Written by Emma Lynch; photographs by Emma, Tom, and Lee Lynch
My neurodiverse family went to Switzerland and Germany for Spring Break, and it was sort of like two different trips, so I have two different perspectives on two different places. Here are 5 things I like about our trip, and 1 thing I didn’t.
#1 I liked: I liked all the different museums – there were a million museums that were really cool, and a lot of them were in English. The Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne, Switzerland managed to be for both kids and adults at the same time; the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany really stood out for me – I thought it was really interesting – it told you about the Jewish past and the culture; the Wall Museum in Berlin, Germany was really cool – it even had some of the stories of survivors who escaped East Berlin.
The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland was really cool because you didn’t have to be super important to go in, but they still had a lot of Olympic things like medals, and the sculptures it used to represent everything were amazing; finally, the Munich City Museum in Munich, Germany was okay, but it didn’t stand out as much as the others.
#2 I liked: I liked Switzerland more than Germany, because, even though it was more expensive, it felt free – there were pretty places, gorgeous mountains nearby.
I loved the mountains (the Alps) – it’s hard to describe them, but they felt gorgeous in every way. Switzerland in general felt like home and one of my favorite places in the world.
#4 I liked: Another thing I really liked, there were so many cats and tiny dogs everywhere – they were all so cute and people usually let us pet them.
#3 I liked: I really like how in Switzerland and Germany – it could go from a bustling gorgeous city to broken down places.
I liked how it could make that change – it showed that there is imperfection near beauty. Once, we were on a bus and we went through both the busy, beautiful city and old, falling-apart houses – that was cool to be able to see they were so close to each other.
#5 I liked: A lot of people in Switzerland spoke English, even though some parts of Switzerland speak French, and some parts speak German or Italian – some of the older people and kids didn’t, but everyone else did. I really liked how you could communicate with people so easily. It helped a lot with anxiety – I didn’t have to try to use a whole new language.
It felt good to be able to talk to them, just being able to say, hey can I pet your dog, or how are you, or thank you. It was weird though, I did try to speak German (I got a phrase book to try to learn German) when we were in Germany, and when we got home, I had to restrain myself from saying, Hallo and other German things.
1 thing I didn’t like: How many pickpockets there were (my phone got stolen while we were in Lucerne, Switzerland, from a woman who was acting drunk on a bus and fell on me).
There was just so much I liked about it, though, I could go on and on.