Go Geneve

Last days in Geneva

2009-12-23T14:25:00.000+01:00

Our time living in Geneva has come to an end. We are going to Suva, Fiji, where I have a new job with the ESCAP Pacific Operations Centre. I will be writing about life in Suva at our new blog: www.spacifics.blogspot.com.

Our last days in Geneva were extremely hectic, with our things being shipped off, farewells to attend, last minute work to get through, the car to sell and the apartment to clean. Phew! Now it's all over and we are making our way towards the next adventure.

Reflecting on our time in Geneva, there are many happy memories. It has been a real journey of discovery. I have learned so much about the world, about statistics and about the mechanics of the UN. I leave Geneva with a sense of achievement and with excitement about the new adventures that life in the Pacific will bring.

I also feel a sense of sadness as we said goodbye to a number of close friends and colleagues who have made our time in Geneva really special. We will miss them, but thankfully the internet makes communication so easy, even despite the almost 12 hour time difference between Suva and Europe.

As we undertake our 36 hour journey to Adelaide, I am looking forward to spending a couple of weeks with family and friends before heading off to Fiji.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Holidaying in Croatia

2009-09-13T19:26:00.004+02:00

A four day long weekend provided the perfect excuse to take some time off and spend a week in Croatia, chasing the summer sun. My Dad is visiting at the moment, so the three of us headed off together last Saturday. It was the first time that any of us had ever visited Croatia. The Dalmatian coastline is spectacular. We rented a terrific house in the hills above Makarska, a popular tourist town about an hour from Split and two hours from Dubrovnik.

We spent the week taking day trips (Dubrovnik and the nearby islands), heading down the hill for a swim at the beach, lounging about on the terrace, reading, playing cards and watching the sunset.

One of the highlights for me was our short drive to the nearby Biokovo National Park. I was expecting us to just park the car and go for a short hike in the pine forest, but when we arrived, we found the park consists of the highest mountain road in Croatia: 23kms of terrifyingly narrow, steep road that took us up to the 1,762m mountain peak. It was an incredible drive and I was grateful to complete it without scratching the hire car. In some places, the two-way road was barely wide enough for one car! Well, that may be exaggerating, but it was a challenging and exciting drive. This video of cyclists making the downhill run gives an impression.

Overall, I really enjoyed the holiday in Croatia, but for a region that relies upon tourism, they could a better job of some things. The food was disappointing and the tourist information was either non-existent or overwhelming. We wanted to buy a nice momento, but struggled to find anything beyond rows and rows of tourist trash markets. However, the people were lovely and the weather was gorgeous. If you like watersports and don't mind pebbly beaches, it is a very affordable and worthwhile holiday destination.

Trip around South Africa

2009-08-30T13:52:00.013+02:00

This year's International Statistical Institute (ISI) conference was held in Durban, South Africa, which gave us the perfect excuse to visit this interesting country.

After the conference finished on Saturday, we headed off on a tour of South Africa on the Sunday morning. We were only 5 people in our tour group: our good friend and colleague, Petteri; a young newlywed couple from Malta; and us. Our guide was Thabo, a terrific and talkative South African man from Soweto, just outside of Johannesburg. Together we had an excellent time and saw something new and interesting every day.

Our tour group (L-R): Jess, Petteri, Krista, Kris and Peter

Day 1: Durban to Santa Lucia via Shakaland, a Zulu cultural village

Shakaland

Sunset in Santa Lucia

Day 2: Santa Lucia cruise and drive to Swaziland

Crossing the border into Swaziland

Day 3: Drive through Swaziland and into Kruger National Park

At the southern gate of the Kruger National Park

Day 4: Safari in Kruger and BBQ in our rest camp

Our huts at Pretoriaskop rest camp

The safari started out a little chilly at 6:30am

Then the animals started to appear....

Day 5: Visiting natural wonders and staying in the quaint mining town of Pilgrim's Rest

Jess at Blyde River Canyon

The Three Rondweles

Our hotel at Pilgrim's Rest

Buying a beer at the bar

Day 6: Drive through Johannesburg and visit to Soweto

We took a detour on our planned itinerary to visit the hometown of our guide, Thabo. He grew up in Soweto (name derived from South West Township), the township that was built for segregated groups during apartheid. It is home to around 65% of Johannesburg's residents, probably about 7 million people.

This, our last day in South Africa, was one of the highlights of the tour. We visited Nelson Mandela's house (8115 Orlando East), the 1976 uprising musuem and the house of Thabo's mother and family.

Warsaw, Poland

2009-07-19T18:16:00.007+02:00

My work has given me the opportunity to visit many countries over the last few years and 2009 has been no exception. So far this year I've been to Ghana, Portugal, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Poland and Kyrgyzstan. Likely destinations in the next six months are Tajikistan, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Macedonia.

After a busy three day meeting, I had a weekend to explore Warsaw with Peter and a friend from work. Quite a nice city with an amazing new "old town".

The flower markets just down the road from our hotel were a daily treat of colour and perfume.

Warsaw was completely destroyed during WWII. The old town (see the buildings behind this group of musicians who were just wandering the streets) was rebuilt to look the same, based on photos and whatever records could be found.

An apt location for an art exhibition about tolerance.

Lisbon in March

2009-06-07T18:18:00.000+02:00

I had to travel to Lisbon for a meeting in March, accompanied by my favourite bag carrier, Peter. While I was working hard, Peter was touring the Portuguese countryside. He went to some picturesque towns north of Lisbon and even enjoyed a stroll on the beach. In the evenings we dined out together, including a lovely dinner with my colleagues and a few Fado singers.

View across the countryside

Peter and the Atlantic Ocean

Jess and her boss at the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics

Weekend visit to Tunis

2009-06-07T17:56:00.000+02:00

We visited Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, back in February of this year. It was our first trip to North Africa. We stayed in the centre and spent Saturday afternoon exploring the Medina. Not much shopping, but Peter got a nice haircut for about AUD$5. On the Sunday we took the train out to Carthage and explored the ancient ruins.

Peter drinking the very sweet mint tea of Tunis

The Champs Elysees of Tunis

Jess exploring the ruins at Carthage

Work trip to Ghana

2009-01-31T16:41:00.003+01:00

The first days in my new job in social statistics were spent at a conference on gender statistics, being held in Accra, Ghana. It was a fantastic opportunity to visit the African continent for the first time and to spend four days discussing, learning and meeting people.

There was no time to see much of the city and surrounding countryside, but it was wonderful to get an idea of the culture by talking to locals at the meeting and taking in the sights on the drive between the hotel and conference centre each day.

I managed to get to the national art centre a few times, which comprises lots of stalls selling goods to tourists. Luckily it opened at 7am each day, so I could get an hour's shopping in before starting work. Bought some lovely fabric, leather cushions, a basket, masks and other wooden ornaments.

The weather was hot and humid, also dusty, with the annual Hammatan winds blowing clouds of sand down from the Sahara.

These are the guys who helped me spend my money at the art market. The people in Accra were very friendly and kind.

More photos on Flickr

Saturday morning...Geneva 24/01/2009

2009-01-24T11:07:00.002+01:00

In contrast to the summer of the Australia day weekend...at least we are able to watch some great tennis at the Australian Open

Weekend in Lisbon

2009-01-18T18:32:00.003+01:00

We escaped the interminable Geneva fog last weekend and spent two nights down in sunny Lisbon. Were joined by Fiona and her boyfriend, Simon. We had a lovely couple of days, exploring the city and visiting museums.

Views over Lisbon from the castle

Fiona at the Belém Tower

Peter and Jess in a Lisbon restaurant

See more photos on Flickr

Stockholm

2008-12-21T11:27:00.002+01:00

View of Stockholm from Djurgardsbron bridge
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter

Waaaay back in May, Peter and I went to Stockholm. I went for a work meeting, but we had the weekend before to look around the beautiful city.

The highlight for me was visiting the Vasa and the Skansen open air museum.

This shot is taken on our walk through the city. See the other photos on Flickr

Road trip to Fromelles

2008-09-14T21:12:00.002+02:00

This four-day road trip took us through Champagne to Fromelles, a small French village on the northern border with Belgium. This is somewhere we've been meaning to visit for a long time as it's the place where Peter's grandfather fought in WWI (see Battle of Fromelles). Peter doesn't know how many weeks his grandfather was actually in Fromelles - he contracted tuberculosis and was evacuated to England before the battle. After months of recovery, he returned safely to Australia and lived into his eighties.

After Fromelles, we drove through Belgium and France, staying in a lovely town called Givet in the northern most part of France.

This short video shows some of the pics we took over the weekend.

Istanbul in May

2008-07-20T16:33:00.002+02:00

With Mark here to visit, we decided to take him on a short trip to Istanbul, Turkey. We were joined by his lovely friend Megan, who is currently living in London.

It was a great time had by all. We stayed in an apartment in the old part of town, a short walk to the Blue Mosque and the hundreds of touts who do their best to part you and your money. We spent time walking around town, visiting the mosques, palace and Grand Bazaar. After being in town for about 5 mintues, we found ourselves in a carpet shop and are now proud owners of three Turkish rugs - expensive, but beautiful souvenirs!

A highlight was a 2 hour ferry ride up the Bosphorous river to the mouth of the Black Sea. A walk up the hill to the castle was worth it for the great views over the water and glimpses of Istanbul on the horizon.

Back in Istanbul, I can highly recommend a wander over to the new side of town to visit the great shops, bars and restaurants. The food is terrific and a few shots of raki put everyone in an excellent mood.

After a few days, Mark and Megan left Istanbul to meet Fiona in Berlin and Peter and I did a weekend tour down to Gallipoli, which was a great experience. More on that soon.

See all the Istanbul photos

Happy Birthday Peter!

2008-04-20T18:43:00.006+02:00

Mark arrived in Geneva this morning, on his first big overseas trip. We haven't seen Mark for over twelve months, so Peter, Fiona and I were all very excited and looking forward to his arrival. Just in case he couldn't spot us through the crowded Geneva airport, Peter prepared a welcoming sign.

Mark is here for one month, in which time he will see a bit of Switzerland, as well as Istanbul, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. Not a bad little holiday! After a quick walking tour of Chambésy, we settled into a lovely Sunday afternoon out on the terrasse, sipping Swiss wine and eating raclettes.

Tomorrow will be a different than usual birthday celebration for Peter as he will have two of his four children here. Next year we will have to aim for 100% child attendance, especially as it will be a major birthday!!

A walk around the lake

2008-03-24T12:08:00.005+01:00

Despite windy conditions, snow and all that goes with it, we have walked for about 45 kilometres this weekend - that's about 9 hours worth! Walking has become our latest hobby and it's great. Up until now, cycling has been our "sport"of choice, but walking is rapidly overtaking it. Fresh air, spectacular views and the chance to re-discover nearby surroundings at a different pace.

The current plan is to follow Route 4 around the lake (Leman) from our place to Montreux. To date we are up to Morges, just outside of Lausanne, so we have another 40ish kilometres to go.

Route 4 is also the Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle (Way of Saint James), the Christian pilgrimage that starts at various points across Europe and leads to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. However, we are following it in the opposite direction.

Just to prove that the weather wasn't all bad, here's a picture of the cute village where we ate lunch, while bathed in sunshine.

Now it's Spring, but it's snowing

2008-03-21T09:57:00.000+01:00

It is officially the second day of Spring, not to mention the first of the Easter weekend, and NOW it snows!! There hasn't been any snow to speak of in Geneva all winter. The forecast is for snow over the next four days. How will all those lovely little flowers and new leaves cope?

Oh well, there go the plans for a long weekend of walking around the lake. Happy Easter everyone!

Chateau d'Oex Balloon Festival

2008-01-27T10:26:00.000+01:00

Hot air balloons at Chateau d'Oex, 10 minutes down the road from Fiona's place.

Weekend in Brussels

2008-01-22T21:08:00.001+01:00

Grand Place
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter

We just spent a weekend in Brussels, our first visit to Belgium. Arriving on a blustery, wet, cold morning to deserted streets, was not the best introduction. We were left wondering if we had actually arrived at the 'Central Station' or some remote suburb. It seems the locals don't get going until about 10am, so we had an hour to kill, which was spent warming up in the only coffee shop we could find open for business.

The weekend may have started out a little disappointing, but it got better. The BELvue! museum gave us an interesting insight into Belgium, a country we knew very little about. After the beautiful but overwhelming Museum of Musical Instruments, we enjoyed a lunch of moules et frites (steamed mussels and chips), the national dish, then spent a sunny afternoon looking around town.

Sunday was spent doing a lot of walking and visiting the Belgian War Museum and Autoworld - the most interesting museums we could find that were open and good refuge from the cold. We also sampled the scrummy hot Belgian waffles that are sold on just about every street corner. Perfect on a winter day!

See our other pictures on flickr.com.

Sunrise over the Alps

2008-01-22T20:31:00.000+01:00

Photo of a beautiful winter sunrise, taken from our backyard.

Skiing in Schonried

2008-01-06T17:36:00.000+01:00

This is where we go cross country skiing near Fiona's place. We took her up there today for a look around. Too slushy for skiing. There's been no snow for a while now, just rain, and the same forecast for the next week. What's the good of winter without the snow!?

Another year gone....

2007-12-31T19:00:00.001+01:00

It is hard to believe that we have been away from Australia for nearly three years! We still enjoy life in Geneva - the work is interesting, great opportunities for travel and the European lifestyle is rather pleasant. It's especially nice to now have family living here. After finishing her degree, Fiona moved here in December and immediately started work as a Pilates Instructor in the amazing Swiss town of Gstaad. Her workplace, The Palace Hotel, is something that must be seen to be believed!

Going back to uni part-time at the start of last year meant I had the perfect excuse to be neglectful of this web site. Hopefully some people are still visiting it from time to time!? To make your life easier, you can subscribe to receive the very occassional updates via email. Just enter your email address on the right there and click subscribe.

As has been tradition, here is a list of the cities we've stayed at least one night in during 2007. You will note it is shorter than in 2006 and 2005 (another bi-product of being a student). Still... we have managed to do quite a bit. Switzerland is really a terrific base for exploring Europe!

Rome, Italy
Budapest, Hungary
Vilnius, Lithuania
Kaunas, Lithuania
Šiauliai, Lithuania
Nida, Lithuania
Prague, Czech Republic
London, England
Vienna, Austria
Grenoble, France
Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Lindau, Germany
Schaffhausen and Rheinfelden, Switzerland
Zermatt and Interlaken, Switzerland
Halstead, England
Blarney, Ireland
Singapore, Singapore
Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia
Bangkok, Thailand
Champéry, Switzerland

New countries on that list are Lithuania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria and Thailand. We had six lots of visitors stay with us during 2007. Always a good way to boost the local tourism activities! Our year included a trip home to Australia in October/November to attend some family events: Claire & Dave's engagement party and Fiona's graduation performance. Being a quick visit meant there wasn't time to catch up with everyone, but hopefully that can be remedied when we are in Adelaide in November 2008 for Claire & Dave's wedding.

Wishing everyone a very happy new year!!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-23T15:24:00.000+01:00

We (Peter, Jess, Fiona and her friend Ianthe) are currently in Champéry, a small village in the Swiss Alps. It will be a white Christmas for us! It hasn't snowed since we arrived last Thursday, but there is still plenty of snow around. The weather has been quite mild, with temperatures around 4 degrees during the 3 hours of sunshine that bathe this valley.

The girls have tried their luck at skiing and snowboarding, along with the hoardes of other winter residents here. I have been cross-country skiing twice, but Peter is yet to venture into the world of winter sports. Perhaps some toboganning tomorrow.

Christmas Day is likely to be spent lazing around the chalet, which is very nice, with a beautiful view of the mountains. We have bought a turkey and all the usual trimmings, including some French champagne.

Merry Christmas everybody!!

Kieren & Nikki visit Geneva

2007-10-13T21:58:00.000+02:00

Our long awaited visit from Kieren and Nikki finally occurred this August. With more leave up his sleeve than Nikki, Kieren arrived early to take advantage of Peter's new tour guiding skills and see as much of Switzerland as he could. They had fantastic weather for sightseeing in the mountains and much to our "delight", Kieren managed to squeeze in some canyoning near Interlaken, which he enjoyed. He took some terrific photos of the Jungfrau mountains on he and Peter's train journey to the highest railway station in Europe.

Nikki had a tiny two weeks in Europe, and with Barcelona and Paris to visit too, could only afford a few days in Geneva. She also got great summer weather and we had a lovely day trip to Annecy that weekend. On Mon/Tues, we couldn't let her escape without the obligatory chocolate tour and visit to the UN, so she got the highlights.

On this day last year

2007-10-01T22:36:00.001+02:00

The not so picturesque Genoa
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter

Ah, memories. The not so beautiful streets of Genoa. We were on route from Spain to Greece with Judy. What a fantastic holiday that was, in spite of the Genoan blip. On this day we had the stunning Greek sunsets ahead of us.

Grande Dixence

2007-10-01T22:30:00.001+02:00

Grande Dixence
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter

The water behind the wall.

Grande Dixence dam

2007-10-01T22:28:00.001+02:00

Grande Dixence dam
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter

Peter is at the foot of the Grande Dixence dam, the highest gravity fed damn in the world. Behind that wall is a whole lot of water.

We visited here on a weekend tour of the Valais organized by the Geneva Welcome Centre. The tour even included a walk through the tunnels inside the dam wall.

Claire and Dave

2007-08-11T21:03:00.000+02:00

During July, we had the pleasure of a visit from my lovely sister Claire and boyfriend (now fiancée!) Dave. Here are the gorgeous couple pictured at the UN Beach Club on their last evening in Geneva.

Dave, a passionate follower of the Tour de France (and not a bad cyclist himself) was here to fulfil his childhood dream of seeing the race live. This was his first visit to Europe and he certainly made the most of it. After achieving goal 1 (seeing the Tour) he attacked goal 2: cycling up the Alpe d'Huez, famous mountain stage of Tours gone by. This is no small mountain. It has 21 switchbacks, is 13.8 kilometres long and is very, very steep (see the pic). Chasing Lance Armstrong's best time of 37mins 36 secs, he finished in an impressive 1hr 15 mins ish, all without stopping.

With a keen appreciation of cycling himself, Peter wasn't quite up to tackling the Alpe d'Huez, but he did (proudly) manage to cycle up to the Col del la Columbière (800 metre climb) with Dave a couple of days before. They had to stop a few times on that trip.

Although it was Dave's dream, Peter was pretty happy with his experience as a live spectator of the Tour. They had some fantastic clear weather in the mountains and the atmostsphere must have been great.

While the men were out with the Tour, Claire and I enjoyed spending time together back in Geneva, a bit of shopping, a bit of lunch - lovely. It was great to see her over here again and I'm so pleased she got to see Geneva in all its summer glory. A bit of a different scene to when she visited last time during a wintery November.

Claire and Dave also visited Prague, Paris (where they got engaged!!) and Hong Kong on the way home. A very busy 2.5 weeks!

Five days in Vienna

2007-08-06T21:58:00.000+02:00

I ~~recently~~ went to Vienna for work, accompanied by Peter, our first visit there. I didn't get to see a whole lot of it, having to work and all, but we had a quick squiz at the major sites on Saturday, before heading home.

Peter on the other hand had a bit more time to look around. He even went over the border to check out Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, only 60kms away.

Work aside, the highlights of the visit for me was catching up with a colleague over dinner, seeing the Rathaus on Friday night, and the Belvedere Palace.

Here are a few pics - more on flickr.com.

Belvedere Palace, Vienna

Bratislava, Slovakia

The apartment we rented in Vienna

Weekend in Prague

2007-08-05T20:50:00.000+02:00

Ah.... Prague in June. What a wonderful weekend - beautiful buildings, bridges, beer, Mozart, and the local speciality: duck. Two days simply wasn't long enough.

See a slideshow of the pics.

Visit from Andy

2007-07-19T22:26:00.000+02:00

Finally time to catch up with some long overdue blog posts! In early May we had a lovely visit from Andy, Peter's godmother. At 88, she seems to have more energy than many of our younger visitors!

Andy and Peter had a lovely time touring the local sites, such as the good old chocolate factory and Gruyère castle.

The next weekend, after Andy and I went shopping at the Ferney market, her friend Pat arrived. The next day the two of them took off for a Lyceum club conference and tours of nearby France.

A week later they popped back in for one night to see us on their way to their mediterranean cruise.

We were so glad to have this visit from Andy and were in awe of her lifestyle. We just hope our lives are this full at 88!

A week touring Lithuania

2007-05-30T20:38:00.000+02:00

It's nearly a month since we got back from this trip and I am finally updating the blog with the details! Our friends Bob and Zydre, who have now, sadly for us, left Geneva to go back to live in Australia, invited us to join them on their holiday in Lithuania. Zydre is Lithuanian/ Australian, so we leaped at the chance to see a new country with a native who can speak the language.

Lithuania is one of the three Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). It is located on the Baltic Sea (funnily enough), sharing borders with Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. It declared independence from the Soviet Union in March 1990 (recognized in 1991) and is now part of the European Union. The population is about 3.5 million people (half that of Switzerland) and it has a surface area slightly smaller that Tasmania, which means you can see a lot in a week!

Now you have the vital statistics, let me tell you that Lithuania is a lovely country. It has a keen sense of identity and culture, made all the more real for us by our fantastic guide Zydre. The country is fairly flat, and not gorgeous, but the people are friendly, the food is good (albeit a bit stodgy at times) and there are some beautiful cities and places by the sea. We had a great time and saw many things. Here's a summary of our trip, complete with photos:

Peter and I arrived in the capital, Vilnius, on the Saturday afternoon. We found our way to our hotel in the city, only getting lost briefly, and did a bit of sightseeing. Here's Peter in the main city square with the clock tower and cathedral in the background.

We caught up with B & Z on Sunday morning, picked up the hire car, and hit the road. Here you can see Zydre and I checking out some wooden carved poles in a park alongside the motorway.

You may be able to tell from our stance that it was */&%*!!! freezing. This was the only downside of the trip. Temperatures were around 10 degrees with a wind chill factor of about -10! We weren't well prepared for this after experiencing 20 degree days in Geneva immediately before.

Next stop was the Curonian Spit, a 98 kilometre sand dune, half being Lithuania and the other half Russia (Kaliningrad). Here we are crossing the lagoon on the ferry.

This is the view to Russia from the top of the dunes above Nida, the town we called home for the next two nights.

Braving gale force winds, we put our fingers in the Baltic Sea. The beach was nice and the seas choppy. Reminded me a bit of Middleton.

Back on the mainland we briefly visited Klaipeda, Lithuania's third largest city and only seaport. It used to be part of the German empire (then called Memel), which is evident from the style of some of the older buildings.

Across in the North Eastern part of the country, we visited the incredible Hill of Crosses. Placing crosses in the ground began as a show of faith and resistance to occupation. In Soviet times, the Russians would remove the crosses, but they would 'mysteriously' reappear every morning. Now there are about 50,000 crosses and crucifixes there. Really an amazing sight to see.

In Kaunas, the second biggest city in Lithuania, we stayed in an apartment in the suburbs. It was really nicely renovated, and a great spot, but as you can see from the photo of Peter at the entrance, it was typical a "Soviet-style" apartment block. We were glad for an authentic experience.

We visited the open air museum to learn about country life and see tradition Lithuanian housing. From the inside of an actual Jurta (hut made of tundra), originally built in Siberia, this lady told us of the 1941 deportation of about 35,000 Lithuanians to Siberia, the northern coast of Russia. They lived in camps doing hard labour in freezing temperatures. This lady survived the ordeal.

Last stop before returning to Vilnius, was the resort town of Trakai. Here there is a beautifully restored castle.

So that's it! If you want to see all the photos, and there's only 176 of them, check out the set on Flickr.

Easter in the Swiss Alps

2007-04-21T08:51:00.000+02:00

Our third Easter in Europe was spent in a place we have grown to love: our friends' chalet in Gryon. We enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and the great company of B & Z who will soon, sadly for us, be heading back home.

One of the highlights of our weekend was our drive up the Valais to see the Aletsch Glacier - the longest glacier in Europe. It was a stunning sight. There was still plenty of snow, and skiers, but with the sun beating down, it won't be there for long. In the sun, the melting snow has an amazing velvet sheen.

We did an hour long walk alongside the glacier. The view across the Valais was fantastic with the Matterhorn clearly visible. Peter and I plan to return in the summer when the snow will be replaced with pasture and the glacier should really stand out.

See all the photos we took of the glacier on Flickr.

Budapest - Paris of the East

2007-03-24T14:35:00.000+01:00

Finally, time to write a post about our recent trip to Budapest! It was our first visit to this beautiful city, and to Hungary. On the Friday evening flight out of Geneva we had the pleasure to sit next to a friendly Budapest local named Pal who gave us his list of must-sees. Budapest was also Shane's (Kieren's friend who visited us recently) home for eight months last year, and during his stay with us in February we heard great things about the place.

Our hotel was right on Heroes' Square, an important monument at the end of Andrassy Avenue, the Hungarian equivalent of Paris's Champs-Elysées. The M1 Millennium Underground, which leads from the city centre to Heroes' Square is a beautiful restoration of the oldest underground on the European continent (1896).

The highlights of Saturday were the Hungarian National Museum, the Legenda boat tour of the River Danube and Margaret Island, and a visit to the Hungarian House of Wines. After a morning of wandering through the Pest city streets, the boat tour was a welcome rest. Budapest is actually a merging of two cities: Buda on one side of the river and Pest on the other. The boat tour did a good job of explaining the history and coming together of the two. It was also a big hit with me because I won the raffle - a DVD and bottle of Hungarian wine!

After the tour we walked up across the famous Chain Bridge and across to the Buda Castle district. It was getting late so we went for a short walk around the castle and then sought out the warm cellars of the House of Wines. For about $25 we got a wine glass to keep and could try up to 50 different Hungarian wines (we got through about 15 before we'd had enough!). They were OK but not great - we guessed that's why we hadn't heard much about great Hungarian wines!

Sunday was a beautiful day and we started out by wandering down Andrassy Avenue, stopping off at the very interesting House of Terrors, former headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party (Hungarian Nazis), then the Communist-led Political Police and State Security Police. The house has been restored and the exhibition is a horrifying and engaging description of two very sad eras of occupation in Hungarian history.

The rest of Sunday was spent wandering around the Castle district and soaking in some sun and Hungarian culture. The public transport system is brilliant and the Budapest Card made it easy to get around.

Budapest is a beautiful city and too big to see in a weekend - maybe we will have to return one day. See more photos on Flickr.

Brief visit to Rome

2007-03-19T19:37:00.000+01:00

We went to Rome earlier this month as I had a meeting to attend on the Monday and Tuesday. The weekend was spent partly finishing my uni assignment and doing a spot of sightseeing. We'd visited Rome with Simon in January last year, so we'd seen most of the major sights. Sunday was a beaufitul day, nearly 20 degrees, so we soaked up the good weather just wandering through the Roman fora and sitting in a cafe in the Piazza Trastevere. Bellissimo!

Here's a link to a few more photos.

Carnival time in Geneva

2007-02-24T19:52:00.000+01:00

Colour came to the streets of a wintry Geneva today with the annual carnival.

Taking a stroll through the old town with Shane, a friend of Kieren's who has been staying with us this week, we stumbled across the carnival parade.

It was a rainy day, so the bright costumes, music and dancing were a welcome sight!

I took a short video of the salsa group.

Some winter colour in Geneva

2007-02-18T21:29:00.000+01:00

February in Geneva

2007-02-18T14:00:00.000+01:00

It's been a quiet time since we arrived back in Geneva from our fantastic visit to Australia. Taking the train across Switzerland from Zurich airport back in mid-January, we had been expecting to see everything covered in snow, but nothing of the sort. There has been hardly any this season.

However...we did have one big snowfall in Geneva a couple of weeks ago. A nice thing for Fiona to see during her winter visit! She was so excited that she went outside in her pj's and rolled around in it. I imagine our neighbours think that Australians are a strange lot!

Fiona and Peter went skiing a couple of times, but I am yet to hit the pistes. Last weekend we did a bit of sledding in the nearby mountains.

We haven't been up to much else these last few weeks. Spending time with Fiona, catching up with friends, and a couple of short trips to Leukerbad and Basel.

Work has been hectic and I am coming to terms with being an online student (I'm doing a Masters of Science in Advanced IT and Business Management). I have found a great deal of effort is required to participate in 'class' (online discussions) and I am learning a lot. My first exam is in a couple of weeks.

You should see a bit more posted here during March. We have a trip to Rome for work and a weekend visit to Budapest coming up.

Fiona and Peter in Annecy one Sunday

Year 2006 in Cities

2007-01-03T01:54:00.000+01:00

Following on from last year's list, here are the cities/towns we spent one or more nights in during 2006:

Paris, France
Rome, Italy
Ronda, Spain

La Linea de la Conception, Spain

El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain

Seville, Spain
Tavira, Portugal
Malaga, Spain
Grenoble, France
Entrecasteaux, France
Amsterdam, Netherlands
La Ciotat, France
Wiesloch, Germany
Barcelona, Spain
Arles, France
Washington D.C., USA
New York, USA
Madrid, Spain
Avila, Spain
Lleida, Spain
Genoa, Italy
Milan, Italy
Hydra, Greece
Athens, Greece
Lugano, Switzerland
Zermatt, Switzerland
Berlin, Germany
Melbourne, Australia
Adelaide, Australia
Brisbane, Australia

That's 30 compared to 19 during 2005! Peter is getting very good at finding cheap deals for travel, and driving holidays around Spain have certainly boosted the numbers. There are a few towns in France missing from the list where we stayed during our bike ride down the Rhone, and where Peter and Judy stayed during their drive down to Spain.

I'm going back to study at uni part-time this year, so with weekends to be devoted to studying, I am sure 2007's list of cities will be a lot shorter!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T03:44:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year to you all! We saw the new year in at good old Victor Harbor, with a nice dinner, some live music, then fireworks. A bit different to last year in Paris - a great deal warmer for one!

Our visit to Oz has been a whirlwind of catching up with people, mostly over lunch and dinner. Our waistlines are paying the price, but we are having an excellent time!

We have one week left before returning to chilly Geneva. Hard to believe as I look outside to a beautiful Australian summer's day. It has been a great visit - so nice to be with our family at Christmas, and to spend time with them and friends.

We have arrived!

2006-12-13T11:36:00.000+01:00

We have arrived safely in Adelaide. It was wonderful to have the family there waiting for us at the airport! We spent a lovely afternoon in Judy's backyard, catching up on things.

We first landed in Melbourne on Sunday evening, after delays in Zurich. It was great to see Kieren and Nikki, and spend the evening with them in their lovely place in Hawthorn. After the best breakfast we have had in ages (cooked by Kieren), we took a plane from Melbourne to Adelaide.

Australia is hot and dry - it's so nice to be home! We are having a great time and looking forward to catching up with more family and friends over the next four weeks.

Stuck in Zurich

2006-12-08T19:01:00.000+01:00

Our flight to Singapore has been cancelled due to a "faulty body gear strut". They have put us up in a hotel near the Zurich airport, and we'll be flying out at 10am tomorrow, nearly 24 hours later than originally planned. Unfortunately this will affect our stay with Kieren and Nikki in Melbourne. We will probably arrive there on Sunday night, or may even arrange to go direct to Adelaide. We will find out all when we get into Singapore Sunday morning at 5am local time!

Off to the land of Oz

2006-12-08T18:59:00.000+01:00

Here we are, sitting in Zurich airport, waiting for our flight back home to Australia. We were up v. early this morning to catch the train from Geneva, in fact, I've been wide awake with excitement since 2am. Now it's early afternoon and I'm feeling jet lagged before we've left.

Got to the airport without any hassle, but upon arrival, we found out that our Singapore Airlines flight is delayed. Due to leave at 12:15, we are told there will be "more news" at 4pm, hopefully it's all good. Can't complain though. They gave us 2 x 50 franc vouchers to spend on food and drink. After a nice lunch, we are waiting in the airport bar, admiring the view. Waiting....and....waiting....

Postcards from Berlin

2006-11-10T15:50:00.000+01:00

During the last phase of Judy's stay with us we went to Berlin for an extended weekend. I liked her description of it as a 'City of Contrasts'. It had a vibrant feel, lots of interesting things to do, cheap, good food, and the best beer I've ever tasted. In contrast, we spent many hours contemplating the dark side of Germany's history with visits to the Jewish History Museum, Berlin Wall monument, and Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

We stayed in a suburb called Pankow, just north of the city centre, and in the former East Berlin. The apartment was perfect for the three of us - spacious, comfy, and close to the excellent public transport system.

There is heaps to see in Berlin, and even though we had almost five days there, we could easily have stayed longer. The Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium), built for the 1936 Summer Olympics and recently renovated for this year's FIFA World Cup, was high on Peter's list of sites to see. Unfortunately we picked the wrong day, arriving there on a match day meant we couldn't get inside to do the tour, but we got some nice pics from out the front.

Our other adventures included wandering through the beautiful Tiergarten park and getting caught up in a massive, but peaceful protest by union groups; enjoying a bratwurst sausage on Unter den Linden (and listening to Peter complain of indigestion for the rest of the afternoon); visiting Checkpoint Charlie with hundreds of other tourists; and Judy and I getting haircuts at groovy Berlin salons.

The Jewish History Museum was an interesting account of the Jewish people, their customs, lives, and their persecution over past centuries. Without realising it, we easily spent five hours wandering through the exhibits and were completely exhausted by the end of it.

It was fascinating to learn more about the Berlin Wall (1961-1989), which used to completely surround West Berlin, separating it from East Germany. There is a small portion of the Wall that remains as a monument. Kept completely free of graffiti, it doesn't resemble the typical images. The excellent museum nearby succinctly tells the story of the Wall's construction, impact, and fall.

In Oranienburg, about 60km north of Berlin, is the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Built in 1936, it was the first Nazi concentration camp. After the end of WWII it became a Soviet special camp until 1950. Although a small camp in comparison with others, 200,000 people passed through here between 1936 and 1945, only half of which survived. Sachsenhausen was also the administrative centre for all Nazi concentration camps, and a training centre for SS officers.

It was the first time that any of us had been to such a place. It was an extremely difficult experience, but I think it was important to see. I found it incredible to contemplate the order with which these camps were established and run, and how people could treat others so disgustingly. Several buildings of the original camp remain today, and the public memorial and museum ensures the history is well preserved.

During our last day in the city we took a train down to Potsdam, the capital of the state of Brandenburg, and the location of the 1945 Potsdam Conference, where the allies met to decide the future of Germany and post-war Europe. It is also the site of the beautiful Sanssouci park and palaces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our long weekend in Berlin was the last little holiday we did during Judy's stay with us. I think we all enjoyed it immensely and it was a real highlight (among many!). Jude is now on her way back to Oz, and is in Hong Kong as I type this. It was wonderful for us to spend nine weeks with her. Thankfully it wasn't too hard to say goodbye, because we will be seeing her back in Adelaide in about four weeks time!

See all of our Berlin photos on Flickr.

A clear day in Geneva

2006-11-02T20:42:00.000+01:00

France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Switzerland

2006-10-19T09:09:00.000+02:00

As part of Judy's nine week visit, Peter organised a wonderful holiday for us all. Using as many methods of transport as possible, we have travelled through France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Switzerland.

It's a complicated trip, but to cut a long story short, I had to go to Spain for a week to attend a meeting in a town called Avila (100km west of Madrid).

While I was working, Peter and Judy spent four days driving our car across France, and met me in Spain. After the conference finished, we drove to Barcelona (600km), stopping along the way at a town called Lleida. A whirlwind tour of Barcelona followed (lots of Gaudi buildings), then we hopped on a ferry with our car, and travelled to Genoa, Italy.

From Genoa, which we won't talk about (horrible hotel), we had a quick visit of the lovely Cinque Terre National Park, then headed up to Milan, and flew to Athens.

Now we are in Greece, where it was straight down to the port and off to the beautiful island of Hydra (ee-dra). This was the main phase of our holiday, and we stopped there for seven nights.

Our traditional Greek summer house (Spiti Costandi) was absolutely gorgeous, with a fantastic view of the harbour (we have hundreds of photos to prove it). Food was great, weather lovely, and swimming in the Agean was wonderful.

After Hydra, we went back and spent 24 hours in Athens, where we checked out the Acropolis and the old town area.

Had a bit of trouble getting out of Athens due to a metro strike, protests, and a severe lack of taxis, but we eventually made it on to our EasyJet flight.

Then back to Milan, where our car was waiting for us at the airport.

With five days of holidays left, we drove up to Lugano in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. We spent our time there walking and checking out the lovely lakeside town.

After Lugano, it was off to Zermatt. We had the crispest, clearest day for our drive through the mountains, and once in Zermatt, the best view of the Matterhorn we've ever seen.

On the drive back to Geneva on Sunday, we visited the Leukerbad thermal baths, where we could refresh after our busy travels. Being a tourist is hard work!

There are many more nice photos of this trip available on Flickr (also as slideshow).

This week I'm back in the office, but not for long as we're going to Berlin for the weekend. Berlin is a city none of us have visited before, and we are once again taking advantage of cheap EasyJet flights. Having visitors is the perfect excuse to travel.

A week in Washington

2006-09-24T09:21:00.000+02:00

Well, for me it was a week in Washington, for Peter and Judy, it was five days, plus a visit to New York. The three of us met at Dulles airport, having all taken different planes from Geneva and Adelaide. It is great to see Judy again after 18 months! She will be with us for nine weeks.

Washington is a beautiful city - leafy and green, nice buildings, and not too big. I was there for work - a meeting on statistical dissemination and communication. Having spent several months helping to organize this meeting, I was looking forward to finally meeting everyone, and also to delivering a paper on the business applications of blogs.

We stayed in a residential area in the south east, about 15 minutes walk from 'the Hill'. It was close to the Eastern Market, and we enjoyed browsing around the stalls and shops. The weather was nice - mid twenties and fairly humid.

The meeting went very well, and my presentation was well received. It was a busy week and I was exhausted by Friday.

While I was working, Peter and Judy were off in New York, enjoying the sights and going to see 'The Color Purple' on Broadway. They had a great time.

One of the highlights of our visit to the US was going to the baseball on the last night we were there. A lovely local, Laurie, took us to see her beloved Washington Nationals play the Milwaukee Brewers. The Nationals lost, but it was exciting to be there and soak in the atmosphere. On the last day we enjoyed a visit to the fairly new National Museum of the Native American.

Today I am off to Spain for another meeting, then two whole weeks of holidays (first long holiday in 18 months - I know we have plenty, but they are usually short). We are going to see a bit of Spain, Italy, spend a week in Greece, see more of Italy, then drive home through Switzerland.

See all the photos of Washington on Flickr (taken with our new beautiful Lumix TZ1 camera).

Cycling and spas in the Swiss mountains

2006-09-04T20:00:00.000+02:00

Leukerbad, in the Swiss canton of Valais, was our destination last weekend. Two hours drive from Geneva, and one hour from the section of Rhone River bike path we had yet to complete, it was an ideal spot to go camping. That is, except for the fact it was situated at 1,400 metres altitude and was a very chilly 10 degrees overnight. Leukerbad is a beautiful town, surrounded by an amphitheatre of rocky mountains, and famous for its thermal springs.

Arriving late on Friday night, we struggled to get our tent up before it got dark, and then Peter nearly burnt the whole thing down whilst lighting our camp stove (good one!!). After those tense moments, we settled in, cooked risotto, which we had with a nice bottle of red wine, then managed to get a few hours sleep in the cold mountain surroundings. Saturday morning, it was back down to the valley, destination Oberwald, the end of our "Rhone River: source to the sea project". This is a good spot to call the 'end', as beyond Oberwald it gets really, really hilly. You can take the train from there, under the Furka pass, and it will be this that we take next year, when we continue our ride, this time along the River Rhine.

The countryside was magnificent as we rode the 45 km from Oberwald to Brig (where we'd got to last year). That part of the Valais is very different to the sections we had visited before. Being close to the Rhone glacier, the river is a creek compared to further along, and the valley is narrow and quiet. We had a few hills to climb (and descend), but the views and the quiet roads more than made up for the effort. We have now completed the 950km path along the Rhone, from the mountains in Switzerland, to the south coast of France.

The pièce de résistance of the weekend was the thermal baths we went to on Sunday morning. Figuring that 9am on Sunday is a good time to beat the crowds, we headed down to 'Burgerbad', the biggest and best spa centre in town. It was unbelievable. They have 10 different pools and spas, heated between 25 and 43 degrees (and a couple very cold ones for plunging into after the hot ones!). We spent three hours there, going from pool to pool, trying all the different treatments, massage jets, boiling sauna hut, etc. Imagine sitting in a pool of spring water, heated to 35 degrees, overlooking the rugged mountains. Magic!

See all the pictures on flickr.com.

A night in a French Chateau

2006-08-21T21:55:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday saw me turn another year older. Peter spoiled me, and himself, with a weekend at a beautiful 17th century chateau in France. Chateau de Rigny is in a town called Gray, about two hours drive from Geneva. We took the slow roads there, and enjoyed the views.

The chateau was gorgeous and our room was fantastic. Downstairs there was a bar and restaurant, so once we got there, we stayed put. After four sets of table tennis (Peter won 4-0 - no concessions for the birthday girl!), and a stroll around the gardens, we got ready for dinner then headed to the bar for a drink. While enjoying a glass of bubbly on the terrace, the waiters brought out the menu and had us ordering dinner an hour before we'd booked in! By the time we got to the dining room, our bottle of wine and mineral water were already waiting at our table. Thankfully the food wasn't there yet! The meal was average, but the atmosphere, and company, were excellent.

After a leisurely breakfast the next morning, we hit the road, heading for Besancon. This French city was a recommended to us by the Fishers when they were here last summer, and we'd been meaning to visit it for ages. It is an old fortified town, one of 15 designed by Vauban in the 17th century. The citadelle is in excellent condition and now houses several museums and bizarrely, zoos. We did the obligatory audio tour of the ramparts and courtyard, then spent a couple of hours in the Museum of Resistance and Deportation. It was the first time I've been to a WWII museum in an area that was occupied by the Nazis. There were many original objects on display and a comprehensive history of the events leading up to, during and immediately after the war. The pictures and stories of concentration camps were absolutely sickening.

On the way home from Besancon we drove through the Jura, past the fields where we went skiing and sledding in winter. Needless to say, it looked pretty different. Lots of green grass and grazing cows. The ski trails are still well used this time of year, with plenty of people out hiking.

See more photos on Flickr.

Cycling along the Rhone II

2006-08-06T09:14:00.000+02:00

Last week we took five days to cycle along the River Rhone, from Lyon to the sea. A total of 370km! This has almost completed our ride along the Rhone, from the source, near Andermatt in Switzerland, to the sea (we have 40km at the start still to do). We did most of the Swiss section last summer, and started heading down river from Geneva in May.

It was almost all flat, very hot, but there was a nice strong tailwind. We carried our gear on our bikes, using the train to get to Lyon, our starting point, then the bus and train to get home from Port-St-Louis-du-Rhone.

This map of the main roads is not the exact route we followed, but it gives an idea of the areas we went through. More details to be posted on our Cycling in Europe website, when I get the time.

Click here to see a slideshow of photos from our trip.

Dancing in Tortosa

2006-07-20T19:45:00.000+02:00

Views over Tortosa
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter.

Fiona has been in Spain the last two weeks, at a modern dance workshop in Tortosa, 180 km south of Barcelona. Peter and I took the train there on Thursday night, and spent Friday watching the classes and evening performance. There are a few photos on Flickr.

It was an impressive workshop with 80 dancers from all over the world. Fiona had a great time and really benefited from the experience of working with professionals in difference aspects of dance, movement and creativity.

She was one tired girl when we headed back to Geneva on Saturday so she could catch her plane to Australia that night. It's great to have our loved ones come to spend time with us, but very hard to say goodbye.

At the beach

2006-06-30T22:00:00.000+02:00

Fiona is here for her second visit to Geneva. In a quest to see as much of the European dance scene as possible, Peter and she headed down to Marseille for their arts festival. Rather than stay in the big, horrible city that is Marseille, they spent their 5 days camping at La Ciotat, 30 minutes down the coast. Their days were spent in the sun and sea, and their evenings watching dance performances. Not a bad lifestyle!

It was Fiona's birthday on Saturday, and I caught the train down to meet them. The TGV takes only 3.5 hrs to Marseille, whereas a car takes just over 5. We spent Saturday relaxing by the beach, swimming and wandering around the town. As you can see from the pic, French beaches are a bit different to Australian ones! Once we struggled to find a patch of sand to leave our things, we went into the water. It was lovely (cool, but not cold) and we enjoyed swimming in the sea for the first time since we left Oz.

Next day I had to be dragged onto the train to go back to Geneva for work, whereas P & F were looking forward to 2 more days in the sun. Not fair!

Camping at La Ciotat was a great holiday for them. Fiona really enjoyed herself and is now completely in love with the European lifestyle.

And then...the World Cup!

2006-06-17T18:09:00.000+02:00

Yes, we were there! In Kaiserslautern to see Australia's first ever World Cup goal and win when they beat Japan 3-1. What a great experience it was! The stadium was packed. We would guess 15 -20,000 Australian supporters; certainly the biggest Aussie crowd we'd been part of for a long time. The view was great and the atmosphere electric. It was quite “goose bumpy” to hear our national anthem sung so far from home and a struggle to hold back the tears.

It was thanks to Peter's persistence in applying for the ticket draws that we managed to get seats (105 Euros each). We were closer to the Japanese fan's corner than the Australians, but there was a mix of supporters from both sides. The Japanese are formidible barrackers, all chanting the same song and clapping in time. The Aussies were different – we just yell, and some can’t help themselves, they have to abuse the ref!!!

Watching the match against Croatia on TV last Thursday has us addicted. I used to be puzzled at how anyone can maintain interest in a game where there is often no score,
but now I completely understand the attraction. It is sooooo exciting! However, I can only imagine being enthusiastic watching Australia play, and maybe Switzerland.

Looking forward to the match against Italy tomorrow! C'mon Aussies!!

At the French Open

2006-06-05T21:51:00.000+02:00

Peter at the French Open
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter.

We've just returned from a long weekend near Paris, where we spent Sunday at Roland Garros. Here's a picture of Peter, taken from our seats in the Suzanne Lenglen Stadium.

We stayed at the Marriott resort outside of Paris (near EuroDisney), which was very nice. Thanks to my colleague Gerald for the great deal! On Sunday, we drove the 40mins into the city to see the tennis. Having experienced the Australian Open twice, we were really looking forward to the French Open, and we weren't disappointed. The best match we saw was the first one, between Sharapova and Safina, the latter winning in a surprise upset.

Weekend in Amsterdam

2006-05-31T19:43:00.000+02:00

We spent last weekend in Amsterdam. It's a great city and quite different to others we've visited. The canals, canal houses, houseboats, bicycles, coffeeshops and red light district, all make for a unique and interesting place!

The weather on Saturday was a bit cold and rainy, good for museum visiting. We saw paintings by the Dutch Masters at the beautiful Rijksmuseum and had an emotional visit to the Anne Frank house.

We also did a hour long cruise of the canals and visited the Houseboat museum. There are about 2,500 houseboats in Amsterdam and they sell from about €200,000, with annual mooring fees of €400+. Apart from the disadvantage of minimal privacy and limited space, you also have to send your houseboat to the shipping yard every 3 years for maintenance. I like that it's different.... but not the life for me.

After breakfast on Sunday, we walked around the flower market (past an Australian icecream shop?) and visited the Amsterdam Historic Museum. Here you get to learn all about how Amsterdam grew into a massive shipping port and a key player in world trade. The city is built on peat bog with wood /cement pillars driven about 40m into the ground to provide the foundation. It seems pretty stable to me, perhaps not if we'd been visiting any of the coffee shops.

The sky was almost clear, so it was time to get away from museums and do some outdoor activity. We hired a canal bike (pedal boat) and cruised around the canals for an hour. It was quite difficult to steer, so we had some challenging moments, especially when I took hold of the wheel (well....it looked easy!)!

I'd been told the Red Light District is something to be seen, but without a guidebook, I didn't think we'd ever find it (the tourist office doesn't exactly advertise it!). Leaving the city to go back to our hotel on Sunday night, we followed a group of tourists and stumbled upon the famous area. It certainly was a sight to see!

On Monday morning it was back to Geneva and back to work. We woke up at 6am in Amsterdam and thanks to EasyJet being on time, I was back at my desk in Geneva by 10.30am - amazing!

Click here for all the photos our our visit to Amsterdam.

20km walk around Geneva

2006-05-27T05:31:00.000+02:00

The mighty Rhone
Originally uploaded by Jess & Peter.

Thursday was a public holiday in Geneva and Peter and I went for a 5.5 hour hike around the countryside. We followed the river Allondon to where it joined the Rhone (see picture). It was a beautiful day and an exhausting walk! If you have 2 mins to look at the pictures we took of the beautiful surroundings, check out the slideshow on flickr.

It's now Saturday morning and we are about to head to the airport to go Amsterdam for the weekend!

Cycling along the Rhone

2006-05-21T22:43:00.001+02:00

Go to our Cycling Across Europe blog for detailed information about cycling along the River Rhone.

Last weekend we started our new cycling project: to follow the Rhone river from Geneva, through France to the Mediterranean sea. Tacked onto the trip we did along the Swiss part of the Rhone last summer, this is a total of 820 km.

On Saturday we battled hills, headwind and rain to get 79 km down river to a town in France called Culoz. We were hoping to stay there and continue the next day, but luck had it that there was no accommodation and we had to catch the train home.

We will tackle the next section of the ride in July/August. The next few weekends are booked up with a trip to Amsterdam (27 May), then Paris for the French Open (couldn't resist this year) followed by a drive to Germany for the World Cup (Australia vs Japan)! After a couple of months rest, we have the travel bug again.

A weekend of camping in Annecy

2006-05-14T21:00:00.000+02:00

On the last weekend in April we dusted off the camping gear and went to Annecy for a weekend of camping and cycling. Bob and Zydre joined us, recently returned from their home leave in Australia.

We set up our tents at 'La Ferme', a camping ground towards the end of the lake. It was early in the camping season, so much so that we were the only ones there! The weather was beautiful during the day, but it was a little chilly at night.

The bike path along Lake Annecy is one of the best we've been on. It's completely off-road and was swarming with cyclists and in-line skaters.

The path follows an old railway line and even goes through a tunnel. The trip into Annecy was about 17kms from where we were camped, making it a 35 km ride aller-retour.

Once back at our campsite, we enjoyed a BBQ dinner with some wine and a campfire to keep us warm. The night was cold, but we all awoke in a good mood, especially after a hot cuppa and some breakfast.

Sunday was another beautiful day and rather than cycling again, we opted for a day of rest and tourism. About 10km outside of Annecy are the Gorges du Fier, which Bob and Zydre suggested we visit, as they'd been there before.

It's an amazing site, where the river has carved out a 70 metre deep gorge that ranges from 2-15 metres wide. A narrow but safe walkway has been built 27 metres above the water level, allowing people to walk through the gorge.

Due to flooding during winter, the gorge is closed for half the year. You can see trees and debris from earlier floods stuck on high ledges. Along the walkway are markers that indicate the height of the flood water, well above the walkway we were standing on.

Annecy has always been on the list of must-see places for our visitors and now the Gorges du Fier are on the list too!

Easter in Provence

2006-04-19T19:53:00.000+02:00

We spent the Easter weekend in Provence - our first visit to the region in the lovely south of France. On the way down there, we stopped for the night in Grenoble (pictured left), which is about 1.5 hours drive from Geneva.

On Good Friday we drove down through the French countryside to our destination: Entrecasteaux, a small village in the department of Var (see map).

On the way, we visited the Gorges du Verdon, Europe's answer to the Grand Canyon. It was very picturesque, but hard to find a carpark to stop and look properly.

Once in Provence, we stayed at the gorgeous Maison Marianel in Entrecasteaux . Our hosts were a lovely Danish couple, who bought their house 2.5 years ago and have done an beautiful job of renovating it. We were in one of their three fully self-contained apartments. It had plenty of space and a lovely terrace overlooking vineyards.

On Saturday we gladly took the advice of our host Leif (pronounced 'Life') and set off on a lovely 40km bike ride from Entrecasteaux, to Contignac, Sillans la Cascade, Salernes and back to Entrecasteaux. It was all uphill until lunchtime, then all downhill back home. Perfect after pizza et une petite carafe de vin rouge! Before lunch we visited the waterfall at Sillans la Cascade.

On Sunday, we drove 60km to Saint Raphael on the Cote d'Azur. Despite the beautiful weather (about 25 degrees), we found it difficult to enjoy the cycling along the busy, narrow road. After about 18 kms, we decided to stop at a very nice restaurant overlooking the sea. Lunch was great, but the coast was so packed with cars and people. I'd hate to see it in summer!

Overall it was a great weekend and way too short! We could have easily spent a week or two there. See the rest of our photos on Flickr.

Spring has sprung

2006-04-09T17:52:00.000+02:00

It's now a rainy Sunday evening following a glorious sunny Saturday. This combination of rain and sun makes for beautiful spring gardens. The daffodils are out and the tulips are just about to flower. It won't be long before Geneva will look like this again.

Over the weekend, Peter and I spent some time with Bryan and Gail Fitzpatrick, former ABS colleagues who are now living and working in Wales. Bryan was in Geneva for the ECE meeting I was co-organising. After a busy week of work, it was great to get out into the sunshine for a drive around the lake. We took them to some of the usual nearby tourist spots - Nyon, Vevey, Montreux, Chillon castle and Gruyeres. There was still some snow around 1400 metres, but much of it has melted away. It was a lovely day of market browsing and site seeing, which concluded with traditional fondue and raclettes at a restaurant in Gruyeres. A very Swiss outing!

Next weekend Peter and I are off to Provence in the south of France for some cycling, relaxing and great food and wine. This will be the first time either of us has been to this region. We'll drive down on Thursday afternoon, our destination being Entrecasteaux in the department of Var, where we'll stay Friday-Monday.

Happy Easter everyone!

Work, work, work!

2006-03-19T10:48:00.000+01:00

We have done little in the last few weeks but work (sometimes including nights and weekends!). Peter has 2 weeks left on his contract and then will be returning to retirement. He is looking forward to it.

My time has mostly been spent organising an intergovernmental meeting on statistical metadata that we're holding in early April. We are expecting about 75 participants and 30 papers to be presented. I should learn more about statistical metdata than I had ever imagined! French studies are also demanding a lot of time. I had a big exam last Friday, which I think went OK.

There are signs of Spring appearing as you can see from the photo taken in our garden. Thank god, because we are sick of winter! Our memories of last year's summer are keeping us going through the cold and gloomy weather. We just had the best weekend, with yesterday's temperature reaching 23 degrees. We played tennis (Peter won 6-0, 6-1) and then rode our bikes to Nyon, where we had lunch with friends. A huge day of activity!

More Snow

2006-03-05T08:44:00.000+01:00

It's another quiet weekend at home for us. I just opened the blinds to discover we had a huge amount of snow last night. Will it ever end?

From the cosiness of the apartment, it's really very nice. This pic is of the view from our 2nd bedroom/study.

12 Months Old Today!

2006-03-01T19:14:00.000+01:00

Our overseas adventure turned 1 today! We arrived in Geneva on this day 12 months ago - boy has it flown by.

Here's what the weather looked like this morning. To think, when we first arrived, everyone was telling us how rare snow is this time of year.

It's been a fantastic year. I really enjoy my job and we love living in Geneva. I can even speak a tiny bit of French now (we'll see how I go on that test tomorrow).

We've seen heaps of new places, met lovely people and had lots of Aussie visitors. Check out the Archives on the RHS to see what we've been up to.

PS It's also my Gran's birthday today - Happy Birthday Gran!

Spain & Portugal

2006-02-18T18:58:00.000+01:00

At the end of January we took a trip to Spain and Portugal. You might think we're always on holiday (and you wouldn't be far wrong!), but our trips are usually crammed into a weekend. This time I took a week off work and we had a great break! We flew into Malaga on the southern coast, in the Spanish region of Andalucia.

It was a welcome break from the cold temperatures in Geneva, with days around 18 degrees and sun! Peter had booked a car, but we didn't worry about pre-booking accommodation, so were free to decide where to head for each day and how long to stay. Our trip took us to many interesting places, the highlights being the mountain-top town of Ronda, Flamenco dancers in Seville and the two relaxing days we spent in Tavira, Portugal.

After arriving in the morning on Saturday, we headed straight up into the mountains to a town called Ronda. It's situated at an elevation of 723m and has a stunning 100m deep gorge running through the middle of town. About 34 thousand people live there, so it's fairly large, and definitely catering to tourists.

According to our trusty Lonely Planet guide, Ronda is also the home of Spanish bullfighting. We didn't get the chance to sit through one of those gory spectacles, but we did visit the bullring and museum.

As you can see from the pics, the sky was beautifully clear, but it was cold.

The next morning we awoke to find previously sunny Ronda, covered in a blanket of snow. We were saying "oh, how bewdiful", until we realised that it might be difficult to get off the mountain in our little rental car without snow tyres or chains.

After burning rubber to just get up the icy car park ramp, we set off down the road. Thankfully we quickly met up with a backhoe that was clearing the snow, making it safe for us to drive. The snow in Ronda must have been a rare thing. As we drove down we saw heaps of people playing in it on the side of the road, and there were pictures on the front page of the next day's paper. It was great to see, but we were in Spain to get away from the snow!!

Next it was off to Gibraltar, a British colony on the southern most tip on Spain. It is basically a large lump of limestone rock(5km long, 1.6km wide and 426m high), which has been under British control since 1713 (despite Spain's efforts to get it back). On top of the rock is a national park that is home to the Barbary apes, Europe's only wild primates. They are quite used to humans visiting their home, and as we pulled up in our car, one jumped onto the bonnet and started peering in the windows looking for food. She seemed very friendly, as we got out the car she was sitting near us and even put her hand in my pocket. I decided to give her a pat - BIG mistake! She freaked out and took a swipe at me, I turned and jumped out the way, but she kept coming at me and then bit me on the arm! It hurt, but there was no blood, just a little bruise. Lesson learned!

The next leg of the trip was a drive along the coast known as the Costa de la Luz. We were hoping to stay in a small beachside town, but nothing much seemed open, so we kept on driving to El Puerto de Santa Maria, past Cadiz. This was where Christopher Columbus's set off on his 2nd and 4th expeditions across the Atlantic.

The town wasn't all that interesting, but our acommodation was great. We stayed in a beautifully renovated 19th century Spanish 'casa'. Here's a photo of the patio, the entrance and centre of the house.

Next stop was Seville, the capital of the Andalucia region. This is a big city (population over 700,000) with plenty to see and do. The highlight of our visit here was the Flamenco show we saw that night. It was fantastic! There were three in the act: guitar player, female singer and a male dancer. They were all excellent, the dancer must have burned so many calories with his incredible foot stomping and dance moves!

At this stage of the trip we had two choices: head east to Cordoba and Granada (the other big cities in southern Spain), or west to Portugal. In the pursuit of visiting as many countries as possible, we had to choose Portugal! We were very happy we did, because it was lovely.

We went to Tavira, a fishing village about 30km over the Spanish border. It was quite busy with tourists (mostly British golfers), a noteable difference to Spain at this time of year. Not that more tourists is an attraction, but it generally means more places are open and things happening.

We had a relaxing stay, reading on our hotel room balcony (see photo on right of the view) and wandering around the town checking out the tiled houses. The seafood and wine here were excellent, especially at this little restaurant recommended by the tourist office where the "locals" go. The prices in Spain were cheap, but Portugal was cheaper again. Our 4* hotel cost €45 a night, including breakfast, and the most expensive bottle of red wine in the supermarket was €4.20.

After two days in the sun, it was back in the car for the 380km drive to Malaga, then the flight home the next day.

When we landed in Geneva it was -2 degrees. A long way from the beach, but it was nice to be home!

Rome

2006-02-16T07:23:00.000+01:00

On the last weekend of Simon's visit, we went to Rome. It was the first time there for Simon and I, and the second for Peter. As with most of our trips, we were on a tight schedule. Our flight landed early on the Saturday morning and our first mission was to get to the Vatican and see the Sistine Chapel before it shut at 1pm.

We dashed onto the Metro and arrived to find the queue snaking around the city walls (as we'd been warned). A woman was milling about waiting to get unprepared tourists to join her expensive but 'no waiting in queues' tour. Given the time limitations, we parted with a pile of euros and went (pretty much) straight in.

Anyone who has been to the Vatican Museum will know, the place is absolutely packed with tourists!! The artwork is incredible, but what an amazing display of opulence and wealth. Towards the end of the guided tour, we joined thousands of other people in the Sistine Chapel, where the crowds had to compress from about 100 wide down to single file to get out of the narrow door at the other end. You definitely wouldn't want to be claustrophobic!

People say that Rome is a great city for walking, so we spent the rest of the afternoon, wandering back towards our hotel and soaking in the atmosphere. The weather was beautiful with the sun shining and temperatures around 8 degrees (much warmer than Geneva in early January!).

Sunday was a full-on day of sight-seeing. First we did the hop-on, hop-off bus tour to get an overview of the city (bit of a time waster), then it was straight to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum for a long wander around the incredible ruins. In the afternoon we went to the Pantheon (wow!) and the Trevi fountain, ending up at the Spanish Steps, where we watched the sun set over the city.

Rome is an amazing and chaotic city - the history, art and of course, the stylish Italians. We definitely enjoyed our whirlwind tour, but I didn't toss a coin in the Trevi fountain.

Happy New Year!

2006-02-10T21:06:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! It's been so long since I've updated our site - a belated Happy New Year to you all! I have no good excuses, except the usual being busy... and we bought a new computer that took me ages to get everything set up on.

We are both well and getting through our first northern hemisphere winter, while hearing the news of the full-on heat in Australia. It's awful that it can be -25 degrees in Moscow and 40+ with bushfires in Australia. We certainly can't complain, the daytime temperatures are rarely below -2 here and lately as high as 7!

We have a lot to report on since Christmas. Firstly, I should write about our New Year's Eve in Paris. Simon was here for his 3 week visit and we wanted to him to see a bit of Europe. The train trip from here is only 3 hours and well priced, so heading to Paris for the weekend is achievable. We had a great time (despite being bloody cold), walking along the Champs Elysee with a million other people and waiting under the Eiffel Tower to see in 2006.

We were a tad disappointed when midnight came and there were no official fireworks! Apparently they're only a "summer thing". I had just assumed that NYE and fireworks went hand in hand.

Still, we enjoyed the atmosphere and checking out the sights the next day. Peter has climbed the Eiffel Tower 3 times this year!

Year 2005 in Cities

2005-12-30T10:46:00.000+01:00

Since moving to live in Europe, we have been taking advantage of the cheap flights and mass of nearby destinations available to us. Inspired by Jason Kottke's post The year in cities, here is the list of cities I spent one or more nights in during 2005.

Adelaide, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Geneva, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Venice, Italy
Paris, France
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
London, UK
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Galway, Ireland
Killarney, Ireland
Kilkenny, Ireland
Dublin, Ireland
Zermatt, Switzerland
St Moritz, Switzerland
Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Lucerne, Switzerland
New York, USA
Skopje, Macedonia

Peter's list is almost the same, except with Brisbane and Luxembourg instead of Tashkent and New York.

This is, without a doubt, the most traveling I have ever done in a year. However, I'm sure many of you (such as the 23 Australians I know who came through Geneva on holiday this year!) will have much more impressive lists. Let's see them then!

Hitting the Slopes

2005-12-27T19:36:00.000+01:00

We survived our first go at skiing in Switzerland! After 2 hours of learning what is meant to be the easiest form of skiing, cross-country, we were tired but enthusiastic. Peter got the prize for the most improved, and the best at getting up after falling down. Simon and I took to it quite quickly, with only a couple of falls or stumbles. Simon did a pretty good job of masking his boredom, whilst looking longingly over at the snowboarding school.

Brettaye was our resort of choice and the slopes were packed with downhill skiers and snowboarders (definitely not a cross-country skiers paradise). Our instructor, Michael, was excellent - very patient and helpful. Now we have a grasp of the basics, it's time to buy some skis and get out to practice!

Christmas day was great. We spent it with the lovely Pembers, who welcomed us into their home for Xmas with their family and friends. One of the many highlights has to be last night's dinner, when we all went on sleds, pulled by a snowmobile, through the falling snow, to a fantastic restaurant. An incredible and memorable experience for all of us.

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T09:42:00.000+01:00

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! It's about 2 degrees here in Geneva and the snow has just started falling. We are about to head up to the mountains for lunch with another Australian family. Tomorrow we'll have our first skiing lesson!

Joyeux Noel et une bonne annee 2006!

Ciao Bella!

2005-12-23T21:00:00.000+01:00

During Claire's last weekend visiting us, she took us out for a scrumptious dinner at Auberge des Trois Coqs (our favourite local restaurant). It was a special night with a small band playing downstairs and lots of atmosphere.

On the Saturday, she and I went into Geneva for some pre-Christmas shopping, lunch and sight-seeing. The shops were packed with people, but we managed to squeeze through the crowds to get our last minute gifts, and buy each other some earrings (Claire got gorgeous little snowflake ones).

We climbed the towers of St Peter's Cathedral in Geneva Old Town, up some very narrow spiral staircases, to see the lovely view over the city and lake. It was a bit overcast, the view would be even more stunning on a clear sunny day. See Claire pictured on the balcony of the north tower, just as light snow started falling.

On Sunday, we went driving through the Jura mountains, which was covered in a thick blanket of snow. It's a very picturesque drive from the warmth and comfort of the car. Too cold to get out! This is the area we hope to go cross-country skiing. There are many kilometres of trails to choose from.

Once home again, I cooked soup and roast turkey for Christmas lunch a few days early. I must say, it was pretty damn good! I even made stuffing for the first time and that worked out very well. The French champagne was also very nice.

Catch up

2005-12-22T15:29:00.000+01:00

Time to play a bit of catch up with this website! Since I last wrote we have:

been visited by friends Kerrie and Bob;
been to celebrate Geneva's l'Escalade;
Peter spent a week working as an 'Invited Expert' at a statistics meeting here in Geneva;
spent another week with Claire after she returned from her whirlwind tour of Europe;
driven Claire to Zurich yesterday to catch her plane to Singapore then Australia;
returned from Zurich with son Simon who is visiting for 3 weeks

As you can see, a lot has been happening and I can't believe it's Christmas on Sunday.

Firstly our weekend with Kerrie and Bob was spent having a moules and frites dinner in nearby France (yum), market shopping on Saturday morning, spending a freezing cold afternoon/evening at l'Escalade and then a nice Sunday drive in the snow covered Jura.

L'Escalade is an annual event in Geneva celebrating the defeat of the Duke of Savoy's forces when they attacked Geneva in 1602. It is celebrated with lots of vin chaud (hot wine) and lovely soup, reminiscent of the boiling cauldron of soup that was tipped on the heads of Savoyard soldiers by a clever woman.

The old town comes alive with heaps of people dressed in period costume (some on horseback like the guy on the left), pipe bands, sword fights, cannon explosions and a general party atmosphere. Pity it was about -5 degrees!

The following Thursday, Claire returned from her tour with senses overload, having visited 8 countries in 12 days. She had a great time, but I think was pleased that it was over and there was no need to get up and on a bus at 6.30 again.

We spent her second week here doing a bit of shopping, relaxing, checking out the old town (including climbing the cathedral tower) and having a special Xmas lunch, roast turkey and all. Yesterday Peter drove her to Zurich airport (3 hours away) where he exchanged her for young Simon who arrived about 2 hours before Claire was due to depart. Perfect timing!

Simon was very excited to be here and see his dear Dad again. When I got home from work he was asleep on the couch - exhausted from the 36 hours of travel it takes to get here from Adelaide. I, and probably the roast lamb Peter was dishing up for dinner, managed to rouse him from sleep and we had a great time catching up on all the news. He and Peter visited me at work this morning and we took Simon on a quick tour of the Palais. Tonight I think we are having fondue as it's perfect weather for this - ie freezing.

Claire Arrives

2005-12-03T17:14:00.000+01:00

My sister Claire arrived last week for her first visit to Europe. After a good night's sleep to recover from any jet lag, we dragged her up into the mountains to try out our new sled. That's her tearing down the hill in the photo!

During the week she visited the Chateau de Chillon at Montreux, did the tour of the UN and spent time exploring Geneva. We've been out for dinner at the local Korean restaurant and she and I hit the shops at Balexert on Thursday night.

She's now off on a Contiki tour for 12 days and will be back to stay with us for another week after that. We're looking forward to hearing about her travels to Amsterdam, Munich, Innsbruck, Venice, Rome, Florence, Lucerne, Paris and London. Wow!!

Snow in Geneva

2005-11-27T16:57:00.000+01:00

Well, the first snow of winter hit Geneva on Thursday night - about 10cms of it. This was most unexpected as we were told it doesn't usually snow here before Xmas. It seems that there's been a pattern of freak weather ever since we arrived!

It was so nice to step outside and find this carpet of clean white snow. We still walked to work, all rugged up in coats and gloves. It was cold, but very still and the fresh snow hardly even made our shoes wet. I'll have to get some decent walking boots so I can get some grip up killer hill.

Click here for more of our 'snow' photos on Flickr.

Skopje

2005-11-27T11:18:00.000+01:00

Last week it was off one plane and onto the next, this time to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. I was going for work and Peter came along as well. We were there for 4 days - just enough time to look around the city. Macedonia is a small country with a population of about 3 million people. It has a troubled economy with unemployment currently around 37%. Skopje is the most populated area and the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1963. The partially remaining railway station bears monument to the event, with its clock still frozen at 5.17pm.

The people I worked with were lovely, very welcoming and committed to their work. The country has applied to join the European Union, so agencies are busying themselves with bringing work practices in line with EU standards.

A day or two after we got there it started to snow, the first snow we've seen since arriving in Geneva last March. Peter trudged around in it and took lots of photos.

Skopje has quite a few modern shops, bars and restaurants, but its problems were evident in the crumbling footpaths, unfinished buildings and the number of old cars on the road. The prices of food and clothing were about 25% of Geneva prices and we enjoyed trying the local food - stroganoff style casseroles with rice and vegies. The Macedonian red wine was pretty good too.

New York

2005-11-26T20:56:00.000+01:00

I spent the last week at head-quarters in New York, attending an orientation course for 'junior' professionals. The picture on the left shows the view from the ladies' bathroom!

The course was a great opportunity to meet other people and learn a bit more about the organisation. New York is as exciting and huge as I remember from my first visit last March. The main differences this time were the autumn colours in Central Park and the slightly warmer weather.

I used the trip as a chance to catch up on some shopping (slightly cheaper than Geveva) and go to a Broadway show. The show was called Movin' Out - a dance musical set to 24 of Billy Joel's songs. It was different to what I expected, in that there was no dialogue (just dancing and the band), but it was excellent.

Since my last visit the cost of rooms seems to have doubled so I decided to stay in the West Side YMCA. It was a great location (adjacent Central Park), but with a shared bathroom 2 kms down the hall and paint peeling from the walls, it was almost comfortable! At US$70 a night it was cheap for New York. See the photo on the right for my mini-view of Central Park.

Luxembourg

2005-11-12T16:09:00.000+01:00

I (Peter) visited Luxembourg to attend a meeting at Eurostat as part of my work for the UN and Jess has given me a rare opportunity to post this blog entry.

Luxembourg is a seriously small country - its entire population is less than half that of Adelaide. It borders Belgium (don't dare call Luxembourgeans, Belgian!!) and it couldn't think of a name for its capital - so it called the city Luxembourg.

It oozes wealth and cleanliness and is beautifully European. Luckily I had time to walk around the city, including its old town in its late autumn splendor and with hardly a tourist in sight.

I visited the history museum where I saw a rather confronting exhibition "the Grand Pillage" about the stealing of art and other artifacts by the Nazis in World War 2 (Luxembourg was annexed by Germany in 1940 and liberated in 1944).

Excuses, Excuses

2005-11-12T14:34:00.000+01:00

It's been very busy here and I'm afraid I've been neglecting to update this blog! No one's been complaining though, so perhaps our loyal readers have been busy too!?

Recent news is the visit we had from Sandy and Peter (friends from Port Elliot) last weekend. They had been touring around Greece, Italy and Switzerland before they arrived in Geneva for a 3 day visit.

On the Friday it was a public holiday. We left Peter home working (he is busy with a couple of UN contracts) and headed off on the famous chocolate factory tour. I was the first opportunity I've had to go as I'm usually the one working! Unfortunately, the factory tours were closed for the winter season, so I still haven't seen it. Good news for my waistline though!

After the failed visit to Cailler, we went to see the chateau at Gruyeres and that was very nice. On the way home we also stopped at the Chateau de Chillon and the Olympic Museum - it was a jam-packed day! Sandy and Peter went off the Paris on the TGV the next morning, where they were spending 6 days before heading home via Singapore.

Train Tour of Switzerland

2005-10-29T19:34:00.000+02:00

We spent Mum & Dad's last week here on a fantastic train trip around Switzerland. With our first class tickets in hand, we headed off from our local train station to our first destination: Zermatt.

Switzerland in Autumn is absolutely stunning, and with clear blue skies on 6 out of the 7 days, the weather couldn't have been better. Our afternoon in Zermatt was spent taking the railway up to Gornergrat at 3089 metres.

The next day was the long (9.5 hours) but wonderful train journey to St Moritz on the Glacier Express, one of Switzerland's famous panoramic railways. Despite the gentle rocking of the train and the sunlight streaming through the windows, we all resisted napping in order to keep our eyes on the spectacular views. Train enthusiasts would have a greater appreciation for the incredible way the railway twists and loops up the valley to St Moritz.

Arriving at 7pm, we decided to spend two nights in St Moritz to give us a chance to explore the place the following day. Most things were closing for a break between the summer and winter seasons, but we managed to find a interesting museum, then had lunch in a restaurant on a mountain top overlooking the town. We followed this with a much-needed 1.5 hour walk through the forest back to our apartment.

The next day it was off on the train again to Liechtenstein, a tiny country (26 x 12 kms) between Switzerland and Austria. We stayed in the quaint capital, Vaduz (population 5,000) and enjoyed a walk up a steep hill to look at the Vaduz castle, home of their head of state: Prince Hans-Adam II; and his family. We didn't spot any royals though!

Next destination was Zurich, Switzerland's largest city. We decided to keep our visit here to just a few hours, enough time to visit the Zurich Zoo (great!) and then head down to the beautiful city of Luzern, where we stayed for two nights. One of the things I was keen to do was take the cog railway up Mt Pilatus. The railway is the steepest of its kind in the world with a gradient of 48%, but this is nothing compared with what you see from the top. The views were the truly unbelievable! The sounds of a woman singing and a Swiss horn echoing across the mountains really topped it off.

After a great time in Luzern, we arrived back in Geneva on Thursday afternoon - enough time for Mum & Dad to organise their packing in preparation for flying home on Friday. They would still be in the air as I type this, about 4 hours away from Adelaide after 32 hours of travelling. It was very sad to see them go - it's such a pity Australia is soooo far away and they can't just pop over anytime!!

Click here for all pics on Flickr of Mum & Dad's visit.

Dee & Ian Visit

2005-10-29T17:55:00.000+02:00

During Mum & Dad's stay we also had a visit from my auntie Dee and uncle Ian. They were at the end of an 8 week tour of Europe, taking in places such as Slovenia, Czech Republic, UK, Switzerland and others. It was great to hear of their travels and following their recommendation, Slovenia has now edged up on our priority list as a place to visit.

Whilst here, the girls (Dee, Mum and me) hit the shops including the markets at Ferney. See Mum and Dee pictured outside a lovely patisserie after we purchased a calorific and yummy afternoon tea.

On the Saturday night we went to dinner at the Trois Coqs, a small restaurant within walking distance from our place. It was a fantastic evening. The restaurant was lovely, excellent food and service, and of course great company!

A Fine Time

2005-10-11T13:36:00.000+02:00

We're back after 9 days of driving around the beautiful Emerald Isle (click here for all photos). Ireland is a great place - friendly people, non-smoking pubs, Guinness, neolithic sites, dry-stone walls, castles, peat bog, rolling green pastures and suprisingly, very little rain. The weather was not as beautiful as the clear Autumn days we're now getting in Geneva, but apart from making me want to eat big bowls of Irish stew every day (which I did only once), it really didn't affect our holiday.

This trip was my first experience staying in B&B's and there was certainly no shortage of choice. We had only booked our first night's accommodation, leaving us the freedom to decide when and where we wanted to stop for the night. Being off-season there were virtually no problems finding a room. The highlight was the lovely house we rented for three nights in Killarney. After eating a hot breakfast for 9 days in a row, it will be a while before I want to see any more eggs or bacon! I won't mention the black and white pudding.

Dad did all the driving, and with the help of our GPS (and three wonderful passengers!), he did a brilliant job of navigating around the country. The roads were challenging - narrow and bumpy, but not too busy. We started off in Northern Ireland, landing in Belfast then driving north to the Giant's Causeway the next morning. From there we headed west to Donegal and drove anti-clockwise around Ireland through Ballina, Belmullet, Galway, Killarney, Waterford, Kilkenny, Dublin and back to Belfast.

It's back to work for me now, whereas Mum and Dad have headed off to Paris for a couple of days. Peter is back on the tennis court and bike riding while the weather lasts.

Mum & Dad Arrive

2005-09-30T07:57:00.000+02:00

My Mum & Dad got here last Friday - it's so nice to see them! We spent most of last week showing them around Geneva and of course Peter took them on his standard chocolate tour to Broc and Gruyeres. Yesterday they went up to Bern on the train for a day trip. They are enjoying themselves!

Tonight we're off to Belfast for the start of our Northern Ireland & Ireland holiday. We'll be hiring a car and driving around the coast for the next 9 days. This will be the first visit there for all of us and we're really looking forward to it!

Lake Thun

2005-09-26T10:06:00.000+02:00

We recently went to visit Lake Thun in Central Switzerland for the weekend. Lakes Thun and Brienz are side by side with the town of Interlaken in the middle - about two hours drive from Geneva. The weather was not great but we were able to enjoy views of the countryside from the warmth of our car.

Peter found a nice hotel in Kattigren called Hotel Seeblick, which as it's name means in German, has fanstastic views over the lake. The highlight of our weekend was a visit to Ballenberg - an open air museum near Brienz. It's set in a beautiful forest and features nearly 100 houses/buildings from all over Switzerland. They have all been painstakingly deconstructed, transported, then reconstructed at Ballenberg. The different architecture mirrors the diversity of cultures that exists in Switzerland, and there are demonstrations of craft and building methods to show what it was like living here 100s of years ago.

Here are some photos on Flickr.

London Calling

2005-09-12T22:18:00.000+02:00

Last weekend was a long one so we popped over to London on EasyJet, as you do. It was was my first visit there and Peter's first in 27 years. The flight cost us about $150 each - what a bargain!

I loved the city and we had great weather (most of the time). We did the usual sightseeing: a 'hop on hop off' double decker bus tour of the city, cruise on the Thames, visit to the Tower of London, a couple of museums, walked through Kensington Gardens and went to an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical called 'The Woman in White'.

It was nice to be in an English speaking country again and we took advantage of the opportunity to stock up on some books. The Woman in White was a fantastic show - the story, music and performances were great, but especially the use of computer imagery and a rotating circular stage to create an amazing set. We definately recommend seeing it if you get the chance.

Our first experience of the Underground was a memorable one. Still reeling from having to pay 2 pounds each for a single trip, we clamoured on board the small, stuffy train, only to be evacuated due to a security alert at Westminster. We then had to sprint across the city on foot to get to our boat tour. We foolishly walked right through the area where there were problems. Police were huddled in big groups, some with machine guns, and some bloke was being questioned and complaining very loudly. Without knowing what the city was like before, the heightened security was pretty evident in most places.

Our accommodation was really nice. It was called Beit Hall and is student residence at the Imperial College, which doubles as a hotel during uni holidays. The location (South Kensington) was fantastic and the rooms comfortable. At 40 pounds per night for an ensuite room, including cooked breakfast, we were very happy campers!

All in all it was a great trip. If you're interested, there are more photos on Flickr.

Chez Gardner

2005-09-04T18:52:00.000+02:00

It's been a busy summer at Chez Gardner, with many Australians dropping in for a visit whilst on their European holidays. We've really enjoyed their pleasant company and while I'm working hard at the office, Peter has the opportunity to hone his tour guide skills. The many visits to the shop at the Cailler chocolate factory are not helping our waistlines!

Last week Peter and Margaret, lovely friends of Peter's from his Canberra days, came to stay for a couple of nights. Despite the long flight from Australia, they arrived full of energy and we headed off to the UN Beach Club for dinner. The next day Peter took them on the obligatory chocolate factory tour, which they really enjoyed.

As well as entertain, we have been continuing to play tennis, go bike riding (see our other website) and I still manage to fit in time to work. The office has been quite busy with people now back from their summer break. Soon I will start getting involved in planning my first meeting (more like a conference really) which looks like being held in the US next year.

Central Switzerland Underwater

2005-08-25T07:25:00.000+02:00

You may have heard on the news that torrential rain has caused severe floods and landslides in Switzerland and other parts of Europe. This photo, courtesy of another Flickr user (jr++), was taken in or near Bern, the Swiss capital.

All is fine in Geneva, but elsewhere in Switzerland at least four people have been killed and thousands evacuated. The main areas affected are in the central and north eastern parts of the country, with damage estimated to be around 500 million francs. These before and after photos from the BBC news website will give you an idea of the water level compared to what is usual for this time of year.

A trip to the Swiss Capital

2005-08-22T20:04:00.000+02:00

Last weekend saw our first trip to Switzerland's lovely capital Bern, about a 1.5 hr drive from Geneva. We were joined by Pru, a former colleague of Jess's, who was visiting us for a few days during her travels around Europe.

Our drive was guided by Jess's new GPS unit, complete with turn-by-turn voice instructions. Although the voice got a bit annoying, it was very effective in directing us from A to B and finding points of interest.

Bern is a very nice city, with the medieval Old Town recognised as a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site, and over 6kms of covered shopping arcades. The rainy weather and limited time prevented us from seeing many of the major attractions, but we'll be back! We achieved our main aim of doing a tour of the National Parliament (pictured). It's an impressive building and we were given an interesting overview of the Swiss political system.

After the tour we headed back to Geneva, via Neuchatel, where there is yet another lake. This seems to be the vegetable growing region of Switzerland and we were thrilled to come across a roadside stall selling pumpkins. These have been out of season since we arrived and impossible to buy. Peter made pumpkin soup today - yum!

Fireworks in Geneva

2005-08-15T14:16:00.000+02:00

Reflets
Originally uploaded by Athos99 Genève.

This weekend saw the conclusion of the annual Fêtes de Genève, which has been running since 4 August. The main event of the festival is the Saturday night fireworks that are blasted from the banks of Lake Geneva.

We started the evening off with a BBQ at our place with our US friends (Linda, Jason and 16 m.o. Hadley), who brought along their Finnish neighbours, who brought along their visiting Finnish cousins. They were all really nice people and we had a great time.

At about 9.30 we realised we'd better get a move on if we were to make it into Geneva to see the fireworks starting at 10pm. Our walk into town takes about 30 mins, so we got to the banks of the lake shortly after it started. It was very spectacular and went for ages (about an hour in total). Apparently they use 500 tonnes of fireworks! I'd hate to think how much is spent on them. You can buy tickets for 30-50 francs to sit in the best viewing spots, so I guess that helps offset the costs.

Next year I think we should follow our neighbour's example and watch them from one of the many boats out on the lake. Fantastique!

Swiss Style

2005-08-11T19:48:00.000+02:00

The longer we spend here, the more obvious it becomes. These Swiss really know how to live in style! The scenery is fantastic and there are so many hiking and picnic spots from which to enjoy it.

Last weekend we were invited up to Gryon with Bob & Zydre to attend a midsummer festival on Sunday. On Saturday we went on a short (2 hr) hike, followed by a lovely picnic lunch, including champagne! Later that afternoon we went to Solalex to check out some art exhibitions. This is where we came across the pictured water trough, cleverly doubling as an esky for the locals.

On Sunday it wasn't too summery, in fact snow was predicted at 3,000 m, so rather than heading up the mountain, we decided to head back down to Geneva where it was still nice and warm. Another great weekend!

Our New Cycling Website

2005-08-11T19:26:00.000+02:00

You'll know from reading our earlier posts that we've set ourselves the task of cycling across Switzerland. Well... at least completing the 300km 'Route 1' from Geneva to Andermatt. We hope to go on to greater things, either attempting other Swiss paths, or venturing into France or Germany.

As this is a long-term project, we've created a separate site to keep track of our cycling achievements. Visit it at http://cyclingeurope.blogspot.com/

You can also check out our Flickr Album for some of the beautiful scenery we've seen riding along the Rhone Valley.

Raclette Night

2005-07-28T21:07:00.000+02:00

This week our house was packed with visitors - Steve and Bev Matheson as well as cousins Alice and Julia. We had a traditional Swiss dish for dinner - no, not fondue, but raclettes. This is melted cheese poured over boiled potatoes (+ salad), very simple but tasty.

Dinner followed a busy day touring, including a visit to the Cailler chocolate factory, the chateau at Gruyeres, icecreams at Vevey and a walk around the gardens at the Olympic Museum, Lausanne.

Matterhorn

2005-07-27T09:37:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we took our latest visitors, Steve and Bev Matheson, up to Zermatt to check out the famous Matterhorn. It's Switzerland's highest peak at 4,478 metres and is a 3-4 hour drive from Geneva. We stayed overnight at Zermatt, a very touristy town near the base of the mountain. Thankfully most of the mountain was visible when we arrived, so we got a glimpse of it before heavy cloud set in for the evening.

There are heaps of walks to choose from in the area. We opted to take the funicular up to Sunnegga and then walk down to Zermatt, which took us about 2 hours. This picture (taken on a clearer day by another flickr.com user) is of the spot where we started our walk. Despite being all downhill, the walk was quite tough on the legs and I am still having difficulty walking down stairs four days later!

On a Mission

2005-07-17T17:21:00.000+02:00

I spent last week in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on my first 'mission' (the UN term for work trip). I was there to help deliver training on Gender Statistics to statisticians and users of stats from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and Iran.

It was a fantastic experience, both from a professional and personal perspective. Getting out of the office to meet and help people in our region has given me a new appreciation for what our division does. It was also a great opportunity to visit a country in Central Asia, a region I know very little about. Even though my brief visit didn't allow much time for site seeing, I was able to meet and talk with local people about their country and culture.

The week was a busy one, with 5 days of lectures, discussion and computer workshops. I delivered three presentations, chaired a couple, helped setup the computers and facilitated the practical exercises. The most challenging part for me was that most participants spoke no English, so we were simultaneoulsy translated into Russian by local interpreters. This is the first time I've worked under these conditions and it was bizarre to know that people weren't hearing my presentation, but rather the translation of the interpreter.

Tashkent is the country's capital and is a city of about 2.5 million people. I found it to be quite westernised (Uzbekistan declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991), with plenty of advertising, modern cars (lots of old Soviet Lada's too) and mobile phones. Being a double landlocked country, many goods are expensive (eg computers) but food is apparently plentiful and cheap. The people were friendly and the streets seemed safe, although we did always have a local with us. Our views of the city were mostly from a car window as we were driven around to visit a local artist's studio (a friend of our host), a beautiful silk shop and then on the last night, dinner at a restaurant which was in a 100 year old traditional Uzbek house (see photo above).

It was 40+ degrees most days, but we spent most of the time in our air-conditioned and very nice, five star Radisson hotel. When we did venture out, the heat wasn't too bad as it is quite dry, unlike Geneva where 30 degrees feels like 40 sometimes! It was surprising to hear that in winter, Tashkent gets snow and can be as cold as minus 15 degrees. Click here for more photos.

Weekend in the Mountains

2005-07-17T16:48:00.001+02:00

We spent the last weekend of Fiona's visit to Europe in the mountains. Bob & Zydre were very kind to lend us their chalet at Gryon, where we stayed on the Friday and Saturday night. Despite the cool climate and rain on Saturday, we had a a lovely picnic lunch on our drive up to Les Diablerets. The next day we left Gryon and drove to Chamonix in France where we took the telepherique to Aiguille du Midi, a 3,842m peak adjacent to Mt Blanc.

Having conquered the first peak, we decided to push on to Italy in the small cable cars that take you over the most incredible valleys of glaciers. As we glided efortlessly along, we returned the waves of climbers, struggling through the snow beneath us.

Fiona is now back in Australia, having had a fanstastic holiday visiting Geneva, Paris and London, and a few spots in between. It has been wonderful to see her and to show her around our new home. Jess missed the last few days of her visit due to a last minute work trip to Uzbekistan (more info on that coming soon). We now have a week before the next batch of visitors arrive!

Fiona OK in London

2005-07-07T20:16:00.000+02:00

Some readers of our site would know that Fiona is currently in London visiting her friends Julie and Aleisha. Thankfully she was able to call us shortly after news broke of the bombings, to let us know she and her friends are fine (although understandably stressed). Fiona is scheduled to fly back to Geneva tomorrow as originally planned, but she's now on a later flight to allow time to get to the airport.

We were also very pleased to hear that cousin Alice is fine (thanks for the quick email Al).

Paris Revisited

2005-07-05T19:57:00.000+02:00

Fiona is here and we have been showing her the best Europe has to offer, well a bit of it anyway. Peter and Fiona took off to Paris last Thursday in 'The Beast'. The drive takes about 5 hours if you take the motorway, but about 12 hours if you don't. Peter has some tips for those of you ever contemplating driving into Paris:

do not arrive in peak hour
do not arrive during a heavy thunderstorm
do not visit the day major school holidays in Europe start
know where you are going or at least have a rudimentary map
speak French, so you can ask for help.

Needless to say, Peter is speaking from the experience of having violated every one of these! He reports that the French approach driving like everything else – with a carefree attitude & scant regard to road rules. They considerately do not hit one another & do not toot.

On the Saturday, Jess flew up to Paris on EasyJet, the Virgin Blue/JetStar equivalent in Europe. That night we went to the Moulin Rouge - a late night as we couldn't get in until the 11pm show. Despite Paris being a 'city that never sleeps', the metro does sleep between 1 and 5am, meaning we had to get back to the hotel by taxi. Not so bad as the prices were reasonable compared to Geneva. Actually, any price would probably be reasonable compared to Geneva!

Earlier on the Saturday, we visited the Louvre, a first for all of us. We were typical tourists and made a beeline for the Mona Lisa. Time limitations meant we could only have a quick look around. Wow, the Louvre is certainly amazing!

Cycling on Route One

2005-06-30T23:29:00.000+02:00

We've decided to cycle across Switzerland. A bit mountainous for cycling you think? For our introduction we've chosen National Route 1 - what a good place to start! Route 1 is a 308 km path that follows the River Rhone from Geneva to Andermatt in central Switzerland.

We have already covered the 60kms from Geneva to Lausanne in our famous CycloLeman Tour on June 12. Last weekend we added another 45 kms by riding from Aigle to Lausanne.

To make this seem like a holiday, we are combining our cycling with camping out in our very, very small tent. Jealous? Well, although it's not as comfy as home, our first camping experience at Aigle was great. The camping ground had fantastic views of the mountains every way you looked. You don't get to see much of a place driving through or stopping for lunch. Staying the night in the local van park provides a very different perspective.

Swiss Rail System Collapses

2005-06-23T09:10:00.000+02:00

The Swiss trains weren't only late yesterday, they weren't running at all. For the first time in its history, the national rail system (SBB) suffered a complete breakdown, due to an unexplained power failure. Rumours are abound that Italy is to blame for not delivering enough electricity through to Switzerland, but an SBB spokesman has politely dismissed this.

About 100,000 people and 9,000 trains were affected by this incident. Not a problem for me - I walk to work. Thankfully for the train catchers, things are back on track this morning.

Summer's Here!

2005-06-22T08:32:00.000+02:00

Summer has started and it's hot! Temperatures have been in the low 30's for the last few days. I didn't realise it got so hot and humid in Switzerland. Sorry guys, I don't mean to gloat! I hear this is a bit of a contrast to the weather some of you are experiencing at the moment.

We've been busy with visitors over the last couple of weeks. Dean H stayed with us for a weekend in early June and it was great to see him. We drove around the lake and visited the Chateau de Chillon and the gardens at the Olympic Museum.

Last week I attended my first big UN meeting, organised by my division. There were over 150 statisticians from 52 countries, including several Australians and Kiwis whom Peter has worked with in the past. He organised a dinner with them at a nice restaurant overlooking the lake and took a couple of them touring once the meeting was over. We won't mention him popping the car tyre on one of Geneva's famous razor sharp curbs!

We've just had a terrific weekend with Elissa, Chris and 13 m.o. Hugh. They have been travelling around Europe for 6 weeks and were visiting Geneva for the first time. We wandered into the city, enjoyed dinners sitting out in our garden, walked in the forest at Versoix, played tennis and swam at our local centre sportif and of course, the obligatory tour of the UN! Hugh is a real character and it was fun having a little one around. Elissa and Chris are great company and it was so nice to see them. They're now in Paris for a week before heading home, where they will no doubt collapse in exhaustion! 7 weeks on the road with a small child must be hard work.

Fiona arrives this Sunday for her whirlwind visit to Europe. She'll be here for 18 days and will visit at least 3 countries (Switzerland (obviously!), France and the UK). We're so excited and looking forward to showing her around!

Geneva to Lausanne CycloTour Leman

2005-06-12T18:45:00.000+02:00

Jess and Peter completed the 60km Geneva to Lausanne leg of the CycloTour Leman (max distance 170k) in the credible time of 2hr 22min, at an average speed of 25.3k/hr. Given that they were on hybrid (combo mountain) bikes, and the training was less than perfect, this performance is nothing short of magnificent. Ok, we did finish 78 & 79 out of 87 riders for this leg (Peter was the 7th oldest!!). There were over 1,000 riders altogether & the ride was brilliantly organised. We were provided with a riding shirt (a bit tight for Peter....mmmm!!!), water bottle, drinks and food along the way & a hot pasta lunch at the end. At every roundabout (& do the Swiss love roundabouts!!) flag waving officials stopped the cars so the cyclists could speed through...we loved this & particularly the French couple who were applauding us yelling "Bravo!!" as we steamed up a hill near the end.

Mt Saleve

2005-06-06T16:39:00.000+02:00

A couple of weekends ago we went walking on top of Mt Saleve, a relatively small mountain in France, which overlooks Geneva. It was a bit hazy that day, but the views were still sensational. There are plenty of lookouts, walking tracks, restaurants and paragliders. It's a very nice place to spend an afternoon. In this photo you should be able to see Geneva's famous Jet d'eau towards the left end of the lake.

Dinner with Emily & Gavin

2005-05-28T11:52:00.000+02:00

It was great to see cousin Em and Gav last night. They are on a tour of Europe which went through Geneva and we were very happy they had the time to visit us for dinner. Anyone who has done these types of tours would know the pace at which you are moved from country to country!

They were in high spirits and seem to be enjoying their travels around Europe very much. Peter cooked roast beef - it was too hot for fondue! After dinner we drove them to nearby Lausanne where they were staying the night before heading off to Paris the next morning.

Springtime in Geneva

2005-05-28T11:08:00.000+02:00

We have happily spent the last couple of weekends at home, enjoying the beautiful spring weather. Temperatures have been in the high 20's and the gardens are looking gorgeous. Work is going well, we are busy preparing for the annual meeting of heads of statistical offices in June. Peter has got himself a small renovate job with someone from the local tennis club and has been learning to shop for hardware in French at the Swiss Bunnings equivalent. The Schapelle Corby verdict certainly made the international headlines, but we are keeping up with Aussie news through ABC Online anyway. We haven't made it to Roland Garros - just a tad outside our price range! Wimbledon looks unlikely too... maybe next year.