Geneva Day 1

Is it just a freak coincidence that after ticking Belgium off the list, the next country that I pick to visit was Switzerland, or did my internal chocolate homing device have a say in it?  Either way, we set off bright and early, well I guess not bright because it was 5 AM and the sun wasn't going to come up for another 2.5 hours, but early for sure. We arrived in Geneva about 9 and were pleasantly surprised that the early check-in I had requested, meant we got to go straight into our room and relax. I was fighting a sinus infection of some kind so in between blowing my nose and sneezing I took a bit of a nap while Kristen planned the rest of our day.

She managed to find a tour of just about everything the city had to offer. It took us all day, but I will beak it down into 4 parts and summarize alot. 

1. Global organizations - turns out there are close to 300 organizations with global headquarters here in Geneva. I guess neutrality and financial stability are some very attractive qualities. None the less, the highlights were of course the UN, and then the World Health Organization. Kristen was excited about the WHO, I had flashbacks about contagion and held my breath as we drove past it.

2. Old city - Geneva was fully walled of and fortified from its surroundings till the mid 1800s then they broke the walls down and it expanded out in all directions. The old walled part still had the charm and history though.

 3. Lake Geneva - we took a tour of the lake and while the boat was a bit full for my liking the sights were pretty cool. Clearly the unmissable highlight is the Jet d'Eau fountain. Over 400 ft in the air.

Then all of the houses on the lake which we could only dream about living in. This was where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.  Can't imagine what was wrong with her as a person to be living in a fairy tale dream setting and come up with something like that. 

This house is where Eisenhower and Reagan stayed when they were in the city for peace and other talks. I can imagine with these kind of digs, such talks would take a LONG time to come to any decisions or conclusions.

4. The countryside - There really isn't much Swiss countryside to see around Geneva, more because Geneva is surrounded by France and its frowned upon driving a tour bus full of people between countries. What countryside there was, was super nice though. Probably only like 5 miles before you get to France so we stayed pretty close to the city. Anyway, since the city is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains the locals make good use of the terrain by growing grapes and making wine. They had already had the harvest for the season so no more grapes, but lots of foliage, and leaves turning to make for great pictures.

One of the local wineries

See I told you that the French border was close. The flag at this house means that the border is just down the road. We hung a left to stay in Switzerland.

A very unassuming building on the outskirts of town but more impressive if you actually know what it is. This is the Geneva branch of CERN. They proved that things can travel faster than the speed of light, last month, wonder what they were working on today?

On the way back into town we came past the Rolex factory, and the Patek Philippe factory. Our tour guide tried to convince us that the most famous watches were the Patek Philippe, but everyone just kinda looked at each other with faces like what are you talking about lady, so I am not quite sure if she was making things up or not.

We had already been awake for something like 18 hours by the time we got home from dinner, and I was pretty hopped up on Benadryl so it was bed time for sure. We are expecting good weather again tomorrow, so should be more great sights to see.

Happy Halloween!!

Hammie says Happy Halloween, and Happy Birthday to me!!

Geneva!!

Just a quick note.....

We are in Switzerland!!  Early flight to Geneva today, and a busy day of touring the city.  Its a really nice place, and lots of pretty open spaces....

More to come....

For the Love of America

With the NFL in London last weekend I got to thinking. It is really strange how many people wear stuff with random places in the US on it. I am not sure what the appeal is but it everywhere. Just about every store has some kinda shirt that says 'New York University Tigers' or something that is just ridiculous. Its all made up places with made up teams. Why would you ever wear something you had no idea about. For all they know the 'New York University Tigers' is a wife-beating team. Don't get me wrong, I have been know to sport a Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo, or a plain London shirt, but not something made up.

It really got out of hand and obvious with the NFL game last week. We were out and about on Sunday and by the end of the day I had a pretty fool proof system worked out.

1. If you saw a bears jersey that person was from Chicago, or at least a true bears fan.
2. A bucs jersey was a 50/50 chance bucs fan or at least someone from the US.
3. Other random jerseys you were 100 percent guaranteed that the person was not going to speak English.

If you saw pictures from the game half the stands were filled with people supporting teams that weren't even playing. Like wearing a OU jersey to a TU game. You would have to be completely clueless.

One of my favorite things is when you catch an American team hat or shirt with colors of their arch rivals. Clearly people are trying to make fashion statements, but as far as I am concerned they are just making a statement that they are not very smart.

Passonis in Paris Part III

In case you missed Part II and Part I.

To finish up our last day in Paris, we went to Sacre-Coeur.

Sacre-Coeur

The best part was the view from the top.

Not sure why, but the Hangover II had a different name in Paris.

Sacre-Coeur

                              Next we headed over to a shopping mall known for its beautifil ceiling

Galeries Lafayette

Galeries Fafayette

Galeries Lafayette

I wanted to buy this goat, but he wasn't for sale.

We finished the day at the Jardin du Luxembourg,which is supposed to be the most beautiful gardens in Paris.  I apparently didn't think so, because I didn't take any pictures.

After the park we picked up our bags and head to Gare Nord to board the Eurostar back to London.

Epidemic

Kristen and I went to see contagion last night. If you are the least bit of a hypochondriac I would advise against it.

I am walking around now holding my breath and trying not to touch stuff. They say in the movie that the average person touches their face something like 3000 times a day, like 3 times a minute. Now every time my hand comes near my face I freak out. I have been wanting to scratch my nose for a couple of hours now.

Rode the tube and about had a panic attack. Not really, but it makes me think. In general I am a bit of a worrier so my guess is that this one stays with me for awhile now.

Oh but good movie, I recommend it!!

Brussels Randomness

Looking back on the pictures from Brussels, there were alot of things that I think people need to stand back and take note of.

These ramps run in and out of every subway station. For a bit I thought they were like gutters, but then came to realize its so you can roll your bike up and down.

Condom vending machines. These were everywhere. Seriously what kind of problem does the city have that they need condoms readily accessible 24 hours a day on the streets of the business district?

This bar was right next to our hotel.  Isn't the guy in the logo the same as Elmer's?? 

Cotswalds

We have now visited the area of the country called the Cotswalds on two separate occasions while we have had friends visiting. Its not the most exciting adventure but there is just a general coolness to everything about it. 

This random tower was built just
recently to look ancient. It just sits
by itself in a field

The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, famous for....well...I guess just being pretty.  The area is characterised by attractive small towns and villages built of the underlying Cotswold stone, and iconic stone fences that run for miles and miles everywhere you look. And don't forget sheep, there are more sheep than people. Kinda like a little New Zealand stuffed into the middle of England. In the Middle Ages the wool trade made the Cotswolds prosperous. Some of this money was put into the building of churches so the area has a number of large handsome Cotswold stone "wool churches". The area remains affluent and has attracted wealthy people who own second homes in the area. We are not 'those people'.

The path to one of the Wool Churches

Just a really cool door

This was 'downtown' in one of the villages

This door was completely surrounded
by these two trees.  A bit hobbitish!

No question my favorite part is the sheep. I am sure they were very familiar with having people stop on the side of the road and take pictures, but nonetheless I was pretty shocked. They came right up to us and did their sheep stuff, it was great.

Did I say my favorite part was the sheep? Yeah I guess I forgot about the kitchen sink.  I don't really remember if that is what it was called, but it should have been.  Literally, every candy, candy bar, ice cream, and topping all in one.  There was actually some talk that I couldn't finish it....ha!!

London Aquarium

We seem to be running out of big tourist attractions in London itself, so I feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Good news is that I continue to be pleasantly surprised on our adventures.

Anyway went to the London Aquarium this weekend. The Aquarium sits unassumingly right next to The Eye, and pretty sure I had walked right past if 15 times and didn't evev know it was there.

 

Pretty low expectations going into it, but can happily say that it was really cool and the Jenks Aquarium is an embarrassment. Spent a long time watching the sharks being fed, and Kristen of course fell in love with the penguin exhibit. Gotta say those little suckers are pretty cool.



 

Lunch





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There were about 18 million kids running around, which made it a bit less enjoyable, but the highlight of the day came when some little mutant running around without a shirt ran into a random girl standing in line. She just gave him a look like WTF, and then shoved him in the shoulder. He fell over in a heap and started crying like a little tittie baby, I laughed out loud.