Home!

Arrived home at 2pm - 17 hours after getting in the shuttle from the Geneva hotel to the airport this morning (was it really this morning?).  We're both a bit loopy with fatigue.

Chaucha and Hade (our cats) were happy to see us and had nothing but good things to say about Mick's care while we were gone.  Thanks Mick!

Now to eat some of the Swiss chocolate and drink some of the Swiss wine that we carried home...

Heading Home!

We'll be on the 7:30am flight from Geneva to Amsterdam tomorrow morning and then on to Seattle.

Thanks to Ahriel, Nicole, Teo, Koa (and Marta the nanny) for all of their accommodations while we were in Switzerland.  We had a great time!

Au revoir!

Good Morning!

Vending Machine Potpourri...

This was an oddity from today's trip to the observation spot on top of the mountain.  At the train station up there we saw a vending machine.  It has all of the usual stuff - candy bars, chips, drinks, etc.

Then we saw an interesting lineup...

From left to right there's a "MaybeBaby" pregnancy test, a box of condoms, lighters, and cigarette papers... 

Hard to believe there's much market for these items - at the top there's the little train station with a train every hour during the day, a rustic restaurant, and hiking trails.  Nothing else...

To the Stars!

Well, to the Pleiades Constellation at least...

Today we all bundled into the car and headed to a spot on top of one of the local mountains called "Pleiades".




















After heading to the appropriate train station to catch a little one car "train" to our destination we started heading uphill.

Beautiful countryside and views as we went up, up, up...

At the top there were a bunch of astronomical exhibits - showing the distance between planets, demonstrating solar eclipses, giving a general idea of our galaxy in relation to other galaxies.  Fun.

There were also some great views from the top...

We also stopped for lunch at a restaurant up on the top - Paula and I had the daily special (Arctic Char and vegetable risotto), Ahriel ordered the mushroom risotto, Teo with the chicken nuggets and french fries, and Nicole had the goat cheese salad.  Everything was delicious and received high marks from all of us!

Then back down to the base of the mountain where there was a special train  exhibit including this great little steam engine!

Tournesols!!!

One of the big local crops (other than grapes, of course!) are sunflowers (known as tournesols in these parts).  We missed the flowering (which must be amazing!!!) but all around us are fields of the soon to be harvested sunflowers...

Nicole, Teo, and Koa

Swiss Eggs

Everything in Switzerland is organized and structured.  Even the eggs come out of the chickens dated  (in the European style - Day.Month.Year):

Koa

Teo's new little brother (just 10 weeks old) is Koa.  He's a bright eyed baby and has a very mellow and laid back personality.  We've been here 5 days and I've heard him cry once - lots of hiccups and other internal sounds, chirps and tweets, and some fussing - but rarely unhappy to the point of letting everyone in the apartment complex know...  A very nice kid.

Market Day!

The closest real town is Morges and on Saturday and Wednesday they have a market on the main walking street through the center of the business district.  Today is Wednesday and while it's not as big as the Saturday market, it's fun to stroll through.

Here are some photos - click on them to make them bigger...

Teo the Linguist

Ahriel and Nicole's son Teo is growing up in Switzerland where they have several "national" languages depending on where you are - French here, German east of here, Italian south of here, and a language called Romanche (or something like that) in a small part of the country.

So Teo is having a plethora of language opportunities.  At home he speaks Spanish to Nicole and to his nanny Marta (who's from Spain) and he speaks English to Ahriel.  At school (half a day, twice a week) he speaks French (as well as when they are out and around).  To Paula and me he speaks either Spanish (to Paula) or English to me.  He does an amazing job (my foreign language skills usually max out at around 100 words given enough time...).

It was funny last night when he was watching a video ("Wall-e") and said to Ahriel who was sitting next to him, "Malo!  Malo!" and then went with an English translation just in case Ahriel didn't catch his meaning, "Bad Man!"

Here's Teo and Marta...

Strolling from Denens to Monnaz

This morning Paula and I walked from our apartment in Denens (a small village about a mile west of where Nicole lives in Monnaz).  It's a very pleasant walk for most of the way through vineyards with both red and white grapes soon to be harvested.

The route is along farmer's roads through the vineyards that are also marked as hiking and bicycling paths.  Very pleasant - no mud and mostly flat for most of the route.  Flat until you reach the castle that you can see in the distance on one of these photos...

Then it's time to go to the bottom of the ravine that's between the castle and Nicole's home.  And then, even worse, back up.  Here's a photo of Paula part way up the climb.  Eventually we reached the top of the climb - to the spot where I did a video yesterday.

When we arrived at Nicole's home, we were both ready for a rest...

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Technical Difficulties

tl;dr I can't transfer photos from my camera to the blog easily without a laptop.


I was afraid that using just an iPad with a keyboard on this trip would have some "opportunities" as we used to call them when I worked for the Quality Division.

And it does.

I can write fine, but getting the photos from my camera to the iPad to the blog isn't happening.  I can attach the camera to a laptop at Nicole's house, email the photos to myself, read them on the iPad and then save them in my photos there for later inclusion in a blog entry.  But, as you can see, it's not an elegant solution.

So instead, I think I'll try to write more here on Nicole's laptop (coincidentally while drinking an iced coffee on this hot day and facing the castle out her back windows...  So it could be worse...).

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog...

Video!

Yes!  I can do videos too!

vimeo://video/105645897

Buying Meat at the Morgue

Whoops!  That title isn't right.  It's actually should be "Buying Meat at Morges" - the town nearest to us...

Sorry for any confusion.

We stopped at the local Boucherie-Charcuterie to grab some steaks and sausages for dinner.  They were delicious!

OUCHY!

We managed to generally sleep through the night and Nicole, Ahriel, Teo, and Koa picked us up around 11am this morning.  We headed towards Ouchy (pronounced, as you would expect, "Ooo-she") to walk along the waterfront and soak up some rare (apparently for this summer) Swiss sunshine.

We had a fine time - there was an archery competition and also an equestrian competition along the waterfront and lots of people.  A ham, cheese, and eggplant crepe for lunch was just right. 

Eventually, we arrived back and Ahriel and Nicole's home and played a bingo-like game with Teo and then watched the sun set over the castle outside their balcony before driving to Denens to call it a night.

All is well.

Salty Crisps or Biscuits

On the flight from Amsterdam to Geneva we were offered, "Salty crisps or biscuits" as a snack.  Translated to American English, that would be "Potato chips or cookies"...

I chose the salty crisps.

Arrived Safe

Details to follow...

In the meantime check out the Delta video from our flight - watch for the tribbles!

http://youtu.be/FZm4gqagnVs

Switzerland Bound!

Paula and I will be heading to Switzerland on Friday, September 5th (our friend Mick with his three attack dogs and firearm collection will be staying at our house - so you burglars out there can just move along...).  We'll be visiting our daughter Nicole, her husband Ahriel, and their two sons Teo and Koa (3 years old and 3 months old respectively).

Paula and I will be staying at an airbnb in Denens (I wrote about it here on our previous trip) - a village near to Monnaz where Nicole and Ahriel live.  French is spoken in this part of Switzerland.

It'll be mostly a family visit, but I'm sure I'll find something to write about here.

Stay tuned!