Here we are again. Still in Geneva, and still having a great vacation. It can be very stressful to travel, but I think we are all doing really well.
Wednesday, the 20th was a very long day. We saw some really amazing things, though. The day started off kind of rough. We decided to try out the public transport system. We found the train station, thought we deciphered the route and schedules, but couldn't find anyway to pay. The machine accepted only Swiss coins, of which we had none. It was rather difficult. We headed across the tracks to the train info booth and a very kind lady helped us out. She showed us the train and bus we wanted and let us purchase our tickets as well. We got on the train and headed off.
Our first stop was to walk up the hill that leads to the United Nations. On the way, we passed the World Trade Organization, UNICEF, and the World Meteorological Organization. We took pictures of all these places and the main entrance to the United Nations. Our entrance was further on, so we made a side trip to the Museum of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. This is a really well done museum. It tells the history of the Red Cross and shows many of their outreach programs. Some highlights were the millions of cards of POWs from WWI, the oldest known Red Cross flag, and the lists of humanitarian efforts. At the end, they had rooms dedicated to all of their current goals. They even had an example of one of the mosquito nets that my women's group makes at church! That was really cool. They also had a special exhibition regarding the current wars between the US and Afghanistan and Iraq. That was very sobering and we did not take the boys in to see the exhibit.
After lunch at the museum, we headed across the street to the United Nations. After surrendering our passports at the checkpoint, we had an hour wait for our tour to begin. There was a gift shop to poke around in while we waited, though. Our tour was very informative. Our tour guide was from Senegal. We got to sit in two conference rooms, including the main one that seats 2000 delegates and that is seen on TV. Michael's favorite part was the peacocks that roam freely around the complex as part of the agreement by the man that donated the property.
We were pretty worn out by this time so we headed back to the hotel. We fed the boys in the room and then got to do something that we never expected to do. We went out to dinner alone! The boys stayed in the hotel with my parents, and we wandered down the street to the local FONDUE place. Of course! We are in Switzerland after all. It was great. We had cheese fondue and then tried one plate of raclette because Amy saw it and was jealous. All of the food was great and the waiter was very entertaining. We really enjoyed ourselves and like the benefits of traveling with grandparents. They went to the same restaurant after we got back.
Thursday, April 21st was another big day. We slept in a little, but headed out by around 10:00. We walked along the lake until we got to a bridge on the Isle de la Cite. Here we found a plaque commemorating the fact the Julius Caesar past through Geneva in 58 BC. Then we headed off to a park where the boys and Grandpa had fun playing chess with three foot tall chess pieces. Michael especially liked attacking his brother's pieces.
Our next stop was the Monument of the Reformation. This is a huge monument dedicated to the 16th century religious movement, spearheaded by William Ferrel, John Calvin, Theodore de Beze, and John Knox. There were large statues of the four men and also bas reliefs of things like the signing of the Mayflower contract. It was right across from the college that Calvin founded (can you say Calvin College?).
We also went in the church that Calvin founded and that John Knox preached in. The Presbyterians from Scotland hid here during the protestant persecutions.
From there we headed to the Archeological Site. This is a site that was discovered when the floor of a church started to fall in. They took out the floor and discovered the remains of two 4th century Christians sanctuaries, mosaic floors from the late Roman Empire, portions of three early churches, and an 11th century crypt. There were even wells from before the time of Christ. This place was amazing. They just built one thing on top of another. At one spot we saw a tomb that had been covered up by the floor of the next church. They found the mosaic under many different layers of floors, roads and dirt. There were wells from before the time of Christ uncovered as well. It was like they weren't concerned about what they built on top of, just as long as a building went up. After 20 years, they are still working on uncovering news sites and add to the museum whenever they find something new. We even saw the desk of one of the archeologists sitting amongst the diggings.
After a great lunch, we stopped at a store that specializes in Olive oil. We tried three different types of olive oil straight from the spoon. It was really good. I can't wait to make our tomato salad with my new purchase. From the olive oil, we headed to the Maison Tavel. This is the oldest house in Geneva. We searched the house from the attic to the basement. The second floor was set up with period furniture from the 1800s (complete with wallpaper). There were also samples of doors from houses that were torn down in the last hundred years, including one that had medieval graffiti! We also saw a guillotine and a model of Geneva in the early 1800s.
We were going to visit the museum of the history of watch making, but we learned that it had closed. Bummer. So instead, we walked around in downtown Geneva until we reached the waterfront again. We decided that since we were in Geneva, we should take a boat tour. We toured around Lake Lemont for an hour, before heading to dinner. There are many restaurants in Geneva, but they are all different nationalities, not many Swiss restaurants. So, we talked about it for a while and decided to go back to the fondue place that we had been to the night before. This time, we took the boys and had the raclette instead of the fondue. It was great! We all had a good time and had great food. The staff said they will see us tomorrow!
Tomorrow we head to Italy. We are going to spend two nights there and have a really long drive on Sunday. But we are only here once!! Of course, we said that before. We will check in on Monday. Until then!
Amy
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Furman weekly, Special Edition, April 18 - 20
Hello all from Switzerland!! So many things are happening, we thought we should divide the weekly into smaller chunks. You may hear from us a few times this week.
When we left you last, we had just finished a long day in Lyon. The next day, we left Lyon to explore some of the area around the city. First, we drove south to the town of Vienne. This town is well known for being a former Gallo-Roman city.
Our first stop was St Maurice Church. It is named after a martyr from the third century. He was a captain of the guard who refused to offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods after his town was taken. So he was beheaded. He is now a saint and his relic at the church is his head. The Catholics here are very strange. It is a very pretty church and had some very impressive Flemish tapestries depicting the life of Saint Maurice, including his beheading. I told you the Catholics are weird.
From the church, we walked to a temple dedicated to Augustus Caesar and his wife, Livie. I can't explain how strange it is to be wandering around a fairly modern town (built several hundred, if not a thousand years ago) and stumble across a roman temple. It seems so out of place. We tried to take some pictures to show the incongruity. We'll see how we did.
From there it was off to Cybele's garden. Here we found the ruins of an aquaduct that filled the baths and the ruins of a temple to the goddess Cybele. There were also ruins of the anterooms where bull sacrifices were performed.
We tried to visit the L'eglise Saint-Pierre. This church has a wonderful museum of archeology in the basement, but because it was Monday, it was closed. Oh well, we consoled ourselves with lunch in a cute little Italian restaurant. The waiter was very funny and entertaining. He kept us laughing the whole meal.
We decided to head north of Lyon at this point to check out the Beaujolais wine region. We stopped at a winery that is also a 15th century chateau. The best thing about this winery is that we had free reign over the castle. We could roam the rooms at will. It wasn't a very big place, but we sure had fun playing. We checked out the chapel, guard room, dungeon (complete with bones that glowed under a black light), and the kitchen. It was a lot of fun. Then we sampled some of the local wine, and Dave and I bought a few bottles.
We asked for a recommendation for dinner from the front desk again. This time we were directed to a really cool brasserie, the Brasserie George. It is the oldest restaurant in Europe. They started serving in 1836! The meal was very good, but we couldn't eat it all. Very large portions for a French restaurant. We started with French onion soup, the tried the sauerkraut and sausage. Every table had a comment card (which is also unusual for a French restaurant), but what could we say about a restaurant that was 170 years old!
The next day we packed up and left Lyon. We were on our way to Geneva! We had a very pleasant drive through the mountains (literally, many tunnels and viaducts, really high ones) and found Geneva with no problem. Getting around in Geneva was another thing. We have been spoiled by the wonderful direction signs in France. Geneva is not so well marked. We drove around for an hour looking for the hotel. We finally had to head back out of town and start allover again. Fortunately, the town has great public transportation, so we parked the car and won't need it again until we leave.
All that driving around made us very late for lunch. We also didn't have any Swiss Francs (they aren't part European Union so no Euros), so our choices were limited. We walked into a restaurant across from the hotel and the owner was willing to serve us at such a weird time AND took credit cards. What was really cool was it was a Lebanese restaurant. Wow! This was an awesome meal. We told him it was the first time we were eating Lebanese food, so he took the menu away and just made us a bunch of samples. It was some of the best food I have ever had. We had rice in grape leaves, lamb prepared three different ways (in bread), sausage, three different salads, and two different kinds of dips for the flat breads. He also made us a fruit juice mix that was spectacular.
From lunch, we decided to walk along the water front and take in the sights. Highlights from this walk included the first protestant church in Geneva, built for the refugees fleeing from France, a clock (in Switzerland?) made from flowers, and the Jet d'eau. This is a jet of water that shoots out of Lake Lemont to a height of 460 ft. It is pretty impressive, not to mention wet. Also, all the way along, are wonderful views of the Alps in the distance.
Well, I will close this edition and fill you in on our adventures again later in the week. Hope all is well. We'll have some Fondue for you.
Amy
When we left you last, we had just finished a long day in Lyon. The next day, we left Lyon to explore some of the area around the city. First, we drove south to the town of Vienne. This town is well known for being a former Gallo-Roman city.
Our first stop was St Maurice Church. It is named after a martyr from the third century. He was a captain of the guard who refused to offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods after his town was taken. So he was beheaded. He is now a saint and his relic at the church is his head. The Catholics here are very strange. It is a very pretty church and had some very impressive Flemish tapestries depicting the life of Saint Maurice, including his beheading. I told you the Catholics are weird.
From the church, we walked to a temple dedicated to Augustus Caesar and his wife, Livie. I can't explain how strange it is to be wandering around a fairly modern town (built several hundred, if not a thousand years ago) and stumble across a roman temple. It seems so out of place. We tried to take some pictures to show the incongruity. We'll see how we did.
From there it was off to Cybele's garden. Here we found the ruins of an aquaduct that filled the baths and the ruins of a temple to the goddess Cybele. There were also ruins of the anterooms where bull sacrifices were performed.
We tried to visit the L'eglise Saint-Pierre. This church has a wonderful museum of archeology in the basement, but because it was Monday, it was closed. Oh well, we consoled ourselves with lunch in a cute little Italian restaurant. The waiter was very funny and entertaining. He kept us laughing the whole meal.
We decided to head north of Lyon at this point to check out the Beaujolais wine region. We stopped at a winery that is also a 15th century chateau. The best thing about this winery is that we had free reign over the castle. We could roam the rooms at will. It wasn't a very big place, but we sure had fun playing. We checked out the chapel, guard room, dungeon (complete with bones that glowed under a black light), and the kitchen. It was a lot of fun. Then we sampled some of the local wine, and Dave and I bought a few bottles.
We asked for a recommendation for dinner from the front desk again. This time we were directed to a really cool brasserie, the Brasserie George. It is the oldest restaurant in Europe. They started serving in 1836! The meal was very good, but we couldn't eat it all. Very large portions for a French restaurant. We started with French onion soup, the tried the sauerkraut and sausage. Every table had a comment card (which is also unusual for a French restaurant), but what could we say about a restaurant that was 170 years old!
The next day we packed up and left Lyon. We were on our way to Geneva! We had a very pleasant drive through the mountains (literally, many tunnels and viaducts, really high ones) and found Geneva with no problem. Getting around in Geneva was another thing. We have been spoiled by the wonderful direction signs in France. Geneva is not so well marked. We drove around for an hour looking for the hotel. We finally had to head back out of town and start allover again. Fortunately, the town has great public transportation, so we parked the car and won't need it again until we leave.
All that driving around made us very late for lunch. We also didn't have any Swiss Francs (they aren't part European Union so no Euros), so our choices were limited. We walked into a restaurant across from the hotel and the owner was willing to serve us at such a weird time AND took credit cards. What was really cool was it was a Lebanese restaurant. Wow! This was an awesome meal. We told him it was the first time we were eating Lebanese food, so he took the menu away and just made us a bunch of samples. It was some of the best food I have ever had. We had rice in grape leaves, lamb prepared three different ways (in bread), sausage, three different salads, and two different kinds of dips for the flat breads. He also made us a fruit juice mix that was spectacular.
From lunch, we decided to walk along the water front and take in the sights. Highlights from this walk included the first protestant church in Geneva, built for the refugees fleeing from France, a clock (in Switzerland?) made from flowers, and the Jet d'eau. This is a jet of water that shoots out of Lake Lemont to a height of 460 ft. It is pretty impressive, not to mention wet. Also, all the way along, are wonderful views of the Alps in the distance.
Well, I will close this edition and fill you in on our adventures again later in the week. Hope all is well. We'll have some Fondue for you.
Amy