Our First Visitors!

Doug's sister Angela and her husband Jon came to visit this last week! They came to Europe to go on a cruise of the Adriatic Sea and stopped off first to see Geneva. It was nice to have some English speakers with us!


We also got to walk around more of Geneva and visit a giant outdoor flea market - a goldmine of old posters, postcards, and the like!

A few more photos are available for your viewing pleasure on our Flickr.

Quintessential Switzerland

Allison and I got up early Saturday morning and took a train to the Swiss Alps. As you would imagine, they were extremely beautiful and awe-inspiring.

We first went to Interlaken - a city in between two beautiful, glacier-fed lakes. From there we took a train, bus, and gondola up to Gimmelwald - a tiny farming village of only 130 people on the side of a mountain.

The weather was perfect and we spent the afternoon hiking around the village and up into the mountains. We got to see the highest point in Europe and learned how to pronounce Jungfraujoch. It was beautiful - but I think I already said that.

Yep, you can see more photos on our Flickr.

Sunday in Greater Geneva

We spent our Sunday in two countries, France and Switzerland - which sounds all cool and exotic, but it really isn't as cool or exotic as you would think. We visited a church just across the border in France. The border crossing was simply the bus slowing down - so, it really shows that the Swiss and the French like each other (in full disclosure, on the way back into Switzerland, the bus did stop, but all the border-patrol officer did was glance at our passports for about one second each).

After eating lunch (Americans, eating at a Thai restaurant, in France) we went down to tour the United Nations. Really, it is just a bunch of conference rooms, but these conference rooms have held important world leaders making massively important decisions.

And now we are back home, preparing for the week and maybe watching some football (soccer) games on our tiny TV.

Want to see pictures of flags and conference rooms? See our Flickr!

Day in Geneva

Today we wandered around the city of Geneva. We sunned in complimentary city lounge chairs in a park, viewed a monument to the Protestant Reformation, walked the Old City, and climbed to the top of the Cathedral St. Pierre for a panoramic view.

You can see more pictures on our Flickr.

IKEA!!!

I think the title says it all. We spent our Friday evening in glorious IKEA - first had dinner, then shopped, enjoyed the familiar and marveled at the "Swiss only" items, and then checked out and packed our stuff in our backpack and bags and came home to a happier apartment.

Our $100 was well spent:
2 pillows
1 pillowtop mattress cover (our bed isn't so comfortable)
1 fitted sheet (most people here just use a duvet, we miss the sheet)
1 desk lamp
mixing bowl set (tried to use a saucepan and it was disastrous)
1 whisk
1 square platter
silverware organizer
6 sets of silverware
2 plates (we need more for when our friends come)
1 pitcher
collapsible fish hamper
2 hand towels
2 dish towels
hand soap
body wash
wet wipes

Doug Goes for a Walk!

I spent yesterday walking around Geneva getting my bearings of the city. There is a nice, big lake, a giant jet fountain, a nice river, lots of old buildings, and nice public parks.

I put more photos up on our Flickr for your viewing pleasure.

Birthday Celebrations

Thanks to all who sent birthday greetings my way!

After work, Doug and I went out to eat at a wonderful restaurant in our town. I got a kebab (like a gyro or sovlaki) and Doug got a pizza. We then decided to brave the crowds and go into the heart of Geneva to watch one of the Euro2008 games on the big screen in the park. If you aren't aware, the unity over soccer in most places in the world is rather amazing.

After an exciting and crowded 45 minutes or so (and just after the mayhem of the Swiss goal) we decided to go get ice cream and then walked down over the river by the Jet d'Eau at night. It was beautiful and no one else was around.

Birthday Surprise

On Allison's birthday we were given a nice surprise - seeing the famous Mount Blanc from our balcony.

We didn't realize when we posted the other photos of the alps from our balcony the other day, that the biggest surprise was still to come - a beautiful view of snowy Mount Blanc. Want to know more about Mount Blanc? Sure you do - go here.

Home Sweet Home

We are now fully settled into our apartment here! Allison had her first day of work at WHO and it went well.

It is taking a bit longer than we expected to transition to living here. We have noticed all of the small things that you never think of (from butter to cell phones to bus routes) are much more difficult when they are not in your language. It is fun, but at times, pretty frustrating and everything take three times as long as it would take back in the States.

But, we don't want to complain - the clouds lifted just enough today to see the Alps from our balcony.


Just can't get enough? More photos on our Flickr.

Grocery Shopping in French, German, and Italian!

We made it to our apartment today, and after some brief tidying and starting to unpack I remembered that one of the many travel books Doug checked out from the library talked about how most everything is closed on Sunday.

I fully support closing for a day of the week, but I also support having food to eat for the next few days. So Doug quickly looked up on the internet (amazing thing that is) and found that our grocery store (located 2 train stops away) was closing in 2 hours at 6pm and would not be open tomorrow. So we promptly grabbed our train passes and canvas bags and were off.

I forgot the list, but I don't know that it mattered. This grocery store, called Migros, is located throughout Europe. I didn't expect them to have my language, but I thought I would be able to figure a bit more out on the packaging from the French, German, or Italian wording. Needless to say we had a lot of laughs and did a lot of guessing and just tossing things in the basket.

Doug stood in awe of the cheese aisle. Thankfully, I could still do my usual comparing of price per gram and which deal was the best. "Action" means sale or discount. And the hardest thing to buy was butter - there were so many unfamiliar choices. I finally decided on the Bio or Beurre or Burro Butter - it had the least amount of extra wording so it sounded safe.

I do like the idea that grocery stores aren't completely "convenient" and that they close at a reasonable time. I also like that the bread aisle was almost empty as they get fresh bread in each morning, which means we will be shopping in the morning from now on.

As will often be the case, more photos on our Flickr.

Packing Tip

So, when packing for a trip you should NEVER pack more than you can carry. Or, don't pack multiple suitcases that you can lift individually but then when you add them all up will weigh more than you. I think we briefly thought about this - and although we are normally known as light packers and we managed to backpack around the world for 8 months with one pack each - somehow this time we thought since we were coming to live in one place we were exempt from this rule.

Not true. Especially when you find out the place that was going to store your bags while you then take 2 trains and 2 buses and walk about a mile total to get to your 3 day destination is actually closed because of the Euro 2008. So yes, we ended up having to take our 2 backpacks, 2 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, and 2 purse/small backpack up to Lausanne and then back to Geneva with us. We may save $100 in groceries and toiletries costs, but I don't think the extra luggage and back pain was worth it.

Moral of story: pack 1/2 of what you think you need, be sure you can carry it, and bring multiple sweaters to Switzerland no matter what time of the year you come.

Lausanne

Lausanne was amazing - actually we were in a small town outside of Lausanne. The weather was cloudy and cool, the place we stayed was IKEA furnished, and we had no specific schedule to follow.

On our anniversary, we took a hike through the forest. We had to be especially careful of the stray snails along the cedar path - they were surprisingly not disgusting. Another day we visited the Olympic museum (as the committee resides in Lausanne) which had all sorts of history and information about the Olympics as well as special Beijing exhibits. Hard to believe we were in Beijing 2 years ago and saw the beginnings of preparations - and now it's only 60 days away!

Now on to Geneva to settle in to our summer home...

More photos on our Flickr.

We Have Arrived in Switzerland!

Just wanted to post a quick update to let you all know that we have made it safely to Switzerland! The flights were long, but we made it!

We are currently in Lausanne (about an hour from Geneva) and it is beautiful! We move into our apartment this weekend and once we are settled in, we will be posting again.

Thanks to all of you that made it to our going-away party - it was so great and we already miss all of you!

Doug Goes Skydiving!

I took my dad skydiving for his 60th birthday last Saturday! We wanted to jump solo, so we took a six-hour training class and we went out of a perfectly good airplane at 4000 feet!

The jump was great, but unfortunately, my dad came in too fast on his landing and landed hard - hurting his back. He had to go to the hospital and we found out that he has a compression fracture in the L4 vertebrae - no fun at all! Thankfully, there was no spinal-cord damage and the doctors say that it should heal in a few months without the need for surgery. He is now out of the hospital and feeling much better!

He says that he doesn't regret jumping, he just regrets the landing and probably won't go skydiving again!

What a birthday gift!