This year we celebrated the new year on January 1, 2010 by hosting a little get together with some good friends. Highlights included Paula’s fabulous Bloody Mary bar, and a delicious spread of honey baked ham, fried chicken, collard greens and black eyed peas. Happy New Year!
Paula's tasty Bloody Mary bar is just the thing to welcome in the New Year
We rented city bicycles for the weekend and biked over the border into neighboring France where we then took a (rather scary) cableway up to the top of Mt. Salève (1380m). Mt. Salève is the first ridge of the Alps rising just southeast of Geneva. Fortunately, it was a clear day and from the top we had an extraordinary view for miles over the entire city where we could easily see the lake and even the famous Jet d’Eau fountain! There are also footpaths galore up top (which become cross-country skiing trails in winter), which we hiked along for a bit. We then settled down to enjoy a tasty picnic lunch on the mountain side, where we had fun watching the paragliders run and jump off over the cliff’s edge only to suddenly plummet down… before catching the next breeze and rising high up in the sky.
Paragliders on Mt. Salève looking out over Geneva
In late May we visited the Mediterranean city of Dubrovnik, Croatia (map). Situated in the southern end of Croatia, on the Adriatic, Dubrovnik is a popular vacation destination for much of Europe.
The walled city of Dubrovnik, Croatia on the Adriatic Sea
We enjoyed the first weekend of May visiting Budapest (map), which is the capital city of Hungary. Budapest is a huge modern European city that has been around since Roman times and is centered around the Danube River. The river actually splits the city into two separate cities (Buda on the West bank and Pest on the right bank). Famous sites include the Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge, which crosses the Danube, along with plenty of old statues and interesting architecture.
The Danube River and Chain Bridge in Budapest
Hello folks! It seems we’ve gone an entire month without an update, and that’s because we’ve been busy traveling around and visiting new exciting places. So in case you were going through PandaBytes withdrawal, fear not! We have several exciting updates on the way.. starting… now!
La Gruyère is a district of Switzerland just northeast of Lake Geneva, where we ventured to for a weekend trip at the end of April. The area is well-known as a popular skiing destination and also a great place to get a peek of Swiss countryside life. And without a doubt, the region contains some of the most breathtaking pre-alpine landscape I have ever seen, and you can easily picture Heidi (from the popular children’s stories) playing about on the lush green mountainsides.
Last Wednesday we spent a fun April evening at the huge Stade De Geneve (Geneva Stadium) where we watched the local soccer team called the Servette FC play against the FC Saint Gallen. FC stands for “football club”, which makes sense once you realize that what we’ve been calling soccer in the US is more commonly known by the rest of the world as football. And from what I can tell, American football is not very big over here… instead they have rugby, which is basically the same sport, but without all the protective gear and more blood and guts 
Hi folks! It’s been a bit since our last update, and Spring is now in the air! We’ve been staying active here in Geneva, enjoying the lake, the weekend farmer’s markets and continuing with our weekly French lessons, which have been going well. At the beginning of April we also made an all-to-brief trip back to Chicago for a week to run lots of errands and catch up with friends and family. Unfortunately, a week just isn’t enough time to see everyone and we were a bit sorry to have to go!
Last Saturday we took the Geneva Coach Station bus south over the Swiss border into France and visited the charming city of Annecy (map) for the day. With it’s many canals, storybook castle, flower-filled parks and a pristine lake surrounded by mountains, it’s easy to see why people fall in love with Annecy. While there, we enjoyed walking throughout the old town, taking a scenic boat tour on the lake, relaxing in the park and enjoying some of the local delicacies (we had some of the best crepes of our lives at a little Creperie we found.. check the pics!).
If you’d told me three months ago I would voluntarily venture out in over 4 feet of snow, at night, in a snowstorm - to walk around for no particular reason - I would have told you that you were crazy.
Turns out, it’s a lot of fun.
Last week Adam and I ventured out with 23 of my workmates to Les Paccots, a small skiing village about 1.5 hours outside of Geneva. The group left work around 5 pm and caravan-ed up to the mountain top. The weather forecast called for snow that evening and mother nature delivered!
Once there, we bundled ourselves up appropriately and strapped on our snowshoes. (If you check out our pictures you’ll see that this isn’t a particularly sexy look.) We hiked about an hour up the mountain to the chalet, where we stopped for a delicious dinner of (what else) fondue!!
After stuffing ourselves silly (ok and maybe the wine helped a bit too), we hiked back down the mountain, turned in our gear and headed back to Geneva.
It certainly was quiet around work the next day…
Recently, we caught up with our good friends Diana and Jose for a weekend in Amsterdam. We’d love to tell you all about it, but unfortunately… we don’t remember anything!! JUST KIDDING!
We had a great time walking around the city and touring the museums. The canals around the city are lit up at nighttime creating a Paris-like feel. Everyone is friendly, and it’s true what they say, bicycles are everywhere!
Special thanks to Jose who did quite a bit of research prior to the trip and kept us well fed. We dined at Restaurant De Kas, which is contained in a greenhouse and grows it’s own food; Lof, where the chefs go to market every day and create the menu from what they mind; and Wynand Fockink which opened in 1679 and make Jenever (purportedly the precursor to gin) using original techniques.
Perhaps our favorite eating experience? A picnic of wine and cheese we had in a local park.
There must be something in the water here.. I’m not sure how else to explain it, but there is obviously something at work here that makes these normally reserved Swiss folks want to get out and SALSA! It’s true. I was a bit surprised at first to find out that there were so many Latin clubs here in Geneva, and you do not have to look hard to find a salsa night going down every night of the week. What was going on here? What was this mysterious dance and why was it seemingly so popular? I began to have more questions than answers…