My Strenuous Journey from Europe to Singapore to Australia

Intro

It was Day 9 of my 21-day Round The World Trip, and now I was coming from Berlin, Germany, to Zurich to Visp in Switzerland. I was one step closer to the always slippery Matterhorn. But like you saw in my previous post, and spoiler alert, I made it to the top of the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.

In this post I will narrate my first hours in Visp, before heading to Zermatt and The Matterhorn, and how tight everything became when I was ready to do the jump to a two different continents. This might be one of the most confusing posts I have ever done, but will try my best to keep it easy to understand, timeline wise.

Day 09: Arriving to Visp, Switzerland

I had changed my flight to get out of Berlin and arrive to Visp on the night before of my Matterhorn Glacier Paradise adventure. Initially, I had thought maybe I could do all that on the same day, and then start the jump to the other 2 continents on the day after. But thankfully, I switched everything, and now I was arriving to Visp on Christmas Day. Earlier this year, I had been stuck in this part of the Alps for days, so I was very hopeful this time was not case. This was the funnel portion of my trip, and any delay could lead to big changes and time and money lost. I did not want to play around the variables.

Traveling on Christmas Day could be a good or a terrible idea, but despite the delay at the Zurich Airport to debark, things could have gotten worse. For now, I was on my way to my newly booked hotel in Visp. I was supposed to stay the night in Berlin, but was now planning to go up the mountain as early as I could.

I booked a room in the Baxter Hotel. I could not stay in the one from the previous trip, that was less expensive, because I made the decision to stay the night basically last minute. I guess when you are rounding the world, there are going to be changes on the fly, and you’d have to accommodate, and have the budget to afford those changes. The room was way nicer than the one I had in April though.

And the view was real cute, with the Christmas Trees, the train station, and all the mountains, with way less snow than I was expecting. Last April, because of the snowstorm, the entire town and mountains were buried in snow. It was shocking.

Cute little town, although it is not a mandatory stay. I could have continued uphill and stay in Zermatt, but I did not want to risk it being trapped up there once again.

The sunset took forever, and I was getting hungry, so I went to the only place that was opened on this Christmas Day….

… and of course it was McDonald’s lol. I got myself some chicken sandwich, chicken wings and some fries. Everything was really good. For once, I was just relaxing in this part of the trip. Tomorrow it was going to be a very busy day.

Day 10: The morning before The Matterhorn

Today was going to be the busiest day of this whole 21-day journey. Not only I was going up to Zermatt and up the Matterhorn Paradise. I also was going to be back in Zurich by the end of the night, because I had my first flight to another continent the next morning, meaning in less than 24 hours. For now, I got ready early, and went to have one of the only free breakfasts I had in this RTW, and it was so good! I was excited to eat it.

Definitely way better than I expected. I needed all the protein and energy for this long day.

After this, you can basically read the continuation of my day here, but this is a summary of what happened:

After getting stranded in Visp months earlier due to a snowstorm, I returned to Switzerland during Christmas determined to finally reach the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise using my reissued ticket. This time, everything worked in my favor—the weather was clear, the Matterhorn was fully visible, and the cable car journey up the Alps was absolutely stunning.

Reaching the summit at 3,883 meters was incredible, but the extreme cold and altitude hit me hard, leaving me dizzy as I took in the breathtaking views across Switzerland, Italy, and France. After a short recovery, I made my way back down, enjoying the scenery and feeling relieved that I had finally accomplished what I couldn’t before, even as my tight schedule reminded me the trip was far from over.

A night in Zurich, Switzerland

Fortunately, I arrived on time to Zurich, Switzerland. Passing through Bern, now I was at the train station, and ready to explore a little bit and go to my hotel at the Zurich Airport. Yep, the flight was at 7:15 AM and I could not play around with the most important flight of this whole trip.

And after a long search and walk from the train station at the airport, I made it to the Capsule Hotel. This would be my only hostel style stay during the RTW, but honestly, so worthy. All other hotels by the airport were super expensive, especially on the day after Christmas, so I just stayed here, and the capsule was not that bad. There were other capsules in the same room, and the bathroom had plenty of showers and toilets, so it was not like a big deal. Also, I was there for literally just a few hours to sleep, and have my last shower before this long trip I was about to embark.

Day 11: From Zurich to Amsterdam, and my biggest fear became true

I knew that booking a Prize ticket on United, with very tight connections, would become a headache, but I was very hopeful that on this 25 hour journey I was about to start, everything would be perfect.

I woke up on Day 11, officially more than half way of my Round The World trip, and checked out of the Capsule Hotel, to go into the airport, literally steps away, and get into my Swiss flight to Amsterdam, where I would finally do the jump to my next continent. The airport was still all decorated on this December 27.

And yes, I decided to spend New Years Eve in a completely different hemisphere this year. The furthest I had been on a NYE was London, and Barcelona, a few years ago.

Anyways, my connection in Amsterdam was going to be one hour and 25 minutes. I was really hopping for the best, but oh surprise, this Swiss flight decided to depart with an hour and 30 minutes delay. At this point, there was nothing I could do. I was hopeful that I would still make the connection or the next flight would be delayed a little bit.

The sunrise in the last minutes in Switzerland was beautiful though.

At 9:38 am I was descending in Amsterdam, I started becoming super stressed. My flight was at 10:25 AM.

I was already so stressed so from here, everything that could happen, started to happen. Now, still on the plane, the pilot said that they could not find a parking spot to do the debarkation since they arrived late in Amsterdam.

When we finally docked, I got out as quickly as I could, but the next thing that could happen, happened: I had to basically walk 6 terminals to get to Pier B, where my next plane was located. I had to double check the screens to believe this. I was in shock. But well, time to run, and fortunately I only had my backpack and a carry-on.

I started running, and as I approached the International Departures area, I had no idea, but I had to check out of the Schengen Area. Amazing! The people in front of me were super slow, but fortunately made it through. At some point I saw a sign saying there was a shuttle to Pier B. I did not want to risk it, especially since I did not see anyone around. I kept going within the International Departures area, and as I was running I was “randomly” selected to another screening. I tried to convince the officer I was late, but sometime you just have to deal with it. It was race profiling for sure, but that’s a story for another time.

Now, I was scanning my suitcase and bag, and only one other group was on this line. It seemed an Indian family was in front of me, and as I was desperate to pass, the old lady in front of me kept avoiding removing the elements from her, and the scan kept beeping when she passed. She was also very slow, and her family was not helping her. I tried to bypass her, putting my stuff in front, but the officer did not let me.

At this point I was so frustrated, especially because they took all my drinks even though this was a random check (only few people had to pass by this to be clear). Everyone else walking around the International section kept their drinks and did not have to go through this secondary scan.

Regardless, I kept running, and after a sweaty marathon, I made it to the gate, at the very end of the very last Pier. I could not believe it. They were about to close the gate, and all of the Singapore Airlines workers knew who I was as soon as I showed up. They saw in the system that my flight had gotten delayed and I was probably not gonna make it. One of the workers told me I could now rest, and I did not have to run or worry anymore. I had made it to the longest and most important flight of this journey, with just 1 minute to spare.

From Amsterdam to Singapore

I was on my seat, and was now trying to relax and calm myself because I had made it against all odds. I would say, whenever in doubt, run! You might be able to make it to your flight. Reminded me of my flight to Santiago from New York, where I also boarded one minute before closing the gate because of a very similar situation.

Anyway, after about an hour in the sky, they started the service on this Singapore Airlines flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Singapore.

The flight was going to be 12 hours and 45 minutes, avoiding many war zones and difficult areas at the moment. I saw TV shows, YouTube Videos, slept, and did TwoDots to entertain myself.

I felt I was tripping when passing by India it looked like this.

But they served food once again, and it was very delicious. Look at the size of that sausage.

Day 12: Singapore Changi Airport

I made it to Singapore, but with a stop of only 3 hours, I was going to stay here at the airport until my next flight. For now, I was just going to explore the Terminal 3. The Butterfly Garden was open at 5 AM lol.

There were a lot of interesting plants in this space.

I walked around this my carry on, and just explored this airport I had been on many times, and that I would be back into later in this trip.

And just as I was walking it I saw it: the advertisement for the Disney Adventure cruise.

Storytime: I was supposed to be on one of the first sailings of the Disney Adventure cruise, departing from Singapore in early 2026, but Disney postponed the Maiden Voyage to March 2026 last September. This was good and bad: good because they gave me a 50% discount that I immediately used for another cruise coming up, and bad because not only I wanted to get on, but also, now I had to modify the entirety of the end of the RTW just on the fact that I did not want to stay in Singapore doing nothing for 4 more days. The ramifications of that cancellation led to a few hundreds dollars extra on my trip, and a shorter RTW, but you will see more of this later in this adventure.

It seems Disney had invested a lot of money in ads for this cruise in the Changi Airport.

Time to eat as always in the food court located in the second floor, and it seemed it had been renovated since my last time I was here.

I got some dumplings, and obviously they were some of the best I had ever had. So yummy!

From Singapore to Cairns, Australia

The last couple of days had been super complicated, but I was finally on the last flight of this intercontinental jump. From Europe, to Asia, from Asia to Australia. A whole new continent where I would spend New Years Eve. But first I would go to Cairns. Why this small city? You will see.

A 6 hours and 45 minutes flight deserved another nap, but I could not avoid seeing The Jewel at the Changi Airport in Singapore.

Singapore Airlines served the lunch and it was pretty, pretty good.

After some time we started descending in Cairns, and it looked so green, completely different to what I had in mind.

Made it to the airport and I was back in Australia. After a long immigration process I was out. No Uber in this small city, so I grabbed a cab, and headed to the hotel.

And not long later, I was in Comfort Inn Cairns City, in the city center, not far from where I was doing all my plans here.

I thought I was done with my good/bad luck for this portion of the trip, but this would continue unfortunately. Do not miss it on the next blog post! We made it to Australia!