. And you can just go; it's free, you can just wander along. It's right next to the beautiful blue river and you just go and hang out and look at the bears. They have a restaurant and shop and stuff as well. 

And yeah, it was very random to see these bears in the middle of Bern, but also quite cool. I like animals, and they seemed to have a nice life. It didn't seem like a small zoo enclosure or anything like that. I know it's kind of a controversial thing, the bear pit in general, but I think it looked like a really nice place to live and they seemed quite happy. 

So, I went to see the bears and then near the bears – about a ten-minute walk, though it took me about 15 minutes because it was all uphill and I don't do well with hills – at the top of this hill, you get a great view over the city, the river and everything, and there's the most beautiful rose garden. I was running out of time by this point, and I wish I'd been able to spend more time there. It's basically this free park where you can go, you can hang out, you could work if you're a digital nomad, I guess, and there are beautiful roses everywhere. 

I wandered around there for a bit, took some more pictures and videos, and then headed back. There's also a statue of Einstein next to the bear park next to the river, and I got a picture with him. One of the bears was called Bjork, which I thought was quite cute. Then I had a little wander around, looked in a few shops, and then headed back to the train station.

My next stop was Ringgenberg, but I had to go via Interlaken Ost, which is Interlaken East, and there’s s also Interlaken West. So these are the two lakes. There's Lake Brienne and Lake Thun. I'm going to have to check this because I could be giving you false information, but in German, it's Brienzersee, I think, and Thunersee. 

I love lakes, so Interlaken was on my radar anyway, but when I posted a thing on social media, one of my friends – my best friend from primary school, Lizzie, Liz – she said, ‘Go to Interlaken, you'll love it.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I have to go now.’ 

So I looked on booking.com. and a lot of the places in Interlaken itself were pricey, as you would expect, but I managed to find this absolute gem in a place called Ringgenberg. It was a three to four-minute train ride from Interlaken Ost – although the trains were only once an hour, so keep that in mind – and it's this tiny village. I think it has one restaurant, no shops. I went around for a bit and there really wasn't anything there, but that doesn't matter. I stayed at Hotel Brienzersee… I think I'm going to have to check this as well… and it was right on the water. Yes, Hotel. Brienzersee. And the water was the same kind of turquoise blue as the river in Byrne. I think it's from minerals in the mountains – that's what my dad told me. And it was absolutely gorgeous. 

I got a single room, very small, thin, narrow, single bed, but it had the bathroom and everything, it had a fridge, it had everything I needed. Then it had the balcony. And again, quite a small balcony – but it was just me – and it had a table and a chair, so I could set up my laptop there and get some work done. And the view was incredible.

I think I put this on my Instagram as well – let me just check, so I'm not giving you fake news. Yes, I put a picture of this on my Instagram, of my laptop on the table with a little bottle of rose wine and a Toblerone… because when in Switzerland… and it was looking out over this lake and, oh my God, it was so nice. I still had my packed lunch by this time – I packed a load of stuff – so I had enough food, and I didn't need to go to the restaurant for dinner, and I couldn't go to a shop unless I went back to Interlaken.

So I just sat there. I got some work done – I needed to do some podcast work, some admin – and then I put my laptop away, I got my phone, and I put some music on. I put headphones on because you were right next to other balconies, but they had big wooden barriers so you couldn't see anyone, you could just hear them. It was quite funny; I heard this American guy on the phone and he was like, “Hi, Mom!” And then I heard him say, “Oh, sorry, I didn't realise you were in a bathroom. Yeah, sorry about FaceTiming you.” And then he was like, “I'll call you back in ten minutes.” It was quite funny. 

Anyway, I just sat there listening to music, drinking the rose, looking out, and just thinking about stuff – and even not thinking about stuff, just enjoying the music, enjoying the view. And I did that pretty much all afternoon and evening. I did take a little walk around, but like I said, there wasn't much there.

The reception had a fridge with local beer and wine and stuff in. So I grabbed a local beer – I think for four Swiss francs, 4.50, something like that – and they had a little bottle opener next to it. So I opened that, headed back up to my balcony, and just chilled out for the entire evening, had my packed lunch… and I think that was one of my favourite moments. I was just chilling, looking at the view, amazing balcony. This hotel room was 83 pounds and I booked it like two days before, so very last minute. And I think, for that view, it was an absolute bargain – and that was on booking.com. Hotel Brienzersee. I will put the link in the show notes.

So, the day after, I woke up, I very reluctantly checked out – after having breakfast downstairs, again with a great view – and I headed to Interlaken Ost first. I was wandering around for a bit and you can see the river… sort of the little rivery bits in between the lakes… but you couldn't really see a great view of the lakes. So I quickly had a little look on Google, looked on TripAdvisor, looked at the map, and looked at the app that I use for the train, which was the SBB app, the Swiss Transport app for trains and buses. And I decided to go to Thun – T-H-U-N – which was, I think, half an hour on the train. It was already in the direction of the train I'd booked to go to Colmar, so I did pay a little extra, but I was still going to get the train I booked originally from Thun to Colmar, so it worked out quite well. 

I got there and, during my googling, I found this panoramic painting thing that sounded interesting, and it seemed to be situated in a nice park with nice views of the lake. So I headed there and it was really cool, actually. It's this panoramic painting this guy did. I'm not sure if it was in the 1800s, something like that. It took him five years to paint, and it was an actual 360-degree view of Thun as it was when he was alive, with the river, with all the buildings… And you go in and it's this 360-degree room, and you can walk around on these scaffolding bits and look at it. 

There are audio guides telling you all about the painting, and I love it because it's kind of like a giant ‘Where's Wally?’ Like, you would listen to the audio and some of it would say, ‘There are seven dogs in this painting.’ And I'd be like, ‘I can only see five; I'm going to have to go around in look.’ It was that kind of cool thing, and it gave you a history of Thun through the painting. And it was just a really interesting thing that I would never have known about if I hadn't done a quick google of things to do in Thun. 

So I saw that, then I walked around the park that it was set in, which was really cool as well. There was a nice big ye olde building with turrets, and then I went and sat next to the lake and had my lunch. I'd gone to a supermarket to buy this – at Co-op or something like that – and had got a sandwich and a little cake thing. 

And one of the good things about Switzerland is that there were water fountains absolutely everywhere. So if you've got your own water bottle – I've got a metal one – you can just keep refilling it. You don't have to keep buying water, which is like a little thing, but I found it just really good. When I went to France for the couple of days, there were no water fountains anywhere. And I was like, ‘I've got to keep buying water.’ Not that it's a huge deal or a huge chore, but if you're travelling, I drink a lot of water, and you're just constantly buying water and drinks and things as it was very hot most of the time and sunny, and it all adds up. So I love all the water fountains in Switzerland. 

Anyway… so I sat next to the lake, with some nice swans. This was the other lake of Interlaken. So I was on Lake Brienzersee before, when I was in Hotel Brienzersee in Ringgenberg, and this time it was Lake Thun because I was in Thun, so it was nice to see both lakes, having made the trip. There was also this cute little church nearby, and that's all I did in Thun, really; I went to see the panoramic painting and then I walked around the park for a bit and then I sat looking out at the lake and then it was time for me to go and get my train, but it was just enough time to enjoy it. 

So, after that, I headed to France. This was going via Basel, which was on my list to look at on the way back, but there I just got a connection. So I went from Thun to Basel – which I think might have been an hour, hour and a half, something like that – and then I got straight on a train to Colmar, France. And I think pretty much five or ten minutes after you leave Basel, you're in France, so it's right on the border and it's really easy.

Colmar, I think, was about 40 minutes from Basel. And I'd seen Colmar on Instagram; I'd seen loads of people posting these amazing pictures and videos of the old town, in particular – Little Venice or Petite Venice – and it just looked so amazing. And, most of the time, people do use filters so the houses look brighter and more colourful than they are in real life, which I think some people can find a bit disappointing. But I mean, in general, it's just the cutest place ever, so I knew I wanted to go there. 

I booked two nights in the Ibis Budget Hotel in the centre, so really nothing fancy, but I got it for the location. I did find a nicer-looking hotel but it was 25 minutes’ walk from the main areas I wanted to go to and this was ten minutes’ walk, so I went for the less nice option, but location is everything. 

So yeah, I went to Colmar and it was just so cute! When I got there, it wasn't sunny, but it wasn’t rainy, so I'm glad I did all the walking around then because the next day it was raining like hell! So, I checked in and then I think it was afternoon time, 4 or 5, something like that, and I went for a wander and I took so many pictures of all these amazing places.

I went to the Fortwenger gingerbread shop, which is really famous – they also have one in Strasbourg when I went there – and I got this big cookie that said ‘Colmar’ on it, mainly so I could use it as a prop in photos. But then I also ate it. 

There's an old maison that's quite famous, beautiful churches, beautiful shops, beautiful buildings, the river… there are flower boxes all along the river and all these really colourful sort of Tudor-style ye olde buildings. It's just absolutely adorable – and I already want to go back for Christmas. I don't know if it'll be this year or next year, but they had a year-round Christmas shop, which was huge, and I went in and I was like, ‘This is amazing!’ And I can just imagine it decked out in Christmas lights. They have a little Christmas market, so not one of the huge European Christmas markets, but I think this might be better because it's just so cute, so tiny, adorable. I can imagine it with all the lights; I definitely want to go there.

I also went on the little green train. So, I saw this trundling around the old town. It's like a train, but not on tracks, on wheels, and it was so cute, so I googled it and then booked on for the next day. And then I actually got a message from someone I knew, from the Sun and Co. coliving last year. Ines. She said she lived in Little Venice for six months and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that's just the cutest place to live.’ And she asked if I'd been on the little green train and I was like, ‘I booked it!’ and I was really excited to go on it. It's so cute. It's about 35 minutes around the old town, and you get an audio guide in all kinds of different languages and you learn loads of stuff. That was when it was a bit rainy, so it was quite good to be on the train then. And I got off that little green train, walked, like, two minutes, and saw a cream and brown train. So it's like a rival train – train rivals.

Anyway, I looked around some shops and then I got the train to Strasbourg, which was about 30 minutes away. Now, I didn't know this at the time, but there were riots going on in Strasbourg. There have been French riots recently due to a policeman killing someone, and I don't know all the details, but I did know there were riots going on in different parts of the country – and I didn't see any sign of it, apart from at the train station, where there were a lot of policemen, and a lot of army guys with big guns. And I was like, ‘Oh, I bet they're posted there just in case anything kicks off.’ And, afterwards, I heard that people had broken into the Apple store, like looting – which is just an excuse to steal shit really, isn't it? – and they’d been setting fire to cars on the day I was there, but I didn't see any of this.

Anyway, so I got there – again, I had looked up some touristy places I wanted to go to beforehand – and I walked for a bit. Again, the river, the flowers lining every bridge, like flower boxes… beautiful pinks, yellows, whites… just gorgeous flowers. I took so many pictures with the flowers in the foreground and then the river and the buildings in the background.

I went to the old town and Little France, which is a bit confusing because it is in Big France as well, but I think it's like Ye Olde France. And yeah, it's so cute. It was very Colmarish, same kind of vibes, same kind of buildings and the flowers, absolutely gorgeous. I enjoyed wandering around there and looking in their little souvenir shops. I collect postcards and magnets where I go, everywhere, so I bought lots of postcards and magnets and some Swiss chocolates for some friends and family and stuff. And I also went to see the cathedral, which is called the Notre Dame – but it's obviously not that Notre Dame – and that is a really cool gothicy building, very nice. 

At this point it was raining quite a lot, so I was diving in and out of shops, and I was very tired by this point. I'd been carrying my big backpack around with my laptop and everything in most days. I'd left it in the hotel room this day so I didn't have to lug it around, but my feet were hurting, I was feeling quite old, it was raining… so it is a lovely place, but I didn't see it at its best. I can imagine, when it's sunny and nice, and when you're not absolutely knackered, it is gorgeous. 

Also, in Colmar and Strasbourg, they have the cutest little street signs; they have little pixely tile images of people, and one of them had like a little stork with a little bundle with a baby in there. Just really, really cute places. Would definitely go back to both of those. 

So I headed back to Colmar, wandered around a bit, and then went back to the hotel room.

I was doing bits of work here and there, but not massive amounts, one or two hours a day. Then I was back in Colmar and the next day I headed back to Basel, which is like 40 minutes on the train, and had a few hours there as well.

By this point I was very tired, so I didn't go and see massive amounts of touristy things. I had a walk along the river. I went to see the Minster, like the big church place. There's a lookout point over the river, and I hung out there for a bit. There's also this really cool fountain made by this artist who also has a museum there, and I'm going to completely butcher this… but his name is Jean Tinguely, Swiss sculptor. There's a museum and there's a fountain, and I went and sat next to the fountain. I had just been to Dunkin’ Donuts because I really wanted an ice latte – it was very hot again, and I was very tired, so I just got that and I went and hung out by this fountain. It's all these moving pieces, mechanical stuff that sort of moves on its own… it was just very cool.

I also went to see the Rock and Roll Wall, which was this big wall that's got this amazing mural of all kinds of rock and roll people like Nirvana, the Beatles… Amy Winehouse is on there, Queen, Freddie Mercury, Ziggy Stardust, like David Bowie, Ozzy, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson… there are a lot of people there and it's a really cool mural. So I took some pictures and videos of that, then I wandered around for a bit, saw this really cool house that I liked – I was like, ‘I could live there!’ Got like nice and turrets and ivy everywhere. Then I got back on the train and I headed back to Zurich… and I was absolutely knackered. I got back and I didn't leave the house for the rest of the day. 

Then, the day after that was my last full day in Zurich. My friend Sunny was back, and I went and met her and Lydia in Zurich city centre. My friend Sunny had been coming to these acroyoga jams, they call them, in the park, when people meet up and do acroyoga. So we went there for a bit, hung out, watched that, and then went to the Chinese Garden in the park, near the lake – and it was like being transported to China. It was very weird but very, very cool. They had a little pond and the Chinese pagoda kind of things – I don't know if that's the right word – very colourful, very peaceful, very nice. 

We walked around there for a bit, then we went for drinks and some food – me, Sunny, and Lydia – and then headed back and packed. And then I actually met Evelina that night; I hadn't met her before despite living in a house for a month, so it was really nice to meet her. But me and Sunny were basically just packing until quite late and then went to bed, and then got up at 04:00 am to get picked up at five by our airport pickup to take us both to the airport. I was flying back to the UK and Sunny was flying on to Bulgaria to go to Burgas Coliving. 

And that was the end of my trip! I got on the plane – a direct flight from Zurich to Birmingham, so that was pretty good. Just over an hour and a half, actually – and they gave you little cute Swiss chocolates on the plane, which was very appreciated. I sort of slept, dozed a bit, looked out the window and saw what I assume were the Swiss Alps in the distance – that was very cool – and then, it was back to the UK.

So that is the end of my trip! I'm sure there's other stuff I did. Like I say, I didn't do a day-by-day diary for this one, because there wasn't much point, because most of the time I was working. So, yeah, that's kind of the reality of being a digital nomad. Sometimes you just have to work for weeks on end. Sometimes you can go away for a week and not work so much, but you always have to have your laptop with you; you always have to be ready to reply to that email or to do that bit of work for a client or whatever. 

And you're always on the hunt for good WiFi. I did some work on the trains using my phone as a WiFi hotspot. Luckily, I can use the same data allowance that I have in the UK when I'm in Europe, so I just made sure that was topped up so I could rely on Google Maps and all that kind of stuff while I was out and about. And, yeah, I had a great time. It was so nice to see so much of Switzerland, but there are still so many places I'd like to go in Switzerland. Like, I didn't go to Lugano or Geneva or any of that area. There are still so many places to visit! All the cute little alpine mountain villages I'd love to go to, I'd love to see more of the lakes…

And I would highly recommend cat-sitting or pet-sitting as a way of saving money while also getting to hang out with really cute animals. It was very sad saying bye to Mr B; when we left at 05:00 am, he tried to come with us. We opened the front door and he tried to get out and we were like, ‘No, no! Bless him. He also tried to get in my suitcase while I was packing. So, yeah, very, very cute cat, very nice apartment. I'm very lucky for this opportunity. So thank you, Lydia, for introducing me to Evelina, and thank you, Evelina, for offering your place to me and trusting me to look after your cat! I had a great time.

Switzerland is beautiful. If you like lakes, mountains… definitely go. Like I say, I think the only downside is the price of stuff. But again, it depends where you come from. If I'm comparing it to London prices, some of them are probably very similar, although I did look it up and one website said that Zurich was 55% more expensive than London – but I managed to not pay for accommodation, so that helped a lot. I didn't eat out a lot or drink out a lot. I went to the supermarket, bought my food, I had a kitchen anyway, so I could do stuff there. So I saved money that way, and that was literally the only downside. 

The rest of my stay, the rest of the country, is great. Like I say, I love the mountains, the lakes. I really liked the public transport – the trains, the trams, the buses… they're all really clean, really spacious, like new. They're on time, and I didn't think the transport was too expensive. Like my crazy trip – three nights, four days, going around Bern, Interlaken, Ringgenberg, Thun, Basel, Colmar, Strasbourg, and back to Zurich – train-wise, I really didn't spend massive, massive amounts. I think, compared to England… some of our trains can be absolutely ridiculous. They're not always on time. They're mostly packed. Most of the time, you have to stand up, standing room only. I never had any of that in Switzerland. Really nice trains. 

The colour of the rivers and the lakes in places like Bern and Interlaken and Ringgenberg were just incredible. And, yeah, I just had such a great time.

If you go, definitely get the SBB app for the trains and the buses. It's really useful. You can buy your tickets through there. But I couldn't buy the ones for France; I could look at the timetables, but I couldn't buy them because, outside Switzerland, it didn't work. So I used The Trainline for those ones, but for everything else, I used the SBB app, and you had the tickets in there as well. And, yeah, I will absolutely go back and I will absolutely go back to Colmar at Christmas time as well. 

So, I hope that gave you a bit of an insight into the digital nomad lifestyle and gave you some ideas maybe of where to travel. If you have any questions about any of these places or about being a digital nomad in general, let me know. I'm on Instagram @traveltransformationcoach, or you can email me at info@traveltransformationcoach.com. 

Okay, that's it for this episode! Thanks for listening, and until next time, I'll catch you on the flip side. 

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