We arrived at the airport hot and sweaty from our afternoon of adventures in the sun. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait out the remaining hours before our departure at the gate. We checked in to the Swiss business lounge, which looked a lot like a few demo spaces from IKEA, and helped ourselves to the delicious spread of food at the buffet. I had a turkey and avocado sandwich with chips (a reprise of my earlier lunch). Bryan got Desmond strawberry yogurt, which he enjoyed very much. They had packaged snacks and we grabbed a few Oreo packs in case there were no non-dairy dessert options on the plane.
Desmond spent the majority of our wait climbing over our backpacks in and out of a little nook he'd found beside my chair
. On one such pass he managed to step on my sunglasses and break them. Oops! He found a friendly gentlemen and had a good long chat with him telling him about the airplane we would be riding, the boat earlier today and so forth. The man was a father of young children and didn't need translation to understand toddler-speak and knew the types of questions to ask to keep the conversation going. The conversation culminated in Desmond explaining to the man that (at some point on our trip) he had pooped in his diaper and we flushed it down the toilet. Bryan and I were laughing at this change of topic, and the man said, "That happens." Desmond agreed, "Yeah, that happens." Good talk, buddy. Good talk.
Eventually he became over tired and started behaving poorly. He was sitting on my lap and smacked me in the face out of the blue. I traded spots with Bryan and took a trip to the restroom to give myself a breather. While there I saw a pictorial instruction on the changing table that made me laugh out loud
. See the photos below for a chuckle.
Desmond took a walk with me to get some wiggles out. We rode the elevator up and the stairs down in a loop for a bit. Then a man saw us walking in the hall and stopped and gave Desmond a chocolate which he happily ate. I guess we have some work to do on stranger-danger. ;)
We gathered our things and made our way up to the gate. It was crowded and noisy upstairs and we were reminded just how nice the lounge atmosphere is in comparison. We walked around for a bit with Desmond in the stroller, and he once again fell asleep just before we boarded the plane. This gave us a chance to really ooh and ahh over our comfy Swiss business class accommodations. Bryan kept gleefully kicking his feet back and forth like a little child on a too-tall chair, showing me how much extra leg room he had. We explored our amenity kits, declined the pre-flight champagne, and made our breakfast selections for the next morning while Desmond slept.
The seats were amazing in that they had all sorts of adjustments they could make for your comfort. You could position the lumbar support, make the seat firmer or softer, recline, or even have a massage. The best part about the seats in my opinion was the foot rest. Especially while holding a sleeping child, this was so comfortable!
Everything was going splendidly
. And then take off woke Desmond after less than an hour nap. He had some fruit snacks and then got to climb around in the extra space in the bulkhead. It was like a cubby and and slide to him. He played iPad games for a while after he tired of climbing up and down.
The dinner was very good. Bryan enjoyed his beef and cheesecake. I enjoyed the Prosciutto, melons and salad. What my main course lacked in texture, it made up for in flavor. I'm not sure what it was. Some sort of (lactose-free) mushroom mush and rice. Desmond had his own child's meal. A ham sandwich, chips and so forth. But he mostly enjoyed my cheese from the cheese plate and his grapes. He had eaten so many snacks in the lounge he wasn't all that hungry. What was great was by this time one of the flight attendants had let us know he could have his own seat. Because of the holiday our section of the plane was only a third full. So we made it down into a bed and Desmond happily had his dinner there
. He told me "picnic." :) There was giggling and fun.
Then they dimmed the lights. We put Desmond in his PJs and hoped for the best. What we got was decidedly *not* the best. He didn't sleep a wink on the entire fight. No amount of pre-teaching, prompting or modeling helped. Having his own space didn't help. Neither did lying down with Mama. Or Papa. Nor having a Benadryl. He became ridiculously tired and cried loudly. Bryan and I were ridiculously tired as well. I cried more quietly: tears of embarrassment, exhaustion, frustration and (I must admit) rage. How could he not sleep when he has HIS OWN BED!? I prayed and dozed as Bryan took one for the team, being on Desmond duty most of the flight.
At length, they turned the lights back on and we gave up all pretense of any of us attempting to sleep. They served us a light breakfast and then prepared the cabin for our descent into Zürich. As they did one of the flight attendants came by and told me that Desmond needed to be wearing his buckle in a manner that implied I knew what was expected and was trying to get away with ignoring the rules. I explained to her that I'd never been given a belt for him and her eyes got wide in disbelief. I said, "The safety video said that if one was required someone would let me know, but he was asleep during takeoff and no one did." She hurried off to get me one. While she was gone another flight attendant came by and reminded me a bit abruptly to put on his belt. I told him that she was getting one for me. It was actually great, because Desmond was fussy and wiggly and didn't want to be held, but the belt made this no longer an argument. I turned him around to face me, and he gave up and snuggled in for our landing. Hooray for making it to Europe!
~ Merilee
I'd read on various travel-hacking blogs that international business class flights were a whole class above what you get on domestic flights and they weren't kidding. We were given access to the departure lounge with lots of free snacks and a quiet place to relax. Then the seats are just amazing. It was like one of those fancy recliners they sell in the mall with all the bells and whistles. The fact that it could lie all the way flat and had room for me at 6' 1", was hard to believe on an airplane. Mer and I agreed that if Desmond had managed to sleep we would have arrived having gotten in a good snooze ourselves. The cash cost for international business class is crazy, but totally doable and well worth it if you have the miles to make it work.
~ Bryan
Flight to Zürich
Monday, July 04, 2016
Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Other Entries
-
1Starting Out
Jul 022 days priorSeaTac, United Statesphoto_camera12videocam 2comment 3 -
2Flying to San Francisco
Jul 031 day priorSan Francisco, United Statesphoto_camera6videocam 0comment 5 -
3On to Boston
Jul 031 day priorBoston, United Statesphoto_camera6videocam 0comment 3 -
4Freedom Trail
Jul 04earlier that dayBoston, United Statesphoto_camera25videocam 0comment 2 -
5Flight to Zürich
Jul 04Zürich, Switzerlandphoto_camera14videocam 0comment 2 -
6Arrival
Jul 051 day laterZürich, Switzerlandphoto_camera16videocam 1comment 2 -
7Lovely Luzern
Jul 062 days laterLuzern, Switzerlandphoto_camera31videocam 2comment 2 -
8Amazing Alps
Jul 073 days laterLauterbrunnen, Switzerlandphoto_camera27videocam 1comment 3 -
9Train Day to Innsbruck
Jul 084 days laterInnsbruck, Austriaphoto_camera23videocam 3comment 1 -
10Through Salzburg to Wien
Jul 095 days laterSalzburg, Austriaphoto_camera27videocam 2comment 2 -
11When in Wien
Jul 106 days laterWien, Austriaphoto_camera41videocam 2comment 1 -
12Trains and Bones
Jul 117 days laterPrague, Czech Republicphoto_camera24videocam 0comment 1 -
13Prague Day
Jul 128 days laterPrague, Czech Republicphoto_camera23videocam 0comment 3 -
14Bus Out to Nürnberg
Jul 139 days laterBeroun, Czech Republicphoto_camera10videocam 1comment 1 -
15Nürnberg
Jul 1410 days laterNürnberg, Germanyphoto_camera33videocam 0comment 4 -
16Day Trip to Rothenburg
Jul 1511 days laterRothenburg ob der Tauber, Germanyphoto_camera39videocam 0comment 3 -
17Rhine Cruise and Onward
Jul 1612 days laterMainz, Germanyphoto_camera31videocam 0comment 2 -
18Belgium
Jul 1713 days laterBruxelles, Belgiumphoto_camera29videocam 0comment 1 -
19Paris
Jul 1814 days laterParis, Francephoto_camera14videocam 2comment 1 -
20Disneyland Paris!
Jul 1915 days laterChamps-sur-Marne, Francephoto_camera28videocam 5comment 2
Comments

2025-02-10
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Jaynie Roberts
2016-07-06
Sorry Desmond was a pill for the journey. Hopefully he gets some rest and you can enjoy this marvellous trip. The conversation gentleman sounds delightful.
Andrea
2016-07-06
Too bad he didn't sleep. I hope you guys get past the jet lag soon and can be off enjoying everything!