Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our cherished family and friends! This year we are thankful for each other, our family, our old and new friends, our good health, our jobs, our sweet cat, this lovely country we are living in, and the fact that we have family coming to visit us tomorrow!  Mama K and Andrew land at 10AM tomorrow morning and we're super excited to have them here for a few weeks! We've moved Thanksgiving to Saturday evening and will be having a Thanksgiving meal with my mom, Andrew, Sam, Eric, and our new French friends who wanted to join in on the American tradition. We are cheating a little bit by having chicken and not turkey, but that's fine by us (turkeys are 25 Swiss Francs per kilo here and don't fit in the ovens!).

Wishing you and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving and start to the holiday season!

The concrete jungle... already?

I was in NYC this week for work, I definitely didn’t expect to be headed back to the US so soon! Don’t get me wrong, the fact that I got to spend the weekend prior with my sister at her house and see my girlfriends in NYC for dinner and shop for clothes and Thanksgiving supplies at amazingly cheap American prices is a fantastic perk, so I’m not complaining, but I do feel like I just left the US. Time certainly does fly, I can’t believe we have already been gone for 2 months, it feels literally like it has only been a week. The nice part is that Switzerland already feels like our new home, which I didn’t expect to happen so soon. The fact that we have quickly settled down in our apartment and jobs, explored, made friends, and made a life for ourselves in Geneva makes me happily surprised. I was thinking that it would take a good 6 months to even start to feel like this!

The best fondue in the world, quite literally

We found the world’s best fondue. It. is. so. good. The restaurant is called Bain de Paquis. This place puts the Melting Pot to shame folks.  Eric actually gave it the distinguished title of “best meal he has had in Europe to date”.  It sits out on a jetty in the middle of Lake Geneva so its pretty AND its one of the cheapest places to get fondue in the city. So just a forewarning, you will be dragged here to eat fondue if you come visit us :)

Castle castle CASTLE!

I have a “thing” for castles, its bordering on slightly obsessive. I love the mystery, romance, and elegance that exude from them. I love exploring their expanses and picturing what life would have been like to live in one of them.  So naturally I have been dying to go to Chateau de Chillon in Montreaux since we arrived. It is Switzerland’s most famous castle (from our house it is about an hour away via train and then a short bus ride). Last Sunday was a rainy day so we decided it was a perfect day to explore the castle. The day we visited there was some sort of “family day” in which the fee to enter the castle was completely waived. A free castle is even better than a regular castle! For 6 Swiss Francs we rented audio tours on iPods in the gift shop and set out on an hour tour of the castle. The castle has been around for over 1,000 years and here are some tid bits on the castle's three major periods of occupation:

The Savoy period (12th century to 1536)

The oldest written document mentioning the castle dates from 1150; it says that the House of Savoy already controlled the route along the shores of Lake Geneva.

The Bernese period (1536-1798)

The Swiss, more precisely the Bernese, conquered the Pays de Vaud and occupied Chillon in 1536. The castle retained it's role as a fortress, arsenal and prison for over 260 years.

The Vaudois period (1798 to the present)

The Bernese left Chillon in 1798 at the time of the Vaudois Revolution. The castle became the property of the Canton of Vaud when it was founded in 1803. The restoration of the historical monument began at the end of the 19th Century.

 

Compared to the other castles I have seen in Europe, this one was distinctly more “Swiss”, set in the middle of the blue Lake Geneva with the towering mountains in the foggy distance.

An interesting fact is that the town of Montreaux, where the castle is, actually has Mediterranean-like climate because it is surrounded on all sides by really tall mountains. Because of this, the town actually has palm trees, flowers, and balmy weather this time of year. It was strange to go only an hour away from Geneva and find palm trees and warmer weather! I have a feeling that we will frequent the town of Montreaux in the winter to enjoy the warmer weather (although the average temperature in Geneva isn’t supposed to be too bad, 40-50 degrees F on average in the “coldest” months). Of course up in the mountains it is MUCH colder, which is why skiing is so popular here (even in the summer you can ski on glaciers that always have snow).

Just another day in wine country

Last weekend Sam and Eric came to Geneva and we were trying to decide where to explore on Saturday when Ryan came home with news that his co-workers were heading to a local wine festival, so we decided to join in on the fun.  We took the train 15 minutes away to the town of Gland and for 15 Swiss Francs, the wine festival was offering bus transportation between 15 different wineries and a wine glass for as many tastings as you wanted at any of the wineries. AMAZING! The area was really beautiful, we could see the now snow-capped Swiss Alps in the background and we spent the afternoon meandering from winery to winery tasting different wines and eating delicious homemade soups and pizzas supplied by the wineries.

I think the “older” I get and the more we continue to live in cities (Boston, Geneva), it only increases my appreciation for the beauty and simplicity of mother nature.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience, history, and variety that cities provide; but, I also REALLY love just hanging out in the mountains and vineyards and enjoying the amazing scenery around. I guess those are the NH roots in me :) And then you throw in wine, a fun loving husband, and good friends and it just becomes icing on the cake. Days like this day make me stop and realize that no matter how ridiculously frustrating this whole moving process can be at time, we are pretty darn lucky to be living in this amazing country/region.

Ryan's coworkers

The Alps and Lake Geneva from one of the wineries

Courtyard of one of the wineries

Little train that goes through the wine country and picks up passengers

London!!

Two weekends ago we went to London to meet up with our friends Sam and Eric to watch the Patriots play at Wembley stadium and also explore the city. London struck us as being very similar to Boston (which makes a lot of sense given the history), it is very lively, pretty, and a tad chilly :) We had a great time exploring the city and it was only 1 hour away by plane, how easy! We will certainly be back to explore more sometime over the next few years. Here are some photo highlights from the trip:

London bridge from our hotel room (the hotel upgraded us after the hotel room on the first night didn't have any hot water in the shower and we had to shower in a strangers room!)

Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace

In front of one of the infamous London telephone booths

Turkish candies at the Borough market - a huge outdoor market with lots of food and treats to sample and buy

Looking out at the Parliament buildings from the awesome double decker bus tour

The boys loving life at Wembley stadium

Every seat had a colored bag on the seat that people raised in the air during the national anthem - it created a British flag on the left and an American flag on the right