Blogs from Geneva, South-West, Switzerland, Europe

We started our morning in France. After a late start after a few early mornings, we had brunch at a French restaurant called McDonalds and then returned to Switzerland, Geneva in particular. Our first stop was the CERN headquarters - Jon really wanted to see the large hadron super collider, but no tours available over the Christmas season, so he had to settle for a picture at their office while wearing a BAZINGA shirt. Up next, a small park with a flower clock and huge fountain. While we were there, we actually got distracted by all the birds on the shore of Lake Geneva as people were feeding them. I guess we miss our birds! :) Next we went to the headquarters of the UN, Palais des Nations. Unfortunately there were no tours available, so our ... read more

One of the best places I've travelled to in my short life so far has to be Switzerland. Every aspect of it is absolutely breathtaking, and exactly like what you'd see in pictures or hear from other people. I flew here on my 2007 trip from Denmark. We stayed a week with my mom's childhood friend, Trille, who lives just outside Geneva in a little village called Niederwil. Every morning when I woke up, I could look out my window and see only mountains. I think the coolest part was the clouds that hung so low in the backyards of everyone in the village. During that week, my sister and I got to ride gondolas for the first time. The closer we got to the top of the mountains, the more intense and mysterious the climate ... read more

After leaving Rome, we didn't get back to our hotel until about midnight Sunday night. I wasn't even sure we were going to make it to the airport! Our taxi driver showed up to pick us up from the hotel, spoke all of about 5 words to us, drove us through the slums of Rome to get to the highway, and then hit the highway at about 160 to 170 kph....or 100+ mph!! And it wasn't light traffic either! I was a bit concerned that we were gonna be on the evening news either from a massive pileup on the interstate, or some overstressed taxi driver who went beserk! Fortunately, neither happened, but I was quite happy to reach the airport safely! We then had a flight delay and ended up sitting on the floor for ... read more

Getting into Geneva was no problem and we picked up a rental car this time. Got to our hotel within about 20 minutes, sat and chatted with the guys that Kirk works with for a little bit, and then hit the sack. The next morning, the guys were working until 3 and then heading over to another part of Switzerland where the factory was located. Since we had two cars, I headed out around noon on my own since I knew we were headed into a pretty section of the mountains to a little ski resort town in the Alps. I thought I'd get there early and have a chance to look around and take some pictures. The only thing about driving is you can't really enjoy much of the scenery, especially when you're driving in ... read more

I will get to the title in a little while. However, if I had to compare this summer's holidays with last summer's holidays, it is clear that this summer, things went by without a hitch. For this we are thankful. The only down side of the trip to Italy was that France and Italy love to gouge your eyes out when you are driving on their highways. For example, the trip back today, from Lucca, Italy to Geneva cost us approximately 100 Euros. And this does not include gas money. On the way back, we did not go through the Mont Blanc tunnel. Just to go through the tunnel costs 35 Euros. I thought that I would outsmart the highway system. We took the A32 through Torino, Italy - only to discover that we had to ... read more