Geneva to Lausanne CycloTour Leman

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

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

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

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.

Vogalonga in Venice

Another long weekend and this time a trip to Venice. A definite tourist trap, but wonderful and well worth the visit. The way to see Venice is to just wander the streets and get lost. A gondola ride is a very expensive at 80 Euro for 30 mins, but it's an unforgettable experience gliding down the quieter canals. Our gondolier even sang for us!

The main reason for our trip was that on the Sunday there was a 32 km rowing boat event called the Vogalonga. It started in 1974 and is an annual event that attracts crews from all over the world - even an Australia crew was spotted. Our friend Bob was rowing with a crew from Nyon, a town not far from Geneva. It was an amazing experience to stand on the famous Rialto bridge watching the boats come underneath, and then cheering for the little Swiss boat, which finished in a creditable 3 hours. Well done Nyon!

Paris

Wow, what a city. It was a very quick glimpse as we only had 2 days and 2 nights to look around. Caught the TGV (fast train) there, which takes about 3.5 hours from Geneva and is tres comfortable. Our wotif.com accommodation was excellent and only 25 min stroll to the centre. Managed to cram in the Musee d'Orsay, lots of walking, some French cuisine and an 10 hour bus and river tour of the major sites. Whoever's in the French flag business in Paris, should be doing very well.

Highlights for me were views from Eiffel Tower, cruising down the Seine and all that history. Best of all, we saved heaps to see for next time!

View of Champs de Mars


Peter with the original of our Monet


Jess with Notre Dame in background

Aussie Victory

It's currently a beautiful sunny 27 degrees in Geneva. We joined the local Pregny-Chambesy tennis club last week and today we played in our first Swiss tournament. Met lots of lovely people and had a terrific time. After the round of matches we had a BBQ lunch out under the trees.

Peter played extremely well, in fact he won in his group! See him pictured with his prize of club t-shirt and tennis balls. Don't bother asking how I went. They gave me a t-shirt too, perhaps they felt sorry for me!

The Beast

Our new Peugeot 206.....its small, but packed with extras. We love it!! This model is the "Black & Silver" edition and is not available in Australia. It has a glass roof, heated leather seats and automatic everything (gearbox,lights windscreen wipers, radio sound adjustment etc...)

Olympic Museum Lausanne

Cathy Freeman's 400m Gold medal winning shoes from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. These are an Australian highlight in what is a very uncluttered and attractive museum...well worth a visit.

The museum is about the spirit of the Olympics and not who wins all the medals...it covers the winter as well as the summer games. Pierre de Coubertin (frenchman) is an amazing fellow who was responsible for the establishment of the modern games.

Geneva Weather

Versoix in Jan 2005

In early April 2005

Before we left Australia a number of people delighted in sending us photos of a most unusual weather snap in Geneva. These were taken on the lake in a village 5 mins from where we live. We visited in early April and took a photo at the same spot - see comparisons above and note the T-shirt and lack of ice.

Happy Birthday Pierre!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.... Here's a photo of Peter on his birthday. He's wearing his new Australian wool jumper which arrived in the post from Judy - very snazzy!

For his first birthday in Switzerland, Peter wanted a well earned break from cooking, so it was my turn to organise dinner. As a surprise I had managed to find some reasonably priced Australian wine (not easy!) and thought we'd better have some Swiss food to go with it. Well, it doesn't get more Swiss than cheese fondue!

For those of you that feel inspired to get the old fondue sets out this winter - here's the recipe.

Home Sweet Home

Our furniture and gear from Australia has arrived! It's great to have all of our own things again. Everything fits nicely into our apartment - I'm thankful for the large storage area downstairs!

We should get our new car tomorrow, so it's a very exciting week for us. We'll have to take it out for a spin on the weekend. It's pretty quiet in the city on Sundays so a good time to practice my driving. I'm a bit nervous about driving here, especially because the car is brand new!!

Our new IKEA outdoor table is finally outdoors now we have our furniture. The weather should improve soon and allow us to enjoy our lovely garden. The photo below is the view from our patio. It was taken on an overcast evening, so it's a bit dark, but hopefully you can see the Alps in the distance.

Mont Blanc is out there somewhere!

Annecy, France

Annecy is about 56km SE from Geneva and is a great place to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon. Bob & Zydre drove us there, and took us to lunch, to thank us for helping them move house on Saturday (any time!). It was a great day. Annecy is quite large (pop. 52,000) and is set on the crystal clear Lake Annecy. The town is apparently packed in summer, so we appreciated the opportunity to wander around the narrow cobblestone streets, without the busy crowds.

Lunch was great, the 3 course 'menu de jour' was about 28 Euros each and very yummy (restaurant is pictured above - under the blue awning on LHS). The markets were open when we got there, but in the process of packing up to head home. Most shops are shut in France (and Geneva) on Sundays, but there were a few of the more touristy spots open - mostly kitsch looking souvenirs though!

We wandered up to the Chateau, then around through the maze of little streets, to the other side of town. Saw the inside of my first European church - very nice!

As you can see from the photos, it was a beautiful sunny day, but so windy! It was about 10 degrees but the wind chill factor meant it was much colder. There's been snow again this weekend - you can see the it visible on the mountains in the distance. Apparently a rare thing to see snow here, even in December! It's supposed to be warming up again on Tuesday.

Loop walk from Chambesy to United Nations

Every morning, Jess walks to work & I accompany her - It takes about 20mins to get to the UN & then another 20 minutes to return home via a different route. These pictures give some sense of what is a beautiful walk through a small village, a rural setting, office complexes, the botanic gardens and stunning Lake Geneva.

The hill - very steep! Pity it's right at the start.


View back down the hill - towards Lake Geneva


Eau Potable - drink break at village of Pregny


A rather large house on a rather large block


American Embassy - sorry about the blurry photo, I had to take it quickly as didn't want to upset the armed guards


Back entrance to Jess's work - 20 mins walk from home


As Jess heads into work, I walk on into the Jardin Botanique (Botanic Gardens)


Inside the gardens


Walking alongside Lake Geneva - snow still visible on mountains in distance (LHS)


Home again - a nice 40 min loop walk 

Living in the Suburbs

Here are some pics of our new place. We have been exploring the area on foot and realise that if we walk 20 minutes in one direction we are in the countryside, close to the French border. 20 minutes in the other direction has us almost in Geneva’s city centre. If we could get rid of the late-night-partying upstairs neighbour, this place would be absolutely perfect!

Front Garden

Front garden looking back to bedroom

Back Garden

Kitchen / Dining area

View from Kitchen 

Zurich

We spent two nights in Zurich over the Easter weekend. It’s a gorgeous city and we enjoyed wandering around the Old Town, the area where we were staying. On the Saturday we went on a full day tour to the equally gorgeous city of Luzern, and then up to Mt Titlus, a 3020m high ski resort. 3000 metres is the permanent snow and ice level, so there’s skiing there all year round. The advanced slopes look incredibly dangerous, and are, with some visitors apparently not realising that schnapps and snowboarding aren’t a good mix.

We took the train to and from Zurich, a trip which took just under 3 hours and cost about 130 Francs each. 1st class is certainly comfortable and we almost had the entire carriage to ourselves. But, if we’re going to be able to afford frequent trips away, we figure it would be wiser to go 2nd class and save our money for when we get there.

Next weekend? Maybe a better look around Lausanne (about 60kms around the lake from Geneva) or perhaps a walk into neighbouring France.


On top of Mt Titlus (3020m)

Chapel Bridge, Luzern

Limmat River, Zurich

Zurich 

Moving House

It's been a busy weekend. We have moved into our groovy new apartment - it's even got a garden! Our furniture doesn't arrive until end of April so we've had to get a few things to tide us over. So it was off to IKEA (30 mins on the train from Geneva). It was my first IKEA experience and I was blown away! We managed to rush around the massive, packed shop and fill up our trolleys in under an hour. We got an outdoor setting (currently being used indoors), sofabed, lamps (as there are no light fittings in our flat!), crockery, cutlery, towels, sheets, etc! We then hired their van and raced down the motorway to drop it all off. Peter did a great job of driving - when he remembered to change the gears!

The weather's been great. It has been hovering around 20 degrees for the last few days. Incredible to think it was below zero and covered with snow only 2 weeks ago.

Andrea & Gabi (Peter's work colleagues from Adelaide) have come to stay. They arrived yesterday amidst our moving mess, and were fantastic help to put together all the IKEA stuff. They are with us for a few nights as part of their year long trip around Europe. It's been great to hear the stories of their travels so far.

Too tired to type more tonight - will post some pics of the new place soon!

Do they ski in Switzerland?

Do they what! The skiing here is incredible - incredible to watch anyway! Our first trip outside Geneva was to Gryon, about 1.5 hours drive from the city. Our new friends Bob & Zydre, invited us to stay at their place (a 400 year old chalet). They are fantastic hosts and have really made our first few weeks in Geneva terrific.

On Saturday morning we drove up to Barboleuse, took the telecabine to Les Chaux then walked 10 kilometres (!!) down the cross country ski track. It was absolutely stunning as you'll see from the photos below.

My New Office

This is the main entry to the Palais des Nations and where I walk in each morning. It’s then a 5 minute walk to my office up on the 4th floor. As you’ll see from the photo below, it’s very spacious and has lots of natural light. Unfortunately I can’t boast about the view, or the furniture for that matter. Views of the lake are reserved for the more senior staff and are truly fantastic. Good thing I haven’t got one as it would be hard to keep myself from gazing out the window.

Work is going very well. I’ve met with all of the other teams in the division and am starting to understand what it is we do. This seems to be quite a lot, so I expect to be busy - always a good thing!

Sunday Lunch

Today we decided to head out into the snow to explore Geneva’s Old Town, and have our first Swiss restaurant meal. The Old town is absolutely gorgeous – it is surrounded by large fortified walls and has a maze of narrow cobblestone streets. Due to the cold, snow and hungry tummies, we only spent a short time exploring the area, but we definitely plan to return for a better look.



Lunch was a wonderful experience. After much searching we found a small restaurant on the banks of the River Rhone. We settled into the warm room for our first fondue meal and bottle of Swiss wine. The fondue was CHF 24 per person and we were encouraged by our waiter to also order an ‘air cured beef’ accompaniment for CHF 28 (yes we fell for it!).



Although expensive, the meal was great, and the refuge from the cold was most welcome. We were briefly entertained by a very drunk, cigar smoking man across the other side of the room who was tossing back the drinks. After smashing a couple of glasses and generally running amok, he left the restaurant, jumped into the BMW parked out the front and drove away!

We rounded off our meal with a fantastic café au lait (best coffee yet) and berries with icecream. After parting with CHF 135 (approx AUD$155), we ventured back out into the heaviest snow we’ve seen so far. We are now safely tucked away in our lovely warm apartment and feeling very relaxed.

Internet Experience

Jess and I are avid internet users….it is worthwhile outlining our experience in terms of getting internet connection in Switzerland after leaving the familiarity of Australia.

We bought ourselves & our family webcams before leaving, intending to make extensive use – it is wonderful seeing the pictures. We have found the sound is not too good. We suspect one needs broadband at both ends for this to be effective (we will get this when we have somewhere permanent to live). We also discovered a groovy sight called Skype.com – free computer to computer conversations or very cheap computer to phone…..again frustrating without broadband.

Also before we left Australia we looked for a provider – not that easy if you are not fluent in French or German (we aren’t). Jess found a ‘global roaming’ company that claimed to be cheap!!! What a bad experience. We bought some credit (euros) & essentially got ripped off, paying the equivalent of around $12A/ hour as well as exorbitant telephone connection costs (from our temporary accommodation). After a period we finally gave up….as well as being frustrating, the experience cost us $150A with unbelievably little return.

We then decided to go Swiss….we visited a Swisscom shop…an experience in itself. We nearly broke the automatic door getting in, didn’t take our number & then had trouble communicating with the Swisscom staff member. Anyway we bought a dial up package called ‘Bluewin’ & came home to install. It claimed to have English, but we soon found ourselves needing to install in German. Quite a challenge….but Frau Gardner and I got there with some intelligent guess work (it wouldn’t let you proceed if things were wrong!!).

Anyway, we have the system working and while it is a little slow, it seems relatively cheap (time will tell on this!!). I guess the moral of this story is to go straight for the national carrier, and while one can get by with very limited French in Geneva (that’s us, but we intend to correct this) having reasonable knowledge of French is a real bonus.

It is great being able to see and talk to family back in Australia & it is worthwhile persisting……we also had huge issues with our email - but that is another story. Boy am I glad I married an IT guru!!

We've Arrived

We arrived in Geneva this morning and have now been here for about 7 hours. It's very cold here but sunny and still. Our apartment is excellent - central, roomy, nice furniture and very comfortable. I am most pleased about this as we will probably be living here for a couple of months.

Here is a photo of the lounge and entry way. The entry is where the kitchen is too (behind that wall. There is a doorway (obscured by the entertainment cabinet in this photo) which leads to a reasonable size bedroom with built ins and bathroom.


This is the view from our window - note the tram stop out the front goes directly to the UN. We haven't been on it yet but will do a trial run tomorrow before I have to start work on Thursday.


Finally a shot of the mountains taken from about 50 metres down the road.