SwissViss: NKk in Europe (Part I)

Thursday, February 9 - Wednesday, February 15 2012

In February we had the pleasure of a visit from Ang’s brother Nick, sister in-law Kate and our niece Kamryn! While we always love spending time with Nick and Kate, it was particularly exciting for us to spend two full weeks with Kamryn, especially considering the fact that we’ve missed so much of her first two years.

We picked the three of them up from the airport on Thursday morning and understandably Kamryn was knocked out in her stroller (it’s a long flight for anyone, let alone an almost-2-year-old). We didn’t waste any time - after giving them a whole day to settle into Geneva and our tiny apartment, we were off on Friday afternoon on our first adventure…

First stop? Italy! Specifically Turin and Genoa. Turin (or the Italian spelling ‘Torino’, which you may recognize better as the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics) was our first destination, which we arrived to on Friday evening after a 3-hour road trip through the Italian Alps (it was dark but there are several castles lit up along the drive which are a nice distraction).

One of our goals of the Italian weekend (actually, their whole two week visit now that we look back) was to enjoy great food and drink. We started things off right after stumbling upon an authentic, hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant. And we mean authentic, as in there were no menus (you order the specialties of the day) and we were lucky that there happened to be one waiter there that spoke broken-English. On a side note, the past few months Kamryn has been doing the greeting where you high five, fist bump and then “blow it up” – well, she did not hesitate to greet our Italian waiter this way about half-way through our meal. It was hilarious especially because he completed the entire routine with her without missing a beat. We wish we could have caught it on film. Anyway, back to the food – it was absolutely amazing, 5 courses in total and a real treat to start off the trip.

We also caught Kamryn on film being a little delirious toward the end of the meal. In her defense, this was less than 48 hours in a new time zone and jet lag had just started to kick in. In our defense, we thought it was funny, so we had to share it with you all. :)

As shown in several of the photos in this post, Kamryn is really into climbing stairs at this stage of her life. Well, lucky for her, there are A LOT of stairs all over Europe, including our hotel that evening.

We spent most of Saturday wandering around Turin’s downtown area, which is surprisingly quite grand and ornate (it reminded us a little of Vienna, actually, and Vienna is grand). One of the most distinguishable traits of the town was all of the grand archways that covered the pedestrian walking paths (which you can see in the photos below). You can also see us bundled up pretty good – it was still very cold from the Siberian winter blast described in our last post.

You may have heard of the Shroud of Turin. In the 1390s, a linen cloth surfaced which had the image of a man with wounds similar to crucifixion wounds. It was believed to be the actual shroud that Jesus’ body was wrapped in after His crucifixion. After being passed around from different rulers in various countries, the Duke of Savoy brought it to Turin where it has been since 1578. Apparently the shroud is one of the most studied artifacts in human history—but as you can guess, it is also extremely controversial among scientists, historians and theologians.

Controversy or not, we wanted to check it out. So we headed to the Duomo di San Giovanni Battista (Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist) and saw where the artifact is held (it’s sealed in an airtight vault, but a replica is on display). While it’s difficult to really believe that the cloth Jesus was wrapped in was there in the vault in front of us, it was cool to see such a world-renowned relic. Take a look at the photos below of what the actual shroud looks like and how visually convincing it can be. Kamryn was such a trooper in the cathedral. We did our best to convince her to be as quiet as possible, but there was so much space to run and the echo of her voice was fun—so why not run & scream? Luckily, the volunteers and visitors in the cathedral found her more adorable than rowdy. :)

Next we went to the Cinema Museum, which we heard really good things about from a co-worker. It was kind of a bizarre place – it almost looked as if it used to be a cathedral; come to find out it was originally designed to be a synagogue but when Jewish funds ran out it was completed into a monument in 1889. It has more or less been used as a museum since completion, and has more recently housed the Cinema Museum since 2000. It was a pretty comprehensive museum and had many familiar images even if the language wasn’t always in English (see the Star Wars poster). We also had a little fun with the 'green screen' - below you can see Kate's grand debut on camera.

Movie camera trick: Upside-down Kate!

Bat cave!

Over-sized refrigerator

The highlight of the museum (although not related to movies) was an elevator that took visitors up to the top of the dome (about 300 feet up) for commanding views over the snowy rooftops of Turin. Kamryn was zonked out through the entire museum visit.

Partially frozen, we grabbed a quick and delicious pizza lunch, then headed back toward the car and made our way out of town. On the way out we passed two Olympic stadiums and after a quick snapshot were off to our next destination, Genoa!

Sweet Olympic torch (middle of the photo)

The two of us had actually driven through Genoa on our way to Tuscany this past fall but we didn’t have time to stop to see anything so we’re glad that we could spend some time there. Once we got into town we were all a bit tired and looking forward to a nice relaxing evening. Luckily the room we booked was huge and inviting for such an evening (seriously, the room was bigger than our entire apartment in Geneva), plenty of room for Kamryn to run around & play. After a little time spent scrounging around the dead streets of Genoa looking for anything that was open at that time of night, we finally found a wine bar to sell us a couple bottles of wine and a place that served takeout. It turned out to be a perfect relaxing evening in, just as we planned.

Sunday morning we did a lazy stroll through Genoa, finding new surprises around every corner. Here are a few highlights (along with some various shots around Genoa)…

Fun fact: Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa. Here is his house sitting just outside a well preserved, ancient city wall gate.

This church with a unique façade had a nice big plaza in front of it—plenty of running space. :)

This was probably the most charming farmers’ market we’ve been to with a pretty incredible band playing what sounded like classic Italian folk tunes (unfortunately we had misplaced our FlipVideo so weren’t able to record the entertainment). :( Oh, and yes, that is an actual pig’s head.

Come to find out, Kamryn is now really into escalators, too.

This building, the Palazzo San Giorgio, is one of the oldest banks in Europe (and the world). It was founded in 1407 and operated until Napoleon invaded Italy and suppressed independent banks, leading to its closing in 1805.

Check out this awesome old pirate ship!

It was so very, very cold and windy that day (especially down on the water) that we were looking for a good excuse to get indoors. We finally settled for the day on the Maritime Museum to learn more about the history of this maritime city (and to give Kamryn some place warm to run around instead of staying bundled in her stroller all day). The history was pretty interesting, learning how Christopher Columbus’ roots were there in Genoa—it was cool to see a handful of letters (originals) that he had written—and also about the progression of the maritime industry in general. We also got to set foot in “the largest Italian submarine floating in the sea” (whatever that means), which was docked in the harbor.

Full scale reconstruction of a 17th century Genoese galley

Massive torpedo

The museum turned out to be great - Kamryn was able to run around and explore a little bit – here she is posing as a medieval soldier… and a deck hand. :) There was even a simulation of the Titanic where the visitors were supposed to steer and slow down the ship to save it from certain doom. Of course Kamryn steered the ship right into the iceberg full steam ahead (we’re pretty sure pushing the buttons and levers was more important than saving the Titanic). :) After a cold, but fun weekend in Italy, we headed home to Geneva for the two of us to work and NKk to explore our city.

Monday through Wednesday NKk got to enjoy sleepy Geneva. They were usually awake by the time the two of us left for work and were waiting patiently for us to return each night. The evenings involved some sort of delicious dinner in or out of the house (we had a lot of food options we wanted them to experience!) and enjoying Kamryn’s antics as much as we could before her bedtime. We prepared for her visit by buying her a few puzzles and Legos to enjoy. She is really into puzzles right now and her favorite might have been the one you can see in a photo below – putting shapes into different animals. We also caught this fun moment of her doing the alphabet puzzle and singing her 'ABCs' repeatedly to herself. Love it!

One of our favorite things is right when Kamryn wakes up – she’s usually pretty snuggly and her hair is amazing – looks like a mad-woman but of course she is completely oblivious to that fact. :)

Because it was soooo cold, we picked up some leggings for Kamryn (and Kate), for an extra layer of warmth. And because the sizing listed was European (of course), we weren’t exactly sure which size would be the best fit for Kamryn. Yes, come to find out, they were a little big. :)

On Monday they stopped into the Expedia office for the traditional “show your American family the Geneva office” day that most of our co-workers do. :) We enjoyed a delicious kebab lunch because Kate had fond memories of kebabs from her time spent overseas in college. Kamryn had a good time in the office, exploring the conference rooms and the coffee maker while we tried our best to keep an eye on her so she didn’t wander too far. :) It was a fun visit for us because it’s always nice to show family and friends where we work.

On Tuesday they explored more of Geneva. Since it was Valentines Day, they picked up some treats for us to enjoy and Kamryn decorated the boxes with her own personal touch. She also got a nice treat for her good behavior that day… and it ended up all over her face. :)

Wednesday was particularly exciting for Kamryn as the three of them visited the local zoo. Apparently it’s a bird-heavy zoo with little variety but that didn’t seem to bother her. One funny sight for them was this rooster sat perched up on a goat, just hangin’ out—and the goat didn’t seem to mind whatsoever. Afterward they had some playtime in the snowy park, a quick trip to the quaint part of Geneva (Carouge) and a brief visit to the Natural History Museum where the animals were stuffed instead of alive (which, understandably, wasn’t quite as thrilling).