Barbie's Travels Abroad

It's A Boy!!

2005-12-09T23:30:00.000+01:00

Well, he's here at last. Angela was induced on Friday 9th December at 10am and after much intervention and waiting and straining etc etc etc Alexander Remy Myler came into the world in the early evening. He weighs in at an astoundingly healthy 8 lbs 12 oz and is 51 cm long. He has the same crop of dark hair that his sisters had at their birth. He has a very healthy set of lungs and is in perfect health. He's also very cute. Ava is working on the pronounciation of his name and the best she can come up with is "Alik". Very cute! Both Alex and Angela are doing well and I have to say that the pictures don't do her justice. She looked amazing for a woman who has just been through what she has been through. Did I say he is very very cute?? LOL

The Fabulous Mylers

2005-12-08T12:22:00.000+01:00

Firstly I have to thank Angela for these photo's because I stole them from her camera! HAHA but this is the fabulous family that has taken me in and has been so warm and generous to me for the past 3 months. When I was in Barcelona it snowed in Geneva and the family had a fun day making snow men and generally mucking about in the snow.
One of the reasons that we have been so late in putting up the christmas decorations is because, well the obvious one of waiting for the baby but also it was Ava's birthday on the 3rd December and she had a party. Ava got a pretty little princess outfit which was quickly commandeered by Julia but doesn't Julia look soooo cute in it????
Ava loves the wiggles so Angela made a cake and decorated it with Dorothy the Dinosaur. We both spent weeks trowling around the supermarkets looking for green food colouring but were unsuccessful. Well desperation is the mother of invention so Dorothy is coloured green by cutting up green frog lollies!! But Angela did a spectacular job on the cake and it looks terrific. Ava loved it!

And this is Paul and Angela. They were going out for a dinner. These photos were taken 2 weeks ago. She's even bigger today!! But, 2 nicer people you will never meet and they are the reason that I am having these adventures.

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

2005-12-08T12:10:00.000+01:00

Well all I can say isthe time sure has travelled quickly. This time next week and I will be back in Oz!! Angela still hasn't had baby number 3 yet but she's thinking that today is the day. If it isn't today then she is going to be induced tomorrow. God love her she says that's because she has to have the baby while I am still here!!

Anyways, we have been getting into the christmas spirit here in Geneva. The tree got bought yesterday and it's so much nicer than it looks in this picture. It's a real trea nad it's a nordic spruce. You can't quite see it in the photo but the kind of reflection of the lights in the window is actually the lights reflecting on the snow! It's giving me one more little sample before I leave which is pretty special. Below is my contribution to the christmas decorations. I found these great candles and just surrounded them with tinsel and pearls. I got some red candles with the gold tinsel and red pearls and I also got some gold candles with red tinsel and gold pearls. They look really cute.
The best thing about christmas over here though is that all the pointsettias are real and they are magnificent!! Anwyays, Im kind of sad that I will be missing it because all the christmas carols have meaning now that I am here in the cold. Angela loves her carols as much as I do which is fabulous so we have been decking the halls with holly and singing at the same time! It's fabulous.

Barcelona

2005-11-29T21:32:00.000+01:00

Ola from Barcelona... or should I say Barthelona... why do the Spanish sound like they talk with a lisp? Anyways, I firstly have to apologise for some of the pictures in the Gaudi columns. Firstly, Antoni Gaudi is a very well known (dead) architect from Barcelona and designed some of the most fantastic buildings I have ever seen. I was so taken with him and so dissappointed in my photos that I kind of stole a couple from other websites to show you why I love him. Apart from those all the photos are mine. I love my little kodak digi!!

Ok, so I arrive in Barcelona on Saturday afternoon courtesy of Easyjet again. I love them too. The return flight was only about $AU100! You have to love that. I stayed at this rather beautiful hotel called the Hotel Zenit Borrell located on Carrer de Comte Borrell in the Eixample part of the city.

Barcelona is the most amazingly designed city. This photo below is courtesy of google and you can see how orderly it is. This is the area known as the Eixample which translates as "the expansion". All the blocks are made up of buildings formed in a type of hexagon with a courtyard in the middle of each set of buildings. It was rather easy to navigate my way around the area where I was staying.
Anyway, I get there on Saturday about 5.30 pm and go for a walk around where I am staying and the area is pretty buzzy and I find a great place to have dinner and have fabulous seafood with a nice dry white wine and then stumble home back to the hotel. In the morning I get up bright and early and head down for breakfast and for the first time since I left Australia I had real bacon for breakfast!! None of this swiss stuff that is more like a pale version of pancetta but real bacon that is in the correct shape and everything! It was fantastic. The weather was also brilliant.

I head out of the hotel about 8.30am and go to the train station and buy myself a 2 day pass which lets me get on and off all public transport for 2 days and it was about the same price as a return to the city from Parramatta! I go to The Diagonal which is a 15 mile long road which cuts right through the middle of Barcelona to catch the hop on and hop off bus. Again I get a 2 day ticket. This is pretty neat and it stops at the main tourist attractions and is a double decker topless bus. So of course I have to sit upstairs. The weather got pretty chilly sitting up there despite the fact that it was brilliantly sunny so after I got off at the Sagrada Familia (more about that later) and bought my entrance ticket, I decided I would quickly get the train back to the hotel to pick up my coat and get the train back and do it again. I figured it would be about a 30 minute interruption to my day and well worth it because I was turning into a barbsicle.

On the way back to the hotel I was approached by 4 cherubic looking young spanish girls about 15 years old who were asking for directions..... do I have to go on?? Can you guess what's coming? Yes they were gypsies and yes they stole my wallet!! I at least got a look at these ones. So my little 30 minute interruption turned into a 3 hour interruption as I headed back to the hotel to cancel the cards arrange for some emergency cash (Thanks Alan!! love to love you baby) and make a report to the police. I realised at the police station that the sort of positive result I got in Switzerland was not going to happen there as they didn't even bother to take down my address. Oh well, c'est la vie! I am too trusting and too naive and I am probably not going to change (and nor do I want to) and they only got money. But a word to those who are going to travel... number 1 travel with a Visa Credit Card. They really do offer a fantastic (and sympathetic) service and number 2 if you are approached for directions, grab your handbag and tell them to fuck off!! So, after all that, I head on back to the Sagrada Familia for which I already had an entrance ticket that I hadn't used. After that building I was left with doing the things that were free since I didn't have any cash until the next morning. This was a bit of a bugger because I knew the galleries were only open on Sunday and closed on Monday so I wasn't able to go to the Picasso Museum which I really really really really wanted to!

So I fall in love with a dead guy called Antoni Gaudi. He is Barcelona's most famous architect and was either a certifiable genius or completely insane! His buildings are the most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life. You will see come examples in the next blogs.
The above picture is of the Olympic Needle which stands outside the olympic park. You may (or may not if you are one of the young people in this world but better not be cherubic looking 15 year old gypsies!!! (breathe.... in with the good air .. out with the bad air..) where was I?? oh yes Barcelona had the 1992 olympic games and still prides itself on that fact.
Despite the bastard gypsies, I had a great time in Barcelona. It's a beautiful city and I would imagine that it would be magnificent in Summer. Above is the Mediterranean Sea. The temp about this time was hovering near 4 degrees so there was no way I was going to be dipping my toe into that sea! sorry....
Ooo there I am! Hi!!! that's my freezing my proverbials off on the top deck of the bus and behind me is the entrance to the Olympic City. The two pillars were built specifically to mark the occasion and now the New Year Celebrations generally take place there. Hardly surprising because at the end of that plaza lies the Barcelona Palace. Royalty used to live there but donated the building back to the city and it now houses MNAC or the modern art gallery of Catalonia. Speaking of Catalonia... they don't speak Spanish in Barcelona... well some do but the official language is actually Catalan. It got a bit confusing so instead of Buenos Dias you say Bon Dia. Most people did a good job of understanding my butchering of whatever language I was attempting to speak.... but the funny thing is I have been to too many countries in too short a period of time... I find myself saying things like jevoudrais eine kleine kafe e una pasticceria por favor.... which is french, german, italian and spanish!! It's all too hard and I have an even more (if I didn't already have one) greater appreciation for those that can speak more than one language.
The above picture is just something pretty I saw whilst sitting on the bus at a set of traffic lights. The architecture is amazing and in such pretty colours. This picture really doesn't do it justice but there were all these greens and pinks and lavenders inside the roof of the rotunda that lit up beautifully. Doesn't the weather look nice? Did I tell you it was really around 4 degrees!! hehe
Oh ok the above picture is of the Barcelona Palace. It's a spectacular building and is on a hillside that you cant really tell from the picture but the view was outstanding. The building itself comes from the gothic period which is the 1400s and has a vast and varied history.

This is Barcelona Harbour. There are about 2000 yacht berths there... I found one or 17 dinghies I wouldnt have minded sailing home....

I also got rather homesick for Australia when I was in Barcelona... On Sunday night when I had no money (or rather thought I had no money but found about ten euros in the bottom of my bag) I decided I needed a beer and had already noticed a pub called the "Australia II" pub. Now normally when I travel I never go near an Australian sounding pub or an Irish one for that matter but thought I might at least find someone to have a bit of a yarn (and whinge if I'm really honest) with without having to constantly refer to a phrase book! HAHA I love Australians I really do! From my first g'day it was like walking into a welcoming pair of arms. Everyone was very happy that another Australian (and one they didn't know) had walked in and they were all very chatty. When I had my whinge about the gypsies they were all suitably sympathetic (a trait that isn't that common in people back home I realise) and consequently I got rather drunk and didn't even have to dig out the ten euro's I had in my pocket!!

Barcelona - Gaudi - Sagrada Familia

2005-11-29T21:29:00.000+01:00

Ok, so now I can wax rhapsodic over my new hero Antoni Gaudi i Cornet (1852 - 1926) better known as just Gaudi. His buildings are fantastic in the literal sense of the word. They are complete flights of fancy yet are completely functional. His ideas all stem from articles in nature and when I was at the Sagrada Familia there was a museum underneath it and it compared his work to actual pieces of nature and you could see a mirror in the similarities.

So the Sagrada Familia is an unfinished cathedral. It is not due for completion for another 36 years even. I spent about 4 hours trowling all over this building and today my thighs are so paying for it! I climbed up one of the towers and took the photo below. There were 360 steps. I have no idea why my thighs didn't ache after my hike up the Arch De Triomphe but then the staircase there was a lot wider than this one. If I am honest I would say that had I had the choice I would not have walked up to the top of the tower. The reason being is that the stair well is like a snail's shell. It's exactly what it looks like if you were to look down. There is no railing on the inside of the stair well and it is really really tight. I am a big girl, I know but I was walking sideways up this stairwell and therefore you couldn't pass anyone and you couldn't change direction. You had to come back down via another tower. The only way to go was up... I couldn't look down because by now my fear of heights is legendary (hello... Grindelwald... gondola... head in lap hands over eyes????) and I was hugging the outside wall for dear life!! But you have to admit, the view is pretty special.
Below is the front of the cathedral. There are 8 of the 24 steeples completed... 12 represent the apostles but I can't remember what the others represent... I'll have to look it up. This is another entrance to the cathedral. You can see that Gaudi took his inspiration from tree roots. In the museum underneath the cathedral there is a perfect scale model of the completed cathedral. I am soooo coming back in 36 years to see it. It will be simply amazing. The building of it is funded purely by donations and most of those are individuals. I thought that was pretty amazing. I guess there is no corporate sponsorship because how many churches would let you stick a Macdonalds in them or similar??? HAHA
The below picture is one of the front of the cathedral. The circles in the windows will not have stained glass in them. They are designed to reflect the make up of bee hives and sponges. When you see the small photo next to the actual bee hive and sponges they are identical.

Barcelona - Gaudi

2005-11-29T21:19:00.000+01:00

These are pictures that I have nicked. The man must have done some serious drugs in his time is all I can say. The below photo is in the Parc Guell. Guell was Gaudi's mentor. The park is like out of Alice in Wonderland. Again it is fantastic in the true sense of the word. The below pictures aren't tree trunks which they kind of look like until you get up close to them. They actually support a suspended road above it and were designed by Gaudi. This is some of the seating in the park. The park is huge and I didn't manage to get all around it. It wasn't until I got back on the bus that I realised that I missed seeing his house which is in the middle of the park and is now a monument to him. Bugga!!
Now if the below isn't an indication that he took some serious drugs I don't know what is!! This is a walk way located in the park. I did see this but couldn't get a decent photo because there were people everywhere. His inspiration for this was an ocean wave. Again, when you hit the right angle you can really see it and even more so when you see the right angle photo standing next to a photo of a wave. Truly extraordinary.
Oh I loved this building! This is called Casa Mila. It is in Eixample (where I stayed) and has the courtyard in the middle of the building. The building now houses shops, apartments and offices. One of the apartments has been set aside so you can go in and view it, which I did, and it is furnished with furniture from the period of Gaudi's life. Very plush and lovely. You weren't allowed to take photos in there though. The wrought iron balastraudes again reflect the ocean. The picture doesn't really show it well because it's a bit small but you can see it in the waves of shape that make up the building.
I call this building the Toad Hall house because it reminded me of wind in the willows. This is again another Gaudi Building (can't remember it's name) but it's pure magic and full of whimsy. It would be wonderful to live there don't you think?

Anyways, Barcelona is a beautiful city and not that expensive (provided you don't get hit up by gypsies... lol) I loved it but I do think it is a city that should be visited when it is warmer. I would also imagine that it would be a lot more expensive in the warmer months.

The only bad thing I have to say about the city (as opposed to the gypsies) is that it smells. I never did identify what it smelt of... at one point I thought it might just be the zoo because there is a zoo in the marina area of Barcelona but it pervades everything.... It's not overpowering like Rotorua but to be honest it was how I was expecting Venice to smell. Everyone told me that Venice stinks but it didn't! Barcelona is definitely a bit whiffy though.... maybe it's garbage. They don't have garbage bins like everywhere else I have seen. They have these huge covered skip thingies that everyone throws their garbage into. I have no idea how often they are emptied but they sit on EVERY street corner (4 to an intersection) so maybe that was it.... but if you go there, and I do recommend it, be prepared for the smell.

Snowflakes that fall on my nose and eyelashes!

2005-11-25T07:59:00.000+01:00

I'm as giggly as a schoolgirl. It snowed very very briefly yesterday and then the snow melted before it hit the ground but it was exciting nonetheless but last night!!!!! I took a photo at the height of the snow which was around 2am. I couldn't sleep because it was making a hissing noise as it fell... kind of like a loud fizzy drink but according to Gordon Young it doesn't make hissing noise it makes "swiss"-ing noise... HAHA

I took the second photo this morning when I woke up and the bottom photo was taken 8 weeks ago. What a difference 2 months makes... that sounds realy weird... it certainly doesn't feel like 2 months. Anyway, I have to go and put on my moon boots so I can go and play in the snow!! HAHAHA I love it! It's now one of my favourite things....

Berlin

2005-11-22T19:38:00.000+01:00

Well, what can I say about Berlin.... firstly I apologise for half of the photos. I didn't take most of them. I bought some great postcards and scanned them. The reason for that is twofold. Firstly, I didn't feel entirely safe in Berlin and didn't want to keep dragging out the camera especially after I had been pickpocketted in a safer place than Berlin and secondly the weather was completely crap! It was cold and I mean C O L D. It was supposed to snow but I think the wind blew it all away and left this wind that I have never experienced before in my life!! It was below freezing and there was this humidity that seeped into everything.

I decided that Berlin was going to be my city of experimenting given that I didn't have a particularly great time with the Swiss Germans I decided I would only have a day and a half there and I would do things that didn't involve me having to deal with the German Germans... lol

Firstly, I flew Easyjet. Anybody seen the show Airport?? HAHA It really is a low cost airline and you get what you pay for and I will certainly recommend them to everyone! So cheap I would have been happy to have stood on the plane. The flight was only 65chf roughly the same in Aussie dollars and only took an hour and half. You go to the furthest ends of the airport and you are allocated a group by time of check-in. I was in group A because I already knew this so I was one of the first on the plane and I managed to nab a window seat. I sat next to a rather nice German man who was rather chatty and offerred to show me his Berlin but unfortunately couldn't do it the next day as he had other things to do and was quite dissappointed when he found out I was staying in a "women's only" hostel and then only staying for one more day. He was rather cute and his name was Dieter! I loved him for his name!! HAHA I am soooo shallow. But he did help me in locating the train station into the city and which trains I had to get.

The trains in Europe are amazing. On time all the time and hardly any time to wait if you miss one. There is generally another along in less than 10 minutes. Why the hell can't Sydney do that? Anyways, I had to get 2 trains to Mohrenstrasser station and then had to ask directions to the hostel because I have no sense of direction when I come out of underground stations. But the German Germans are really nice people and I apologise if I inadvertantly included them in my little diatribe previously. The women's only hostel was really cheap (EU60 about 100 AUD) a night and included breakfast. I got my own room and bathroom for that. What is it with Europeans fascination with IKEA? Seriously they are mad about it! The hostel didn't have anything in it that wasn't IKEA. They must have struck up some seriously made deal and what the hell is it with IKEA's pillows? The pillows I have at Ang's house are tiny, more like lounge cushions and the pillows at this hostel covered half the bed!! But it was clean, neat and very trusting. They emailed me the entry code to the front door because no one was going to be on the desk when I got there which was about 4pm and then the key was located inside the room. It would have been very easy to have done a runner without paying but that's hardly my style. Besides, I wanted breakfast! hehe

So to keep with experimenting, I then had booked a reservation at a "sightless" restaurant. It is one of those restaurants that is completely in the dark... and I mean in the dark!! Do you see me there?? That's me on the end. It was actually a really great restaurant and a fabulous experience. I barely made it there. The reservation was for 7.30pm and by the time I found the hostel, had a shower, got changed and found the right trains to get there it was dead on 7.30pm. At first you think that they have gone a bit overboard because the lighting in the reception area is really really dim and you can barely read the menu but I'll get back to the lighting. It was expensive I guess well, in comparison to what I usually pay when I have been travelling. I don't generally go to a michelin hatted restaurant on my own and this one had 2! I was greeted by a very friendly, English speaking, maitre 'd who takes my coat, gives me a drink and a menu in English. The menu was really funny actually because the menu is written in a form of poetry that really doesn't translate well into English obviously. You had a choice of 6 set menus and the soup was optional. Given that I wouldn't be able to see what I was doing and I really liked the outfit I was wearing I didn't go for the soup. I would be curious to see how many others also thought like me and chose not to have it.

After making my menu selection I am then introduced to my waiter who is a blind man called Manfried. His English is also excellent. I then have to place one of my hands on one of the shoulders of Manfried and he then escorts me to my table. You have to go through a series of windy bits and I guess that is to ensure that all light is totally eradicated from the restaurant and it works. Really Well. You can't see ANYTHING! I was placed at a table of other Germans who were lovely. There were 5 of them and one of them grabbed my arm as I sat down and just started talking to me in German until I told them I didn't speak German and then the whole group spoke English all night to include me which was really nice.

First course was a salad that was fresh and crunchy and had a fabulous dressing on it ... when I got to it that is.... I ate my fork a lot!! It also had these little round crunchy potato thingies that I think also had sundried tomatoes in them. Absolutely delicious and a nice suprise. One of the women at the table told me the secret to ensuring I don't walk out with a chest full of food and that was to only use the fork in one hand and a napkin in the other and carry the (hopefully) food laden fork to my mouth with the napkin underneath in the other hand. This worked remarkably well. I later found out that her mother is blind and always did that.

Whenever Manfried came to the table he would place a hand on my shoulder to announce himself and then, if he put something on the table, he would tell you where it was in reference to a clock... example when he put down the glass of wine he indicated it was at 1 o'clock.

The second course was the fish. I couldn't quite rightly understand the menu but it was FANTASTIC whatever the hell it was. What it was served on was another matter entirely. It was a type of ratatouille is my best guess. It had beany things and these potato things that weren't entirely my cup of tea. They were in the shape of penne pasta and so heavily laden with butter that it was just too rich for me. The sauce of the veggies was divine and I just went for that with the still warm fresh bread (placed at 12 o'oclock).

I also couldn't understand what I ordered for dessert either. The menu said it was red and green on a bed of beige. (like I said, the poetry didn't really translate well) It doesn't sound terribly appetising does it but I was intrigued that such a boring menu item could come out of a michelin hatted restaurant. I think it was alcohol saturated melon on a bed of the smoothest and most sinfully rich vanilla custard. Heavenly! Hot and cold, sweet and sour (the alcohol), crunchy and smooth all at the same time! The dinner was worth it just for the dessert. So simple but soooo amazing! Followed by coffee that came with milk in a separate jug and of course I flooded the saucer... everyone at the table did!! I am sure that they deliberately fill the coffee cup to the brim and do it on pupose so you do flood the cup. Nowhere in Europe have I ordered a coffee that has come to the lip of the cup! perverse bastards!! HAHA

When you are finished your waiter then escorts you out of the restaurant. If you are more than one diner the other's then grab each others shoulders and form a sort of conga line out of the restaurant. This is where the muted lighting becomes understandable. Coming out of the restaurant even the lighting (by which I could barely read the menu) becomes glaring! It was amazing and thanks to the great tip from the other woman at the table (whom I never saw because they left before I did and didn't hang around) I wasn't covered with food! You then settle the bill and the Maitre 'd puts you back into your coat, opens the door and bids you Auf Wiedersehen gute Nacht. It was FANTASTIC. Also a great experience. And, half the pleasure of food is not in the presentation because I think without the ability to see the food, if it is good food, it tastes even better because you are concentrating more on your taste. I thoroughly recommend this experience to everyone. I then make my way back to the hostel by the train and only when I get back to the hostel do I realise that I spent over 3 hours having dinner and didn't realise I was there that long because it didn't feel like it at all. I have to confess that I really wanted to ask the woman sitting next to me at the table if she could see if I had any parsley stuck in my teeth but didn't have the nerve to make the joke. The next day I did the "hop on hop off" bus around Berlin and as I said it was absolutely freezing. Given that I only had one day to see around the place, I selected a few monuments that I really wanted to see. Unfortunately I seem to have chosen the most emotional and spent a great part of the day crying which I seriously had to curb if I didn't want to get frostbite on the face when I came outside!

So, I got off at The Reichstag Building below. This is the seat of the now reunified German Parliament. This building has gone through all sorts of refurbishment but the view from the dome is pretty cool and would be even better on a clear day. It was originally built in about 1884 and escaped damage for pretty much both world wars until the last days of the second. When Germany reunified, it was at this building that all the speeches were made and it was officially made the seat of parliament in 1991 previously being Bonn.

This is the roof of the Sony building located in Potzdamer Platz. This is my photo.
One of the things that I found really depressing was all the new buildings and designs in the city. Don't get me wrong... the architecture is amazing and some pretty cutting edge but I kept imagining what it would have been like to have been in this city during WW2 when most of it was reduced to rubble. Also what it was like in East Berlin after the wall had been constructed. All the new buildings force you to think of it rather than signifying a new and more prosperous future for Berlin. Well it did for me. I then got off at Checkpoint Charlie which is still there and also the last remaining bit of the old Berlin Wall. There is an exhibition behind the wall which gives a pictorial history of the wall and the number of people who managed to escape and who were killed trying. It's amazing that it went up overnight literally and houses had windows and doors sealed if they crossed the divide and the tenant evicted. I can't fathom what that would have been like.
The above is the Charlottenburg Palace. This was the one place I went to where I didn't cry. Well I almost did because it was so beautiful. It was built in the 1600's (I can't remember exactly when sorry) and it now serves as a museum and the most amazing gardens which I spent all of about 15 seconds in before the wind drove me inside. The opulence is extraordinary. The place has rooms set out to show various periods of time throughout the prussian history as well as rooms serving as galleries for the museum.

Above is me in the Sony Building. I took the photo of the roof from here. Below is Potsdamer Platz. The building on the right is the Sony Building. The one in the middle is the Chrysler Daimler building and the other one is an apartment complex. These buildings came about after 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Prior to 1989 the wall ran directly across all three buildings and there was rubble and desecrated buildings on both sides of the wall. The before and after photos are amazing. Unrecognisable.

Below is me at the Brandenburg Gate. Oh yeah, I didn't cry here either... lol. Actually there were mime artists everywhere and they were great! There was this group of people who were puppeteers and were manipulating a life sized robot type of thing and made him climb walls and do cartwheels. It was good fun and I kind of needed it at this time. Prior to the Brandenburg gate I had gone to the Jewish Museum. Do I have to say more? Lots of crying, lots of tissues and pure unbelievability. I can sort of understand those people who try to say that the holocaust never happened because it is so beyond rational thought that humans could do that to each other. I have no doubt that it did happen though. In case you are thinking that I am emotional wreck of a person, I wasn't the only person in the museum profoundly affected by what we saw. I was sitting on the steps outside trying to get myself under control before going and waiting for the bus when a man about 60-70 (obviously jewish as he had on his yamuka) sat next to me and introduced himself and his wife (I just remember her name was Mava) gave me a huge hug and let me cry some more before saying "evil prevails when good people do nothing. Be a good girl. Dry your eyes and remember today." His wife sat on the other side of me. It was quite surreal. They then got up took each other's hand and walked away. Funny though, I stopped crying. I have been trying to think of who said that quote though. Was it Martin Luther King?

Below is the Berliner Dome. This is in the Berlin Cathedral. This cathedral is spectacular with the most amazing pipe organ that is HUGE! This is another building that despite the fact that it was built in the 1700's remained desolated and ruined after the second world war until after the wall came down and in 1990 when it was repaired. There are so many buildings that have this history. This was what is so depressing. I don't know what I can say about Berlin. I do know that I was so emotionally affected by it that I don't know if I ever want to repeat the exercise and return to see the things that I missed.

By the time the bus stopped which was around 5pm I was so emotionally and physically knackered that I didn't know what to do with myself. I was getting the overnight train back to Geneva and it didn't leave until 9.30pm. It was also Sunday so, as with the rest of Europe, nothing was open. The bus stopped at Potsdamer Platz and I was walking around in a kind of daze thinking what the hell am I going to do with myself that I turned around and noticed I was outside the Sony building and the cinema. Harry Potter was having an advanced screening so I went in to see if there was a theatre showing it in English (I figured that since it was being screened in 7 of the 15 cinemas in this complex that there was a good chance) and sure enough there was one starting at 5.15pm! So I ended up the day going to the movies and watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. My niece (Megan, the biggest Harry Potter fan I know) hates my guts! HAHA it doesn't get released in Australia until the 1st November and in fact anywhere else in Europe until the 30th November. I was just in the right place at the right time.

To continue the "try new things" I adopted in Berlin I got the CityNightLine train back to Geneva. This involved a sleeper car (a single) and a change of trains in Basel. This was fantastic and I had THE best nights sleep I have had in ages. If you get motion sick you would hate it but I don't and the funny thing is that when I got off the train in Geneva (some 14 hours later) it was the same feeling I had when I got off the cruise ship. I still felt like I was moving. I loved the train and if I could afford the money and the time I would choose this way to travel all over Europe. I was greeted at the door of the train by a cute little German boy in Uniform who took my bag and escorted me to my cabin. It certainly wasn't flash or big but it was still great. There are 2 cabins up and 2 cabins down. He then showed me all about the cabin including the sink and the toiletries cabinet with the earplugs, water, soap etc. He then took my order for breakfast, took my passport and ticket and explained how he would knock 3 times in the morning at 7am (one hour before arriving in Basel) to announce breakfast and then I would return the knock and he would return 5 minutes later with my breakfast. This is to allow myself to make myself presentable and/or go to the loo or whatever, I have no idea but it worked great. I could have chosen a cabin that had it's own shower but that was about another hundred bucks more expensive and I figured I could have a pommy shower in the cabin and a proper shower when I got home. Also the person in the other downstairs cabin must have gotten off earlier in the morning because he set up my breakfast in there after he returned the room to a sitting room as opposed to having the bed down. Check out the train at www.citynightline.ch if you go to www.babelfish.altavista.com first you can then get the page translated as it only comes in German or Dutch.

So that was Berlin. It certainly was a weekend of "experiences" which is what I had planned. There were great moments, moving moments, moments of utter wretchedness, moments of humour and moments of humility. I still don't know how I would sum up this experience in 3 words and to be honest, it is still affecting me and I have put off doing this blog for 2 days trying to get my head around it. I don't know if I ever will. Maybe I really should have gone to Munich and spent the day wandering around the Disneyland Castle in Oberumagau. Aaahh well. Life is meant to be an experience isn't it?

I still can't hate the Swiss

2005-11-12T09:17:00.000+01:00

Ok... for those of you who haven't heard, I got pickpocketed on Thursday and some bastard stole my wallet. I was standing in a queue with my handbag down by my side (it's a zip up backpack style bag and the zip was zipped before you ask...) waiting to buy a ticket on the bus when a woman sitting on a bus behind me starts knocking at the window. She motions to my bag and then around the corner. It's then that I notice that the zip is undone and on closer investigation my wallet is gone.

So I have no money with which to buy a bus ticket and I had not idea what to do because I was so shocked! So, I called Paul. God love him, he left work and came and collected me and told me what to do and stayed at home so I could do it. He really is a man you want to have around in a crisis. There I was just wanting to crawl up in the foetal position and cry and he has this calmness about him that is kind of contagious and helps you do what it is that you have to do. So the first thing I do is cancel all the cards. Paul then drives me down to Gare Cornavain (Geneva Train Station) because he found out from the mission that the police down there can speak English and it would be easier to make the report there.

I make the report to the police at about 3pm (the wallet was stolen around 12.45pm) and I also arrange to replace my Swiss half fare card at the princely sum of 20 swiss francs. I then ring Alan and ask him to transfer me some cash because the emergency cards I have arranged to get can't be used in an automatic teller and therefore getting cash is going to be a tad difficult. (I had a bit of a teary down the phone as I was still grieving at that stage... I loved that wallet... Claire had given it to me as a thankyou for helping her with her job application and it was a beautiful Oroton wallet) I also didn't know how long it would take to get the cards and it was Friday tomorrow so I wanted cash for the weekend.

So I then head on back home to Ang and Paul. I get a phone call from the Police at Servette at about 6.15 pm saying that the wallet had been handed in (without the cash of course) and that I could go and collect it!!! Can you believe it?

That just wouldn't happen in Australia. Number one, people rarely hand it in and secondly if they did hand it in, there is no way the police would telephone you to say that they had it!! I was amazed and then pissed off that I had cancelled all the cards!!! Because here's the thing. If you ever happen to lose your wallet and need emergency replacement cards make sure you ask how much that is going to cost before making those arrangements! Now 3 of my 4 cards were replaced within 16 hours of me reporting it. Extraordinary huh? (I chose not to replace the 4th when my bank rang me to say they had received the request and was I aware of how much the replacement card would cost me?) FYI an emergency replacement card in a foreign country costs you $330 PER CARD! I can only hope that my insurance with cover it when I get back.

So, even though I got pickpocketed, how can I hate the swiss when:-

my wallet was handed in to police within hours of being stolen
police rang me within hours of it being handed in to say they had received it and that I could come and collect it
My credit cards were replaced within 16 hours of being reported stolen????

I have been all through the grieving process and that happened in the space of 3 hours. The conclusion is that there are arseholes in every country but what makes this country so good is that there are so many honest and decent people here that it well and trully outweighs the arseholes.

Desperately Seeking Audrey

2005-11-07T10:47:00.000+01:00

Well it was another perfect weekend in Paradise this weekend. Ang and Paul have this great book that sets out great visits within a few hours of Geneva and we found this entry that said we could go and have a look at the Audrey Hepburn Pavillion in Toluchnaez. That is, of course for those who aren't aware, where Audrey lived and died. I am a HUGE fan of hers and was very excited to have found that trip. Unfortunately for me, the book was printed 2 years ago and in the interim her 2 sons decided to close it down as they felt it was over commercialising her despite the fact that the Pavillion brought in 400,000 swiss francs each year which was donated to her various children's charities. We didn't find this out until we turned up and found it empty and later looked at another book when we got home to find out the story. I was a bit devestated but the day, nonetheless, was lovely. Here's the thing about the Swiss, they may have perfected timing and are confident in it but they lack confidence in just about every other aspect of their lives. We went to Lausanne (not to be confused with Lucerne since they are practically pronounced the same) for lunch since it's a big city and all the little local ones close down on Sundays and we wouldn't be likely to find a restaurant open and we stumbled across this sign across the window of a pub. It is kind of typical of the lack of confidence of the Swiss. It would have been very easy to have writted "The Best Pub in the World" but no.......... they have to hedge their bets and write that it's probably the best pub in the world. I thought it was very very funny and had to take a picky of it. Julia had to sneak in there too but she's very photogenic so it was no hardship... lol

Later in the day we stopped at St Ceruge for a cuppa tea and this was the view from the verandah of the little cafe we stopped at. Those white things in the air aren't clouds. That is the top of Mont Blanc and it looks like the Mountains are floating from the distance we were at. It was completely magical and the first time I have managed to see Mont Blanc (which is located in France) because Geneva is a bit too low and you need to get up higher to see it and the weather has to be perfect.

Last weekend Paul and Ang had a Barbecue on Sunday and the weather was magnificent. Perfect Barbie weather and it was warm and sunny and lovely. This Sunday was a completely different kettle of fish. Despite the fact that it was nice and sunny it was trully the first day that spelt the fact that winter is on it's way. It was rather icy and I had to drag out the winter woollies for the first time (if you don't count the trip to Jungfraujoch). It's also the first time that I noticed "the poles". "The Poles" are orange sticks that line the sides of roads at close intervals. They stand at various heights but general between 4 and 6 feet tall. Their purpose is to indicate the roads after the snow has fallen. They will poke out of the snow and that will ensure that you aren't driving over a cliff I am presuming! The height of them was rather daunting. I really do hope that I get the chance to see snow before I leave. I am really excited and looking forward to it.

This is a photo of the girls and I at Morges. It's a very picturesque little village with a castle and everything but then that isn't saying much, there appears to be a castle in every little village.

Below is my future home. Paul investigated on our return home and discovered that it is owned by the family who invented Velcro. Perhaps I don't really want to marry into a stupid family after all they invent a multimillion dollar thing and then forget to patent it..... not to bright huh? But then that goes along with my theory that the Swiss don't really have much confidence in themselves since I can just imagine them saying... "oh we'll give it a go but I'll patent it only if it is successful...." Too Late silly!!! Still, it's a magnificent castle isn't it?

It's a privately owned castle which is odd because most of the castles I have seen have either been converted into Museums or are filled with nuns and therefore open to the public. Must have a bit of dough to manage to maintain it and keep it private though.

Because it is privately owned we had to drive down the hill and go into a paddock to take the pickies. Behind us in the adjacent paddock were cows.... surprise, surprise... there are cows everywhere.... but one of the cows gave birth and Ang took on pointers.... I figured I must have been the brown cow trying to help the calf up and Ang is lying in the paddock totally knackered and Paul could have taken on the role of the farmer who kept coming up, periodically, and kicking the birth mother trying to get her up!! Too funny.

Venice 4 - stuff

2005-11-05T10:32:00.000+01:00

The shopping in Venice is extraordinary. You name the label and you will find a store here. I even found a couple of Australian designer labels! There are also heaps and heaps of the mask and glass stores with prices as diverse as the tourists that visit. Occasionally you will stumble across a very different store and they were the ones that I loved. There was a store where a man made leather bound books in the traditional methods. The store smelt like leather and the books were magnificent. There was another store where they sold minature porcelain items such as handbags and shoes! These were just adorable and some of them caused me to laugh out loud. I resisted the urge to buy a mask even though there were some trully inspired ones that were just beautiful in their appearance and the way in which they are made because, quite honestly, what do I do with it when I get it home? The cost of the ones that I was admiring also made me rather pragmatic.

Claire sent me hunting for a particular candy dish that she wanted and I, seriously, traipsed all over Venice (including the outlaying islands specifically Murano) looking for this dish. When I eventually found it, well I didn't actually find it but I found a glass master who would be willing to take it on as a commissioned work, I couldn't do it because I couldn't in all conscience pay 290 euro for a glass candy dish the size of my hand. I had better things to spend that on... like the best el diablo pizza in the world and the most succulent grilled fish and beer and wine and essi buranelli biscuits etc etc etc! HAHA

These are just some snaps that I took. Above is an entrance to a smaller canal off the Grand Canal. Below is the Rialto Markets which are there every day from 6am to 11am. The apples were to die for! So fresh and crunchy and juicy at the same time. Also the freshest of fresh fish.
Venice has few public gardens. In fact space is at a premium that there are also only 53 private gardens which can't be seen by the public. This is one of the public gardens not far from Rialto Bridge. It was really nice. I had a picnic lunch which I bought from the markets and it was actually peaceful because I don't think many tourists knew it was here because there were only about 10 other people in here the whole time I was.

Below is a church located on Burano Island. Again, if you notice the lean, it is actually there. It isn't the angle of my camera. It too is sinking and I am told that it leans about 6 feet! I have no idea what "6 feet" means but that's what the guide says. The Island is famous for it's fishing community and it's lace making. Also it famous for it's fabulously bright coloured houses. Painted that way so drunken bum husbands could find their way home to the correct house after a day of fishing and drinking! How funny is that?

On the day I was leaving Venice (Friday 4th November) there was something happening and no amount of asking questions got me any answers! The tourism board didn't open until after I left (being 12pm) so I couldn't go in there. But, there was military and police everywhere. And I am presuming that it was a good thing and not a bad thing because they were all in their full dress uniforms. Can I begin to tell you how much drool was being added to the already heightened water levels in Venice from all the women??? Yumina Yumina they were all gorgeous! Even in their silly 18th Century english bobby style hats with fluffy bits hanging off and wearing capes with ceremonial swords!! It was fantastic!!! The police were a bit funny about having their photo's taken and you had to try it surrepticiously. I managed to sneak the below one while Iwas waiting for the ferry to take me back to the airport. *sigh*. It had to happen on the day I was leaving didn't it?

Venice 3 - Architecture

2005-11-05T10:27:00.000+01:00

The buildings in Venice are amazing. They span about 1000 years and the history attached is amazing. You really should read up on it. Used as the jewel in the crown to running away from gathering armies! There are buildings in every traditional style from gothic to renaissance and modern ones as well. Just amazing. Most of the buildings on the Grand Canal are no longer private residences, although a couple are. Most have been turned into Museums, art galleries or government buildings. The below building is called "The Unfinished Palace" because it is only one story. None of the other buildings on the grand canal are anything less than 3 stories. This was bought by and American Woman in the 1920's called Peggy Guggenheim and she turned it into a modern art museum. The works of art are great and there was a rather eclectic Salvador Dali collection.

The type of arches on the buildings indicates in which period the house was built. The fact that the below areches are peaked and have ornamentation on the top of them says that this is the late gothic period being the 1700s. Below is the Church of The Virgin Mary of Good Health. Among with grand Palaces there are a huge number of churches. This one was built to celebrate those that survived the plague. They still celebrate the end of the plague to this day and the vaporetto station attached to the church is merely called "Salute" meaning good health.
The below building is the Ca' Rezzenico. The only reason that I have this picture is to show you the effect of the pollution on the buildings. Most buildings are white and you can see that this building has some white but a lot of black. Once a building gets to this stage it will take approximately 2 years to clean it up to how it should appear and costs bucket loads of money.
The below building is funny. If you think the facade is on an angle you are correct. There are heaps of leaning buildings in Venice. The reason being is that Venice is built upon a series of sandy islands. This building has a marble facade whereas most buildings have brick with plaster as the facade. The weight of the marble has caused it to sink. Underneath Venice is a petrified forrest of trees. In the 16th Century the Venicians sunk these huge tree trunks to fortify the foundations of the buildings and to stop them from sinking. As a result there are over 100,000 tree trunks beneath Venice and they have been petrified from the salt water. I thought that was really fasciniating. But, apparantly the trees weren't sufficient to hold the weight of a marble facade. Hence all the leaning buildings.

Venice 2 - The Gondolas

2005-11-05T10:21:00.000+01:00

There are various ways of getting around Venice. The preferred option, well the one that predominately did was walking! Everything is well sign posted even if correct spelling is optional, you can generally work it out. The reason that I preferred to walk is that, amazing as this sounds, it was actually quicker for me than taking any of the water transports. Below is the Rialto Bridge. This is one of 4 bridges that span "The Grand Canal". The Grand Canal is the main entry to Venice and it was here that all the "famous" people lived during the relevant eras. The palaces on the grand canal still retain the names of the persons who built them. For Example there is the Ca' Figuera which means the House of the Figuera Family (ca' being short for casa). Even though Napoleon lived briefly in one of the palaces on the Grand Canal they all still to this day retain the original owners name. So, to transport. Above is the Rialto Bridge under which you can see the Vaporetto station (one for each direction of travel) and the Vaporetto's themselves. They are actual rust buckets but they are functional and the drivers are awesome in that it takes them 10 seconds to dock the boat so that you don't have to have a gangplank and can walk straight on. Something it could take a water taxi 5 attempts to get right and then still have to load up a gangplank. I didn't get a picture of a water taxi but they are all really low and you pretty much have to crawl to a seat. The reason they are so low is so that they can fit under all the bridges which span the various little canals. There are 184 islands (or there abouts) that make up Venice and there are 277 bridges. I think I walked over 260 of them!!
This is the view from the top of the Rialto Bridge. The Rialto Bridge is the only bridge on which shops are located. There are 24 shops. 12 down each side. You can see a typical Gondola in the middle of the water.

All the gondolas just sit and wait for the inevitable tourist to come on board. I didn't actually do the Gondola because, in all honesty, I was petrified about getting in and out of it. The Gondolas, however, are surprisingly stable. They way tonnes! The metal located on the bow of the Gondolas weighs about 100 kgs itself and it works to counter balance the movement of the Gondolier at the stern of the Gondola. In the afternoon you can do a Gondola Serenade where 2 musicians will also be on the Gondola with you. One a singer and the other either an accordian player (what is the definition of a gentleman? A man who can play the piano accordian and doesnt hehehehe) or a guitarist. They, of course, sing the cliched songs such as "o so lo mio" and "that's amore" but it's all in good fun.
Above is peak hour in Venice!! HAHA it was so funny, they were all backed up waiting to get through and it was just before sunset and there was this HUGE queue of japanese tourists waiting to get on board and I am sure they all expected to be under the Bridge of Sighs at sunset. Yeah! Good luck!

Speaking of the Bridge of Sighs, I found out why it is called that. Apparantly it was the last thing that prisoners saw before they were executed and therefore they would see their loved ones and families sitting on it and sigh. Sad huh?

Above is the Traghetto. This is a gondola that is manned by 2 gondoliers. One at the front and one at the back. It serves just to move people from one side of the grand canal to the other. As I said there are only 4 bridges that span the grand canal so they are a way in between. Traditionally on the traghetto you have to stand for the crossing which I only saw a few people doing. Also the traghetto holds about 15 people (if all standing) and actual Venetians get priority. So, if there are 20 waiting for the crossing and 12 of them are Venetians, regardless of where they are in the queue they get to go first. That crossing only costs 50 euro cents. (about 80 Australian cents).

According to the tour guide on the Grand Canal Tour, Venice only has a population of about 60,000 and 1 in 2 families have their own private water transport. That could include gondoliers or power boats. The speed limits are very strict and heavily monitored and police in their boats use lidar guns to track the speed of boats! I thought that was funny. The speed limit within in the canals is only about 3 mph because any faster and it affects the very unstable foundations of the buildings with the violent wash created.

Venice 1

2005-11-05T10:16:00.000+01:00

Well what can I say? It is everything you see in the movies and pictures. But, the one thing I don't understand is how come there are so many pigeons and that they aren't all dead from heart attacks? Seriously, they are the fattest laziest pigeons in the world and they kind of just waddle around waiting for some other tourist to feed them some more! It's quite funny.

So, I got to Venice by flying the Swiss national low cost airline called Flybaboo. I know! The name itself is a bit of a worry isn't it? I was originally only supposed to fly out on Tuesday but they rang me about 10 days before to say that there was something happening at the airport on the Tuesday and instead of arriving at 2pm I was to arrive at 10pm. Well considering I was travelling on my own and that Venice (a city I have no idea about other than you have to walk everywhere so grabbing a cab wasn't an option) is over an hour away from the airport, I didn't fancy getting there at Midnight. So I changed the flight to Monday instead.

I get to the airport and the plane is one of those little dash8 ones. The ones with propellers you can see and you all know how much I hate those! But it sat about 24 and it was on time and there was a hostee and we got bottled water and cold pizza! Perfect for soothing those frazzled nerves. Once at Marco Polo Airport you then get a bus to Piazalle Roma where you then get a Vaporetto or as I call them, a ferry!

A word to those of you who are going to be travelling to Venice on your own. All the guide books say that you get the number 82 to Vallaresso and so at Piazalle Roma you get the the number 82 which says it is going to Vallaresso. What none of the guide books tell you is that Vallaresso is actually San Marco!! When you get to San Marco there is nothing that says the stop is Vallaresso. It was a tad confusing. But, after I sorted that out I then had to make my way to my hotel with this rather rickety map which is so tiny that it was funny. After a couple (or 15) wrong turns I found the hotel. The first night I stayed at the Hotel Colombina which was fantastic!! I leant out of my window and could see the Bridge of Sighs! Now that might sound awesome and at first glance it was. However, my room may well have been situated 6 foot above Pitt Street at 11pm! It was the main thoroughfare for all the gondolas to try and be under the bridge at midnight! it was bedlam but it was only for one night so for one night I had a view from my window of the Bridge of Sighs.
Once I got to the hotel, I dumped the bag and headed on out armed with my rickety map. I was about 2 minutes from San Mark's square and basilica. Above is me outside the Doge's Palace. That is next to the Basilica. What an awesome building this is. I did the "Secret" tour which basically lets you also see the living quarters of the various Doge's that ruled Venice and they are decorated as would have been befitting the period. Very sumptuous and it would have been fabulous to have been the elite during the period.
Above is Saint Mark's Basilica. At high tide there is about and inch of water in Saint Mark's square but they have these scaffolding things that lead to the entrance of all the touristy things so you don't have to get your feet wet. Pretty considerate actually but I had my hiking boots which were great because they are waterproof to about 3 inches. The brick building that you can see next to the Basilica is the Campanile or bell tower. The bells are very pretty but play at odd times of the day and not just on the hour. I never did find out why. Above and below are views from the top of the Basilica. The above shows "The Entrance" to Venice which is marked by the 2 large columns atop which sit 2 statues. From the lagoon it is really impressive but the weather was so hazy I never managed to get a decent photo. Below is the view over Saint Marks Square from the top of the Basilica. You can see on either side that there are 2 pagoda structures. They are located in front of 2 restaurants and at night there is a battle of the bands so to speak. I loved just to sit in the square and listen because it was all the fabulous music from the movies and the big band era. So one band would play "Quando Quando Quando" and when it had finished the other one would start playing a glen miller medley! It was Great! One band was brassy and the other was stringy so you got a great selection of music. One night I even paid ten euro for a coffee just for the privilege of sitting right in the middle of them both. Ten euro well spent.

Below is the view from my bedroom window of the Bridge of Sighs. I new I stuck it in here somewhere. On the first night in Venice I also went to a concert of Vivaldi's 4 seasons. It was in the Theatro de Fenice and it was trully magnificent. It was a 16th Century theatre and it was straight out of Amadeus! I sat in the stalls and not in the loges but that was okay because the sound was better and I got to listen to Vivaldi in Venice! A great night.

The Eiffel Tower

2005-10-29T15:08:00.000+02:00

Well what can I say about the Eiffel Tower that hasn't already been written. People far more eloquent than I have waxed rhapsodic over it and so I am not going to do that. Other than to tell you that I stood in the gardens looking at it for what seemed like forever. It is so quintessentially Parisienne and I love it. I was a complete nerdy tourist the whole time I was there and I wouldn't have had it any other way. For the night they have placed thousands of globes all over it and it glitters for 5 minutes every hour on the hour! That is just magnificent to see.

This is the funicular that takes you up to the first and second floors. You change at the second floor for an elevator up to the top of the tower. I wasn't courageous enough to do that.

I actually had dinner at the restaurant on Level 1 of the Eiffel Tower. That was very nice. I met a fabulous young couple from Melbourne called Ben and Jean and we got to chatting before dinner as we were all having dinner there and then doing the same cruise together. We got separated at dinner (being the lonely singleton they just tend to tack me onto tables with other english speaking people and hope for the best) but I sat with some English teachers from Liverpool and Manchester. They were good value.

This is Ben and Jean. I met up with them after dinner and we did the cruise along the Seine together. Do you want to know why she looks so happy? Ben proposed to her during dinner and of course she said yes! That was just the perfect end to my fantastic stay in Paris.

Paris 5

2005-10-29T15:00:00.000+02:00

Talk about being armed to the teeth. The police in Paris don't carry nice little 44's or little guns, instead they carry AK 47's!!!
I went and saw the show at the Moulin Rouge. It is the new show and is called "Feerie" which roughly translates as "wonderland" or so they tell me.

This is me standing on the Pont Neuf bridge on the River Seine.

This is of course Notre Dame catherdral and inside it was just glorious. I wasn't allowed to climb the stairs because they were closed for maintenance. I personally think they just wanted to keep all the French School kids out of there because I travelled during their school holidays. What on earth was I thinking?

My hotel is across the road from the church you see in the middle of the below photo. To my right is the Seine River and that building jutting into the photo on the left is the Louvre. Pretty spectacularly located huh? I was in the 1st Arrondissment. For those of you who don't know, Paris is divided into 12 Arrondissments and they radiate out from this one. It was just great!
This is the dome of the Eglise Du Dome. this building is located at the south end of the Palace de Invalides and can be seen from practically everywhere in Paris at night because they light up the dome which is guilded in gold.

Paris 4

2005-10-29T14:55:00.000+02:00

Below is the Palace of the Invalides. It's a trully phenomenal piece of architecture and bloody huge. This was a rather cute statue of Winston Churchill. It's amazing the number of streets that are named after foreign dignatories especially Americans!

This was a rather cute building called "Petit Palace" and is across the road from the "Grande Palace". Both are undergoing heavy restoration and the grande palace was completely covered in scaffolding and you could just see the glass dome poking out through the top.

This is the entrance to the Louvre.
This is one of the facades from inside the quadrangle of the Louvre.

And of course it wouldn't be complete without me looking like a complete dork standing in front of the glass pyramids within the quadrangle inside the Louvre.

Paris 3

2005-10-29T14:52:00.000+02:00

I can't remember if I told you or not so I apologise if I am repeating myself. You couldn't take flash photos in a lot of the rooms of the Louvre so I just put my camera away and browsed around this amazing place for 6 hours. I took a couple of photo's at the beginning but gave up. This one is the statue of Diana the Huntress.

This is, of course, the amazing Venus De Milo.

This is a photo I wasn't allowed to take because it was in one of the rooms you couldn't flash but I didn't care and took it anyway. It's of the crown jewels of Louis the 14th. I had to take it because in there is the worlds largest pure diamond and it's called the Regent. I can't really remember now but I think it is about 14 carats. Whilst there are bigger diamonds in the world none are as pure as this one. The diamonds that should be in the crown were nicked during the Revolution and have been replaced with glass because they were never recovered. After I took the photo a rather stern looking french woman yelled at me and wagged her finger saying "no No No Madame". I just looked sheepish and apologised but I had the photo at that stage! YAY! haha

This is a photo of me on the steps of the Sacred Heart Church in Mont Matre.

This is a photo of the last windmill in Paris. They used to be all over the place and the french word for windmill is "Moulin" hence the name Moulin Rouge (red windmill) and the big glary windmill on the front of the theatre.

Paris 2

2005-10-29T12:04:00.000+02:00

The weather in Paris was sketchy. It was either brilliantly sunny or overcast and drizzly. It changed in a matter of minutes and that is evident from the photos.
So, I headed off to Mont Matre and was wandering the streets just soaking it in and trying to avoid eye contact with the million or so sketch artists there who want to draw your picture. Below is the last actual vineyard located in Paris city. It is very old and I am told that the wine is crap but people pay phenomenal sums of money for a bottle each year because it is actually grown and made in Paris. They don't drink it though....
This is the Sacre Couer Church of church of the Sacred Heart. It is located on the top of Mont Matre. It was a beautiful afternoon to just sit on the steps and take in the views of Paris.
These are the views of Paris from the steps of the church.

I took this photo for my niece Laura. This shop is her Mecca. Actually the Champs Elysee would be her mecca because the shopping was fabulous. You name the designer and chances are there was a store here. Actually the shoppping was better on the Boulevarde Haussman which has two department stores. One is Printemps and the other is Galleries LaFayette. Imagine and even more upmarket David Jones. Instead of having counters for Wedgewood etc they have counters for Tiffanies and Ferragamo!!

Oh before I forget, I have a story about the Louis Vuitton store below. As I came out of the store a Japanese woman came up to me and asked me if I would go back inside and purchase her 2 wallets as they had a policy of only selling 1000 EU (or one bag) per customer. I was very curious, of course I knew it was suss before you call me gullible, I just wanted to know what was going on. So she hands me 700EU (which is about $AU1100) and off I go. I go inside the store and immediately go up to one of the blokes who looks like a manager and tell him what happened to me outside with the Japanese woman. I asked him to tell me what it was all about. Firstly, they don't have a policy of only selling one item per person just to particular persons. He tells me that to purchase high end small quality goods is a way to get money out of France and that it is probably drug money. They buy the goods and then take them back to Japan and sell them for cash. They may lose a bit but they still make a lot especially when you consider that one wallet costs about 600 bucks australian. That was all very interesting and I contemplated asking if there was a back door to make off with the money but I didn't really want the Japanese Mafia to be hounding me during my stay in Paris so I returned the money to the woman with the story that the bouncer saw me talking to her and they wouldn't sell me the wallets. Which was a bit of a bugger really because it was the closest I would ever get to buying a real Louis Vuitton piece of anything. Ahhh C'est La Vie!

Below are pictures from the Arch De Triomphe. I climbed all 320 steps to the top!! WOOHOO!! Going up wasn't a problem... well it was but coming back down was so much harder. It is a very small spiral staircase and I kind of got vertigo coming back down but I wasn't the only one because the people in front of me were going even slower than I was so I had to wait for them.

The views from the top were the same from all 4 corners sort of. The buildings on the corners all used to, at one stage, be private residences. The architecture really is amazing and breathtaking. I often wondered whether people who live in Paris think it is as fabulous as the tourists do.

Below is the pond in the Jardin de Tuilleries. It's the garden at the other end of the Champs Elysee from the Arch De Triomphe. I have to apologise for the order of things. I am having all sorts of problems uploading pictures to the blog today.

Paris 1

2005-10-29T11:28:00.000+02:00

Again, I have so many photos I am going to have to do this in stages.

You know, I used to pride myself in being an intelligent and articulate woman but I so have to rethink that. The whole time I was in Paris I was at a loss for words. It was everything I had expected and so much more! I also couldn't get the song La Vie en Rose out of my head. If you don't know it, don't download it or listen to it because it sticks like glue! HAHA

I had a trully magnificent time in Paris and I am completely knackered and exhausted. I think I managed about 4 hours sleep each night. There was just so much to do and so little time to do it in and I still didn't manage to see everything that I wanted too. Also, there are going to be a big number of photos in these next blogs and I didn't use my camera everywhere I wanted too. For instance, there are huge numbers of rooms in the Louvre where you can't use your flash and therefore the photo's are crap. So I just put the camera away and spent 6 hours just looking in amazement at all the art and figured it's most important if I remember it anyways rather than having a photo to put on the blog so I am sorry about that selfish attitude. But, if you haven't already been to Paris it really is a must on your list of goals.

So I leave Geneva at some ungodly hour of the morning again on a train to Paris. I arrive at Gare (french for station) De Lyon. I get in about 11.30am. I get on the Metro and find my way to my hotel! And what a location. I am between the Louvre and The Pont Neuf in a quiet little street which meant that when I went to bed I could sleep because it wasn't noisy. Given that I only managed about 4 hours a night it was a godsend. Breakfast could either be served in your room or in the Cave de Mousquetaires. Given that the second option sounded like I would be dining with vermin, I chose to have it in my room everyday. That was pretty fabby and so bang on time it was amazing. The hotel was called the Hotel La Place de Louvre and is part of a chain and if you want you can check them out at www.esprit-de-france.com

The first thing I did was dump the luggage and start walking. The whole of Paris is just like one giant film set. In hindsight I probably should have felt a bit of a git because for the entire afternoon I just walked around with this stupid grin on my face and sighing and humming La Vie en Rose under my breath. I trully couldn't believe I was there.

Above is the place de concorde. That's the first place I arrived at and it pretty much stands in the middle of a huge traffice roundabout. Below you can see that in one direction the Champs Elysee starts and in another direction is a pretty spectacular fountain. In the other direction is the Seine.

The Mylers

2005-10-23T12:50:00.000+02:00

Can I begin to tell you what a great time I am having here in Switzerland? and it is in thanks completely to the fabulous family with whom I am staying. I have already waxed poetic about how much I love the girls but hopefully these photo's will do them justice along with showing you Paul, who I don't think I have managed to get a photo of until recently except for the goofy fondue one.

Oh I have to tell you about the pink T-shirt Angela is wearing. It says "C'est pour Decembre" and that means "it's for December" as her baby is due on the 3rd December. It is so cute. She also has a brown shrug that she sometimes wears with the T-shirt when it is cold enough which hasn't been that often. The shrug totally frames the t-shirt and emphasises the slogan. It is a really cute and perfect shirt and Angela has started not to wear it in public because she says that everyone gets this really goofy look on their faces and comes up to her! It's making her a tad self conscious but I love it and encourage her to wear it whenever it's possible.

Don't you all just love it?

The above photo was taken last night before we all went out to dinner to Fondue.

Angela will probably hate me for putting this picture up but it's very cute. Paul has just gotten home from work and Julia is pretending she is an ewok with my scarf. Ang wasn't feeling all that well that day so is in her jammies. Just for the record she had been dressed and we had gone shopping before she got back into them... lol

Aren't they adorable? I don't think I need to say anything about them.

Woohoo I did Fondue

2005-10-23T12:38:00.000+02:00

Yes! It's not just a kitschy thing.. people in Switzerland really do do fondue and they do it really well!! It is not just an outdated 70's bored housewife thing to do.

Paul's family have come to visit. His mum and dad (Zandra and Dennis) along with his sister and her partner (Sasha and Steve). In honour of their arrival it was decided that we would go to the "local" restaurant called Cafe Du Soleil. Their specialty is their fondue and it was FABULOUS! Very cheesy, very artery clogging and very hot and tasty! Here are some pickies of the fondue.

I know I shouldn't have included the photo of Paul because he is looking so goofy but I just had to because everytime I look at it I laugh and thought you may all too. The bottom picture is of Sasha and Dennis. Next to me is Zandra but I didn't manage to get a photo of Steve or Ang for that matter.... sorry.

A time for all seasons

2005-10-20T09:52:00.000+02:00

I have never lived anywhere where the change in seasons is so dramatic. I have (unsuccessfully) tried to capture the change in colours that is happening to the trees at the moment. It is really magnificent. The leaves that I have taken a picture of are from a peach tree and have turned really pink. It is so pretty.

I can almost just watch the trees and see the colours change in minutes. It's really lovely to see.
It is getting colder now but not so cold that I have to wear my moon boots or totally cover up in the brand new pink (of course) dacron filled winter coat that makes me look like the michelin man but I don't care because it's PINK! HAHA

Well that's al for now. I hope you are all well and enjoying the coming summer weather.
Cheers.
xx

I really don't like the Swiss German

2005-10-12T02:00:00.000+02:00

This is just a bit of a bitch about the weekend. I have to say firstly that I think it is obvious from the previous postings that when I got to do the things I wanted to do I had a great time. The difficulty was in actually getting to do them.

Geneva is part of Swiss France and everyone speaks French. Travelling to Interlarken and then to Jungfraujoch is dead in the centre of Swiss German territory and therefore they all speak German. I think they speak German although that might be debatable because I couldn't understand a word they said. A friend indicated that it might either be High German or a dialect.

The Swiss Germans are the rudest, most arrogant, self serving, obnoxious, supercillious, condescending and boorish people I have ever come into contact with. Firstly they presumed me to be american all the time. I can understand that and can forgive them for that because honestly, all the time I have been here all the "large" people or fat people have all been american so I can understand that mistake. German's hate Americans.

Secondly, if you are thinking of taking a solo trip to any German speaking area, DONT! Trying to find a restaurant on Saturday night that didn't have dinner menus for 2 only took me 45 minutes. When I did find a restaurant they kind of shoved me in a corner and ignored me until I actually made verbal AND eye contact at the same time. Dinner was also rather tasteless. At lunch in Jungfraujoch they grudgingly gave me a table and then spent the next 40 minutes toe tapping around me and blatantly looking at their watches trying to get rid of me. Trying to get into the restaurant the woman maitre 'd (who had previously been speaking english to a family in front of me) refused to speak english to me. A similar thing happened at Grindelwald buying the lonely singleton ticket on the gondola. They had to confirm twice that I was only buying one ticket and then looked rather sympathetically at me when handing it over.

Oh and yes, the hotel. I get a lecture at the front desk how I am in a SINGLES ONLY ROOM! and that I shouldn't even contemplate bringing anyone back to the room because it's a SINGLES ONLY ROOM and I don't know how many times he said that to me. Said? I should have typed "barked".

By the time I got to Interlarken I just wanted to be away from all these bloody Nazis when I went to get the cup of coffee. The woman there was the Swiss Germans only reason I don't want to bomb the lot of them. She was lovely, very accommodating and didn't make me feel like I was an alien. The coffee wasn't bad either.

Weekend To The Top Of Europe 3

2005-10-12T01:23:00.000+02:00

Ok, so I get up at the crack of a sparrows fart to make my way back to Interlarken Ost railway station. Breakfast was interesting.... brie at 6 O'clock in the morning.... hmmmm but they did have yummy pastries and the best bircher meusli... so at the trainstation at 7am and I put my overnight bag in one of the lockers for the princely sum of 5 francs. We get a bus to Lauterbrunnen which is pretty uneventful. The bus is packed and I have an aisle seat so I can't see anything but it only takes about 30 minutes.

From Lauterbrunnen we start on the rick rack railway system. It's all very steep and you have to change trains twice more to get to the top. The first stop is Kleine Schidegg which is another picturesque little town. I met the cutest french couple on the train and we kind of hung out together for the entire day. They were both about 80 in the shade and her name was Marie and his (I am guessing from the pronounciation) was Jean. Their english was as good as my french so we had a good time playing charades all day! It was very funny.

From Kleine Schidegg we then go to Jungfraujoch. It is called The Top Of Europe. It is the highest railway station in Europe and is on the largest flowing glacier in Europe. It was frigging freezing and fantastic. You can see the views are just magnificent.

One of the areas that you can go is into the actual glacier and they have called that bit the Ice Palace. Surprisingly, it wasn't that cold even when you put your hand on the wall which was solid ice. They had these cute little sculptures all over the place and these carved ice chairs you could have a sit on.
Oh ok, below is me! HI!!!! I am standing just beneath the tallest part of Jungfraujoch. This photo was taken about 30 seconds before I fell over. I nice little japanese tourist man attempted to assist me up before falling over himself. I was laughing so hard I thought I would cause an avalanche. I guess you had to be there.

I got to Jungfraujoch about 11am and stayed there til about 2pm. I then caught the train back to Interlarken but this time it was via Grindelwald. The whole time I was there I kept thinking about European vacation.... was their name Griswald? I dont know but it made me giggle. I spent a couple of hours in Grindelwald and bought a ticket on the one of those gondola thingies that goes up mountains... you know they are suspended way way way above the ground. Oh did you all know that I have a paranoid fear of heights. I have no idea why I bought the ticket and further still how I even managed to get into the carriage. Well I do. I thought that maybe I would share the carriage with someone else and that wouldn't be so bad but when I got in the carriage fully expecting the people behind me to get in as well it just took off and it was just me on my own. So while I took the gondola ride I spent the entire time with my face buried in my hands pressed to my knees. Sorry I don't have any fabby pictures of Grindelwald but I at least took a picture of my ticket so you can see that I did do it!! HAHA

I left Grindelwald by bus back to Interlarken about 4pm I guess. Time ceased to have meaning at that point. I was knackered both physically and mentally especially after that gondola ride where I almost thought I was going to throw up. Back in Interlarken I decide to have a cup of coffee and something to eat before the 3 1/2 train trip back to Geneva. God love Paul though. I get a phone call on the train and he says that he has to go out anyways and did I want him to pick me up!! So he did and it was great. Got home about 9.45pm. Was a fabulous weekend.

Weekend To The Top Of Europe 2

2005-10-10T04:21:00.000+02:00

Interlarken is a very pretty place and geared to the tourist so I was happy. I went a'wandering and stumbled across a funicular which is one of those rickety steep little trains that go up sides of mountains. This train went up Harder Klum. Oh I should chuck in here that I got myself a "Swiss Card". It is a card that costs CHF150 (roughly the same in aussie money) and what it does is that it gives you up to half price travel on all things public transport swiss! It's fantastic! So for example, the train trip to Jungfraujoch is valid for 3 days and would have cost me CHF190 for a second class trip but in fact only cost me CHF126 going first class! Then things like the funicular should have cost me CHF24 but with my card, it only cost me CHF12 (by the way CHF is how they right the currency of swiss francs. CH stands for Switzerland and appears on all the cars as a big oval sticker! They don't use the euro here but it is accepted). The Swiss Card is valid for a year but I have saved it's cost already so I am loving it!

This is a view of the start of the funicular but it gets considerably steeper as you go up the mountain. The below picture doesn't really show the angle either but I'm sure you have all seen one before.

At the top of Harder Klum is a little restaurant and cafe. I got some other tourist to take my picky against the backdrop of the swiss alps. Pretty cool huh?

So this is the restaurant cum cafe cum beer garden. Given that I was in German territory now, as opposed to French territory in Geneva, I had eine bier und strudel (pronounced shtwoodl hehe). Quite sacriligious to have beer with dessert but the service wasn't great and I ended up having the beer first and the strudel later and coffee later still.

More picture postcard views from every angle and it was a bit of a glary day but absolutely perfect weather wise. These are pictures looking down over Interlarken.

When I came down off the mountain (oh there was a lovely 15 minute walk, (well it would have been lovely if I wasn't panting like a dog on heat walking up the friggin hill!!!) through a bit of a forresty bit from the funicular exit to the restaurant but the good thing about that is that it was all downhill on the way back) I went to the Alpinewald wildlife park. Ummmm mountain goats and cows don't really constitute a wildlife park if you were to have asked me before I got there.

I didn't really think you would want to see pictures of cows. They are just like the cows we have in Australia but they, seriously, all have those dinky cow bells around their necks. Every single one of them! It's quite melodious when you are amongst a herd of 50.

So that was the better part of the afternoon. I headed back to my hotel, the Hotel Du Nord, to have a bit of quiet sit down. The hills may be alive in Switzerland but it's with the groans and aches of the weary from traipsing all over the frigging hills rather than the sound of music.

This is a view from the balcony of my hotel room. You can check out the official hotel pickies at their website if you are interested. http://www.hotel-dunord.ch/Acceuil.html

Interlarken also has 2 train stations. There is Interlarken West and Interlarken Ost (East). I was closer to the Ost which is good because that's where my journey started in the morning.

Weekend To The Top Of Europe 1

2005-10-10T03:13:00.000+02:00

Well I had my first big solo excursion this weekend just gone. I went to "The Top Of Europe" as the brochures call it. I went for a fabulous train trip to Interlarken (you may remember that's where that horrific white water rafting tragedy happened a few years ago) and I spent the night there. From there, on Sunday, I went to Jungfraujoch which is a dirty big mountain that is classified as a heritage listing by UNESCO due to the fact that it is the largest flowing glacier in Europe, has the highest train station in Europe and is very eco-friendly and has a science station up there.

It was a huge weekend so I am going to have to do it in 3 parts to get all the pickies in. So, I get up at 6am to catch a bus which will take me down to Gare Cornavain (the train station in Geneva) to get the train which leaves at 7.20am. Funnily enough, I was 5 minutes to the bus when I realised I had left my tickets on the bed so had to go home and get them but I had allowed plenty of time so it was no problem. I got a normal train to Spiez but I change at Spiez for the Goldenpassline train, pictured below. I had decided to travel first class and you can't see on this picture but in first class you get these amazing panoramic windows which were fabulous and a single seat as opposed to the 2 seaters. So it was very roomy and spacious.

The train travelled from Spiez to Montreaux and there is, apparantly another even better train from Montreaux to Sweisimmen (including one that is called the Chocolate Express!!!! D'oh!) but due to all the rains Switzerland had they had to shut that bit down and replace it with a bus. But that was ok... oh here are some pickies I took on the train to Montreaux.

The scenery just kept me thinking about Heidi and her being made to go the Mountains to get better. Everytime you looked out the window there was another picture postcard view. It was just magnificent. We then got back onto the train again and headed to Interlarken. I arrived in Interlarken about 1.30pm.

This is a view of the river at Interlarken. I had lunch at a little cafe sitting outside on the footpath and watched the world drive by. I have no idea what language they speak in Interlarken. It sounds vaguely German and have been told that it is a German dialect of sorts. Most of the service personnel speak english but you will have to see my last post as I make a few comments about that.

If you want to see the professional pictures of the trains you can visit the CFF (swiss rail) website http://www.goldenpass.ch/GPL/main.asp

Nothing much to report.

2005-10-02T11:27:00.000+02:00

Well here I am at the end of 3 weeks having been living in Switzerland. I don't really have much to report other than nanny duties are now over! YAY! just kidding. The kids are no trouble at all. And as much as I kind of worried about looking after little Alice, given that she is only 10 months old, she wasn't a problem at all! I love how kids have routines. It certainly made my job a lot easier.

Well I finalised some travel plans. I am heading on a lovely train trip to Jungfraujoch next weekend. Jungfraujoch is considered "The Top Of Europe". Some of the train track has been washed away by all the rains that occurred prior to me arriving here but that's ok. It has made the train trip considerably cheaper. I am spending Saturday night at Interlarken. That may sound familiar from that horrible accident that occured with all the tourists that went white water rafting and drowned a couple of years back. Rest assured that this body was not built for white water rafting nor does the mind have any interest in it when there are lovely things called automobiles, motor boats, planes, trains.... why would you put yourself through that?? Just a thought....

I have also finalised my trip to Paris and also to Venice. Angela asked me yesterday if I would like to go to Milan for a weekend! "Hmmmmm", I said. "Let me think about it. Geez... do I really want to go to Milan?" Holy Crap!!! I cannot believe how central Geneva is to everything! It's just spectacular. I did miss out on Oktoberfest as it finished this weekend.... the Germans really are a strange lot, I mean, October isn't even over yet! But then it did start in September... what is with that? I guess I will just have to settle for Milan then.

We went for a drive yesterday. Paul finally got the diplomatic plates for the 2 cars that have been sitting in his driveway for the past 8 weeks so we had to go and try out the Chrysler Voyager! What a great car! It was like sitting in a lounge chair. Of course, as is usual with me and moving vehicles I fell asleep for about an hour on the trip north but then we went to Allamon and went to the biggest Ikea I have ever seen in my entire life and I have come to the conclusion that the Swiss all go to Ikea on Saturdays (it was so unbelievably crowded as to be unimaginable) and that way they have something to do on Sundays since EVERYTHING is closed and that is to put it all together!!! In case you are wondering why we were there, Ang and Paul were buying a study set and nicknacks for Julia's room. I also got a good look in and bought some little things for myself as well. I couldn't help myself. It was Ikea!!

From there we travelled back south. We went through some fabulous little villages that are all into wine making so there are these rows and rows of grape vines down the hill and then up top are the most amazing little villages with narrow streets and communal water troughs that are centuries old and you can imagine the farmer's wives meeting there to gather their water and have a good ole gasbag whilst the men plow the fields smoking. Whilst driving through one such village with it's narrow roads and flower filled window boxes, there was a man filling a wine vat and he was so caricaturish that it was laughable. He had on the worn wine stained trousers with durable shoes, the collared shirt and brown corduroy jacket. He had a moustache, a good head of hair, a fag in his mouth and one eye permanently squinted against the cigarette smoke. He was gorgeous!!

The weather was pretty crappy as it, pretty much, rained all day, but it still didn't stop the wonder or amazement at these adorable little villages called Coppet, Fechy, Versoix, Nyon. We had dinner back in Grand Sacconex at a cafe called Cafe Du Raisin or the Grape Cafe. Dinner was slabs of dead animal (we are thinking probably buffalo because it didn't taste like any beef I have ever had) covered in rich creamy delicious sauces. The meat was tender and we had a local wine from one of the villages we past through called Feshy.

It was really strange because you can smoke everywhere in Switzerland, including inside the restaurant, and it was really odd to see it and I just couldn't do it! It was very odd.

Anyway, it was a fabulous day. Today we went to a friend's house to watch the NRL grand final as they have Sky TV. Paul and Ang are very envious of their cable TV and are working very hard to get it installed in their house and it was good to see the Tigers win (since it seems Parramatta couldn't even be bothered to turn up to the semi finals!!!)

I am going to go shopping tomorrow in Carouge because that was another town that we drove through and the shopping looked spectacular from the car window that I have to go back and make a closer inspection.

Bonsoir for now!

Facts and Fallacies

2005-09-25T12:33:00.000+02:00

Had a week of shopping and looking after kids this week but I managed to have Friday off. Both Angela and Lorraine (mother of Alice) decided to ditch school on Friday and as Ava usually goes to Crache on Friday's I didn't have to look after any kids. So I headed down into Geneva itself for another look see and decided to go tackle an Agency des Voyages (travel agency). On Sunday we (Paul, Angela, the kids and I) did a cruise around Lake Geneva.

This is me on the boat.

So, THINGS I KNEW BEFORE I CAME TO GENEVA.

The United Nations is Located here

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is Located here

Henry Dunant, the guy who founded the Red Cross lived here.

This was his house.

Geneva is Located on a Lake also known as Lake Leman and is very old. This is a picky of the lakeside taken from the boat.

THINGS I KNEW BUT FORGOT I KNEW

Byron lived in Geneva for a spell at the same time that Shelley and his wife (who wrote Frankenstein) also lived here. She in fact wrote Frankenstein whilst in Geneva. They lived somewhere on this hillside in 2 of the houses.

THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE COMING TO GENEVA.

Amsterdam isn't the only city to be famous for it's Little Mermaid. Whilst that one was erected to commemorate Hans Christian Anderson, Geneva has a Little Mermaid crafted by Natacha de Senger of Russian origin and one of the wives of the publisher Francois de Senger. It serves no purpose other than to be a photo opportunity for people on boat cruise.... hehe

Lenin stayed in this house whilst preparing for the Russian Revolution in 1914.

This is Saussure's House. It was built in 1723 by Francoix Blondel the French architect and inhabited by the famous Genevan physicist and naturalist from 1765 Horace Benedict de Saussure. He reached te summit of Mont-Blanc on 3 August 1787 accompanied by 18 guides carrying the many instruments he needed for his scientific observations. The house was also the residence of the President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower - descendant of a Swiss family (Eisenhoffer) - during the 1955 "Big Four" conference in Geneva and of Ronald Reagan in 1985 during the disarmament conference held in Geneva with Michael Gorbachev in 1985.

Geneva (as well as Canberra) has a man made geyser (Jet D'Eau) which rises to 459 feet and draws its water from the lake and discharges it at a rate of 110 gals per sec and at a speed of 124 mph. The column of water, which weighs 8 tons, is provided by 1360 hp pumps. It operates only when the wind is less than 12 mph. It was working today.

FALLACIES ABOUT GENEVA
It's just like Canberra. It is nothing like Canberra. Geneva has a sense of history and heritage that is amazing. You can feel the ghosts of history makers everywhere. Public Transport gets you everywhere and is amazingly on time all the time.
Everything is expensive (well most things are but the transport and fruit is cheap)
All French speaking people are rude. Quite the contrary. I have realised that whilst I can understand written french and know how to ask for a baguette and cafe avec lait and un verre de l'oh (glass of water) I haven't got a rats arse clue what anybody says to me in return. But that's ok. If you have a go the people here are more than courteous to you and will correct your pronunciation and try to answer you in english. Between their bad english and my worse french communication is fabulous!!
It's a city of public servants. Now I have no doubt that this is true but you occasionally see a fabulously chic older woman wearing a very "Audrey Hepburn" blouse that has puffy sleeves with high waisted trousers and flat shoes, smoking like a chimney and looking so amazingly caricaturish that I want to hug them.

In short, I am loving Geneva and it's history and it's people.

I have spent this week also organising a scenic train trip over a weekend and a night in Jungfrau, a week in Paris travelling on the TGV (very fast train) and a week in Venice flying with an airline called Flybaboo (that's a bit of a worry). I don't know if I am going to be able to make Oktoberfest and if I don't that's ok too.

Loving life at the moment and hope you all are too. Cheers

The Weekend

2005-09-18T12:27:00.000+02:00

I had an emotional day yesterday. This was my first weekend here and on my first Saturday I thought I would take advantage of it and grab an all day bus pass for only 7 francs (about 7 bucks) and go sight seeing. The weather was pretty crappy. Amazingly windy but surprisingly not that cold. The force of the wind was incredible though. I had never experienced anything like it but nothing is blowing over! Except me, almost! Odd. Anyway, I went to the United Nations building but they don’t do tours anymore so that was a bit of a bugger but I went to the Musee de Croix Rouge (or the Red Cross Museum) and cried for 2 hours.

At the front of the museum are 10 blindfolded statues. They are there to show that the Red Cross has a particular responsibility to prisoners and persons held captive. It is very stark and very confronting as they are life sized.

I didn’t manage to take any pictures inside the museum because it was more a light and film show. It’s quite spectacular and very “in your face” and continually showed “mans inhumanity to man” and, as I said, I cried through the whole thing.

After that, I then got on a bus and have no idea where I ended up. The public transport in Switzerland really runs, well, like swiss timing! The buses are always on time or a tad early and will wait at the bus stop until the time is correct. They are a cross between a bus and a tram actually and beautifully clean. Hard to find a seat though but that's ok. So I got off the bus when I saw another fabulous little set of shops and went browsing.

I picked up a couple of post cards and sat down at a boulangerie and had coffee and a pan a chocolat... mmmmm chocolat.... I had been so good up until that point resisting all the lovely sugary treats but it was cold and blowy and kinda miserable and I was lost so I had to do something to regain my senses and what better way than with chocolate filled pastry??

So, having regained my equilibrium, I got back on the bus heading back into the direction from whence I came. How is this for coincidence. I am sitting on the bus trying to work out where it is going by staring at a map and I noticed an english speaking couple on the bus. I went up to them to ask them where the bus went and then got chatting. It turns out that the woman I was speaking with knew Paul! It really is a small world and I would still hate to clean it.

From there I went to La Servette and had a look at some of the most fantastic jewellery ever. Of course, nothing had a price tag on it so I can only presume that if I have to ask, I can't afford it. But it was still nice doing the breakfast at Tiffany's thing and staring longingly into gorgeous windows. I then decided to get lost again and got on another bus. It was kind of going nowhere and I was about to head out of the yellow zone (the area that my ticket was good for) but the scenery on the ride was pretty but I got off and came back into town. By that stage I was rather wind blown and a bit tired so then got on the number 10 bus and headed back to Petit Saconnex and home. I was actually joyous when I got home because I had had such a good day doing it all myself and not being afraid of getting lost. I still have to thank Angela for the map though. Without it, I may not have been so brave.

I took a photo of Angela today because she wants to show everyone how pregnant she is so I thought I may as well stick it up here so you can all see my friend. She is almost 7 months pregnant and looking good. Well that's all for now. We didn't do anything today because nothing is open on Sundays so I had a laundry, reading, sleeping, cooking watching tele day. Speaking of tele we watched Miss Switzerland last night. That was very funny. Back to baby sitting duties tomorrow.

A Beautiful Day in Geneva

2005-09-15T05:32:00.000+02:00

Well Ahoy Ahoy and Bonjour.

It's a bloody lovely day in Geneva. I can't believe the weather here. It is kind of the opposite of Sydney. It doesn't get light until later in the morning but stays light for quite a way into the night and yes, I know they have daylight savings here but even in Sydney towards the end it gets dark earlier. But it's the temperature also that's different. It starts cold here and gets really hot and muggy in the late afternoon. It doesn't cool down either. But I'm loving it. Complete T-shirt weather.

It also makes it very nice to take the girls out walking in the morning. This is Alice and Ava.

We had a lovely day today. We went for a walk to Petit Saconnex and I had a cafe latte at the boulangerie and the window was just full of the most fattening, sugar filled, artery clogging, cholesterol inflaming pastries, it was FABULOUS! HAHA

We then went to a park called Trembley. And you can see the fountain in Lake Geneva from there and we had a play and a sing. It was good fun. In one of the photos you can sort of make out the fountain. Everything is lush and green and beautiful and it's good to be alive on days like today.

My first weekend in Geneva

2005-09-12T08:41:00.000+02:00

This is the first picture I took in Geneva. How cute is it? It really is an amalgam of every cliché you have ever seen in a movie and I am loving it.

The trip over was of mixed blessings. Claire took me to the airport and we browsed around a bit and had lunch and of course had to finish it off with Krispy Kreme before the flight. I got a bit teary at the customs bit but then embraced my adventure, held my head high and made my way through customs. The first leg of the trip is from Sydney to Kuala Lumpa. I was fortunate in that I had 3 seats to myself so could, well and truly, stretch out and try and catch up on the sleep I had so sorely not been able to achieve this last week.

We hit KL about midnight and had to hang around the airport while they cleaned the plane. The second leg was from KL to Austria (Vienna). That was not so good. Apparantly all the flights from all over Australia land in KL at midnight and then they all get on the one flight. So, needless to say it was crowded, there were children, the movies still sucked and the woman sitting next to me had the weakest bladder in the world.

We hit Vienna about 5.30am to a pretty empty airport and then I had to hang around for over an hour until the flight to Geneva. It was a turbo prop plane (which I hate) but there were no children, no movies and nothing to distract me so by that time I happily fell into an exhausted coma for the next hour and a half.

Angela and Julia met me at the airport. Can I begin to say how amazed I was at customs? I can understand why so many people try to import stuff. I saw a police officer who looked at my passport and that was it!! I then went through a barrier which said “Nothing to declare” and there was Ang!! Truly amazing. Angela lives about 5 minutes away from the airport in THE most amazing house. I was to be in the attic but am now in the dungeon… hehe The house is on 4 levels. I am in the basement which isn’t as bad as it sounds…. This is the view from my double doors.

The girls are in the attic. Speaking of which, this is them. The one on the left is Ava and the one on the right is Julia. They are the cutest little girls and have both got lovely natures.

Julia goes to school every day and for half a day on Wednesday and Ava goes to Crache (or however you spell it) on Thursday and Friday for half a day.

They are very sweet little girls. Those photos were taken on one of those touristy train thingies which was good fun. Angela and Paul are on the second floor, the family, dining, kitchen and sitting room are all on the ground floor and the laundry, my bedroom, another sitting room and a store room are on the ground floor. Hey! I only have to cope with one flight of stairs. YAY!

So, where was I? Oh yes, I got to Ang’s, had a shower and a cuppa tea and then we headed into Geneva for a little look see. The architecture is amazing. Just the sense of history is extraordinary. We had lunch next to a building that was built in the 15th century!!

While we were having lunch a swiss wedding was doing the rounds. After the ceremony the happy couple have to parade themselves around town so that well wishers may bless them. They make a lot of noise but it was all good fun.

Lunch was interesting. It’s amazing exactly how much French I remember but not enough that I didn’t embarrass myself a little. I am a great believer in trying all things local so when I saw that the local delicacy was Pork (and what I thought translated as) balls…. I ordered it to be told that it contained heart, liver, tongue, and all the good stuff butchers keep out the back. A quick “oopsy” and I’ll just have the local sausage sil vous plait? That was interesting. It was served with chard which isn’t readily available in Australia, I Don’t think because I haven’t really seen it. It’s a rather boring vegetable that looks like a cross between rhubarb and celery. But then they serve it baked with a rather fabulous, artery clogging cheese and butter melt all over it that you forget just how boring the vegetable is!! HAHA The bread is on tap but Angela is very much missing her ordinary bread that you can wack in the toaster. They just don’t sell it here. Lots of that yummy crusty European roll bread that you get in the delis which I love so I am in heaven!! HAHA

I am doing this today, Sunday because everything is shut in Switzerland on Sunday. We are going to go to France today. We had a quick little journey there yesterday to check it out but by that stage I was completely knackered and didn’t really have the ability to take in what they were showing me. I also didn’t have my passport with me. I am told it should be wherever I am so now it lives in my handbag. I am feeling so much better today. The family have gone to mass and I have the house to myself for an hour or so.

3 days to go

2005-09-06T16:00:00.000+02:00

Well, I had my last day at work today. What was I thinking that I could seriously be productive at work on the Monday and Tuesday before I traveled? I must have had rocks in my head. But despite that it was a good day.

I really do work with a great bunch of people. I spent the day handing over all the pending stuff and wishing I was anywhere but there!! HAHA sorry to any workmates reading this but I have to be honest.

And, tada!! I started packing! YAY! As you can see in the attached picky I have the essentials.... what more do I need really? Passport, wallet, travel insurance, airline ticket and French phrase book. Oh and the toiletries bag and a spare pair of jeans.

I got my new ID pass for work today. When the Sheriff was about to take the picture I asked if I could do the Marilyn Monroe pout and demonstrated it but he said no. So I laughed outloud and called him a "piker" and it was at that moment that he snapped the camera. Needless to say the photo looks like I'm insane!! HAHA probably not far from the truth at that stage of the day but it's very funny.

I can't sleep. I haven't slept in, what feels like, weeks! So that's why it's after midnight and I'm doing silly things like taking photos of my luggage and writing a web diary. I had to get up because I had this sudden burning urge to see what movies they were showing on the plane. I needn't have bothered because they suck. Ice Princess, Lords of Dogtown, Garfield, Kingdom of Heaven, A Lot Like Love, Unleashed and XXX: The Next Level.

Tomorrow I am going to go out and buy a dirty big fat silly piece of non fiction.

4 days to go

2005-09-06T06:32:00.000+02:00

It's Monday night and I'm all aflutter because I just got off the phone from Angela. For those of you who don't know she is my best friend and I am going to Geneva to be her nanny.

It's her birthday today and she sounds so homesick. Their uplift still hasn't arrived. Well, some of it has but customs won't release that which has arrived until it all arrives. So, her poor girls have nothing familiar around them, she has basic supplies in her home and no toys in her house. She has really bad jetlag, can't speak the language and is in a state of culture shock.

She says that they do EVERYTHING differently there. They eat differently, they drive differently and they are from another planet. Her words. Not mine. :-)

But, I am still excited and can't wait to get there. The time to this point has traveled so quickly. It seems like only yesterday that I jokingly said I would nanny for her if she was serious and already I only have 4 days until my flight!

I actually made a start at packing yesterday.... And I haven't done anything more since other than sit around staring vacantly into space with a stupid grin on my face. I am sure the people at work think I am nuts. Speaking of work, I am only there in body and barely there in mind. It was really stupid of me to say I was going to work the Monday and Tuesday. What the hell was I thinking?

Well the picture attached to this post is the house where I will be living. I have been told that I will be in the attic.... no flower jokes please.... hehe It's a massive estate, so Angela tells me, and it's close to everything and about a 5 minute walk to most amenities including Ava's (Angela and Paul's youngest daughter) day care. The house is on 4 levels as there is a basement. The weather at the moment is 30 degrees Celsius but according to the weather reports it isn't going to last long. I am hoping that it at least lasts a couple of days after I get there. Despite the fact that we really didn't have much of a winter this year in Sydney I am over all the cardigans.

I'm going to live in another country. I know it is only for 3 months, but I'M GOING TO LIVE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!!! I love saying it.

One more day of work.... oooo I like saying that too!! HAHA