Last week in Geneva

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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 a couple hours, so needless to say, a bit worn out by the time we crawled under the covers.

For the next two days, I worked on pictures and the blog trying to get caught back up, which is definitely a challenge if you undertake one of these. It's almost easiest if you set aside some time each evening so you're only blogging a day at a time, but obviously I didn't do that. lol Anyway, I took a few drives just to get out a bit, stopped and took some pictures of fields of sunflowers and local farms, but otherwise, enjoyed a bit of down time for a couple of days.

Tuesday evening after the guys were done working, we headed to downtown Geneva to grab some dinner and see some sights. Geneva sits right on the lake and had a summer festival going on that week, so we wandered through for a while and ended up grabbing some dinner there. Geneve also has some beautiful city parks, and you'll see some of those in the pictures, and one in particular has the famous Reformation Wall which is a monument to the move to religious tolerance during the Protestant Reformation, led by John Calvin during the 1500's.

The city is beautiful at night with marinas and fountains, and the circle of swiss watch manufacturers that sit on the bay, each with their neon signs brightly lit on the top of the buildings. It actually makes for some really pretty pictures. Geneva has a large fountain in the middle of the bay that is visible from any of the near mountains (you'll see it in other pictures again), and Kirk wouldn't forgive me if I didn't make the point of saying that George Fischer (his parent company) provided all the piping for the fountain.

Wednesday, I drove through some of the local villages, all pristine and clean, with quaint downtown squares loaded with the everpresent flowers. I really don't know who has the job of taking care of the flowers, but they all look like they've jumped out of a postcard. Switzerland as a whole, is a beautiful country, full of unparalleled majestic snow-capped mountains and lush green valleys, with a general well-being that's evident in many ways. There are beautiful homes (though few opulant or excessively large) and you see no real signs of poverty, neglect or decline even in the older villages and countrysides. There is a charm and a cleanliness that is refreshing, though not necessarily an easy country for communication since natives speak French, Italian or German depending on where you are.

Wednesday night we drove up the mountain and across the French border to a restaurant one of the guys wanted to go to since he had been there a few times before. It took about 40 minutes to get up the mountain and the restaurant literally hangs on the side of the mountain. It's not very big and used to be an old hunting lodge and still has small stuffed animals sitting around (not the teddy bear kind). It's a unique hodge podge of decor and the lady handling the seating and serving didn't speak a lick of English! There were three bicyclers sitting at the bar (yes, they had RIDDEN up the mountain and they spoke English thankfully lol), and fortunately, they helped us explain that we had reservations and at least got us seated.

She was very friendly and sweet and tried very hard to speak to us in French, but our communication was limited to a very few words and hand gestures that Ron used to describe what we wanted to order for dinner, La Potence. It's their specialty and it's an odd looking spiked iron contraption that has cuts of tenderloin skewered on it and hangs about 6 inches above a bowl of rice. The tenderloin is flambeed in some kind of liquor, we assumed brandy, which cooks the meat and the drippings and flavoring then drip into the rice. It was served with three different dipping sauces, all of which were excellent, chopped onions and petite salad pickles. It was pretty amazing and something we've been trying to figure out how we can make at home. I'm just not sure where we get one of those iron things! They look like they would have been used for weapons and I'm not sure that originally they didn't go from the battlefield to the table. lol

Dinner in Europe is easily a three hour or longer event, so by the time we finished up and drove back, we didn't get back to our hotel until aroung midnight. It was a unique and fun experience that we shared with Pasha (a dachschund and beagle mix of some sort) and a mastiff named Baco who could have rested his head on our table (but didn't). lol In several places in Europe, animals (including cats) are allowed to wander in and out of the restaurant so you never knew who might be sharing your meal with you!

Thursday I had planned on heading over to Germany for the day but after checking some local traffic conditions and possible construction delays, I decided to stick closer to Geneva and went instead to a town called Annecy in France less than an hour away. Annecy sits on the edge of Lake Annecy and is a beautiful town adorned in flowers and medieval buildings with a crystalline lake and canals filled with flower boxes and rowboats. Boats of every kind are available for rent on the lake, (including cool paddle boats with sling chairs on the back!) and the water is a brilliant turquoise color and you could see the bottom as though it were only inches deep. Lake Annecy was formed by glacier melt and is considered Europe's cleanest lake because of environmental controls that were put in place in the 1960's. Rimmed by mountains, it's a popular resort area for both summer and winter sports and just spectacular views everywhere you looked.

After walking around town for a couple hours, I headed up to one of the mountains close by. By the way, if you park in a public parking garage in Europe, keep your ticket with you when you get out of the car and look for the pay station either somewhere in the garage or on the street level to pay for your parking. You'll need your ticket to pay it, and then you'll also need your paid ticket to exit, otherwise, you run the possibility of looking more than a bit like a tourist when you're sitting at the gate and the arm won't raise and you have to get out of the car to go to the little booth and pay the nice man who fortunately speaks enough English to help you out. Thankfully, nobody was waiting for me to get out of the way so my embarrassment was kept between me and the booth guy, who was actually quite sweet about it. lol I had even looked for the pay station because I knew one had to be somewhere but could never find it!

I had read that the alpine meadows on Le Smonoz were well worth the drive up to the top of the mountain, so that's where I headed. Ten miles up the side of a mountain, however, is not a quick drive and amid the multitude of switchbacks, these roads had no, and I mean, NO guard rails of any kind. There was a portion towards the very top that I didn't even dare glance over the side! Eventually making it to the top, the views were awesome overlooking the valleys below on each side of the mountain, but I think my favorite part was the cows. There was a herd of cows near one of the ski lifts.....literally, this is farm land that's right up against the restaurant and ski lifts....and the cows all wear these large bells that ring constantly like rustic wind chimes. It's really the neatest sound and quite melodic in a unique wonderful way. I could have sat there with the wind in my face, listening to cow bells and watching the paragliders for hours! One of these days I might have to think about doing that....the paragliding I mean. I could possibly see that one before jumping out of a plane, I think. I can't imagine the feeling of flying it must be like!

Getting later in the afternoon, I head back down the mountain, noticed my gas light has just come on and quickly grab the GPS to find the closest gas station. Instead of heading straight down, it gets me halfway down and then has me driving down single lane roads through farms and roads where I never saw another car and I seriously thought the thing had gone haywire! It kept telling me two more miles to go no matter how many miles I drove and I thought for sure I was gonna run out of gas before I reached it. Finally it puts me at a main road and at the gas station, where I managed to use my few French words with the gas station attendant and don't even think he even realized our exchange had utilized about 80 percent of my vocabulary. lol

After making it past the French border guard with nothing other than a quick "where are you heading" (they randomly make people pull over for a full check of your vehicle), I made it back to the hotel in time to go to dinner with the guys. Being the last night in Switzerland, I was hoping to find some swiss fondue before we left and I was glad to see it on the menu of the place they chose just down the road. I didn't know it, but normally cheese fondue isn't served during the summer and is mostly a winter menu item, but this restaurant had no problem serving it up for us. And it was soooooo good! Yum, still a favorite splurge! They served it with a wide variety of cold cuts that was really good too. Dinner was topped off with a tasty flambeed creme brulee and another cup of exceptional European coffee.....a perfect ending to the day as well as our time in Switzerland.

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Photos

A street performer
he really turned it on for the camera after we gave him a couple euros. :)

Comments

[Lee Anne Zeb]

Last week in Geneva
Dana, M'Love.... You've completely and totally accomplished an amazing blog!* Truly, a gift and blessing to behold. Thanks so much for sharing this trip of a lifetime!* Love ya' much!* <3