Davey Sicky

Wednesday, September 24 2010

Well, it happened.  One of us got sick...and it was Dave.  Our plan was to avoid all medical mishaps over the next couple of years (yeah right).  Don't get us wrong, the medical system here is top-rated.  We simply wanted to avoid it because it's just another thing to figure out in a foreign culture.  Which kind of doctor should we visit?  Do we need an appointment?  Is there a doctor that speaks English?  And so on... (not to mention figuring out the new insurance plan reimbursement process).  But alas, it was bound to happen eventually and better that we could figure it out (somewhat) in a non-emergency situation.

Last Sunday morning Dave woke up with a bad sore throat.  Ang had something similar, just not as severe (or Dave is just a big wuss -- probably the more likely scenario).  He decided to do the smart thing and quarantine himself at home in order to spare our co-workers.  He did this Monday and Tuesday, then the worst morning came on Wednesday and we started to get nervous that he wouldn't be healed in time for our trip to Munich on Friday.  So, time to see the doctor! 

We pretty much went through the same questions as recited above.  Where do we go for a sore throat in Geneva?  Luckily for Dave, Ang was great at playing "Dr. Mom" and figured it all out while he moaned in agony, resisting the idea of getting out of bed.  A co-worker of ours had similar symptoms a few weeks earlier and recommended a doctor about 30 minutes away.  He warned that the receptionist didn't speak a lick of English, however the doctor was very good.

We made our way out to the doctor and when we arrived, confirmed that the receptionist spoke zero English (she did say "name" one time, we think??).  Thankfully a helpful Swiss citizen was present in the office with us and was able to translate, or we would have probably gotten right back on the bus back home.  The helpful Swiss eventually shared with us that the doctor we were visiting was the type you'd see if you had a recurring condition or something that needed monitoring and follow-up visits, which was fine, but perhaps not necessary for quick help on common sickness, etc.  Apparently Swiss citizens just go to the ER for quicker help with colds & flus (yes, they all have their own insurance-- a federal requirement-- and aren't just taking advantage of the system), maybe next time that's what we'll do.

Sorry to belabor a simple story, but we wanted to give an example of a common challenge we get to experience over here. :)  In the end the doctor was extremely nice, spoke great English, and we would definitely go back to him.  As suspected, Dave just had a viral infection, not strep or anything, and we just needed to wait it out.  He got some simple prescriptions and we were on our way.  And in case you're curious, Dave is just now back to 100% (violins, please).  It was over 2 weeks of crapiness, but he survived!

Circus Circus

Thursday, September 16 2010

A couple of weeks ago, we attended the final night of a 3-week visit by the Circus KNIE in Geneva.  It was conveniently located 35 seconds from our home in the Plainpalais "park".  If we haven't explain why we use quotations around "park" in reference to Plainpalais, it's because a map of Geneva labels the area in green, which would normally depict a grassy park.  However, the park itself is a clay/gravel surface built above an underground parking garage.  Since we arrived here, it's been used for markets and events, such as the circus.

A word of warning before you read on, if you've ever been to a circus before you probably won't read any groundbreaking revelations here.  As you already know, the animals are cute and the acts are crazy! :)

This was the first real, authentic circus for both of us (at least that we can remember) so we were quite curious of what it was all about.  The one thing we did know going into it is that there were plenty of animals-- we would walk by the park on our way to work each day and would see many of the animals hanging around in their pens.  So we showed up early to the circus to have some time to visit all of them: horses, llamas, goats, pot-bellied pigs, ponies, zebras, camels & elephants.

One of the biggest surprises for us was how tame and approachable the animals were!  It didn't occur to us until later that pretty much every animal we saw before the show made an appearance later that night, so clearly they needed to be tame.  Some animals were friendlier than others.  The llamas didn't want anything to do with us.  The horse you see with Dave below looooved attention-- almost to the point where we felt bad saying goodbye.  The camels weren't necessarily friendly, but were very accessible for petting.  The elephants were a kick!  When we first saw them, they were huddling close and kind of swaying in a dancing motion while tossing bark on themselves (see the video below).  It was quite entertaining.  Who would have thought we'd each pet an elephant in our lifetime?  Let alone have one suck on each of our hands via the end of it's trunk-- it was great.

We noticed that many of the animals approached us sniffing, and sometimes nibbling, at our hands.  We knew they were looking for food, but we didn't realize until later during the show how dependent they are on treats.  During the show, the trainers were constantly slipping each animal a little something after a correct sequence of moves.  It makes sense though, because these animals have been trained to do some pretty complex stunts, and of course many of us can attest that the best reward system is food. :)

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos or film during the circus performance-- which is a bummer, because we'd love to share how incredible the acts were (aside from the "filler" comedy acts which, as you can guess, were 100% in French...we just smiled and nodded).  The agility, stamina & sheer-fearlessness of these crazy people was quite impressive.  If you ever have the opportunity to check a circus out, we definitely recommend it!

The Cinque Terre

Thursday, September 9 - Sunday, September 12 2010

This past Thursday was Fasting Geneva, our first official holiday as Swiss residents.  We opted to take a vacation day on Friday to make it an extended weekend trip and then took off Wednesday afternoon for Italy.

We've heard great things from multiple people about the Cinque Terre, an ancient region (dates back to the 12th century) in northwest Italy.  'Cinque Terre' roughly translates to 'five lands', and much like the translation suggests, is a group of five villages (Monterrosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore) which are uniquely perched on the rocky coast of the Mediterranean. The area is known for their grapes vineyards and their freshly caught seafood. One of the most recognizable features of the region are the hiking paths that link the five villages for easy exploration by foot. It is a warm weather destination so we wanted to get there before the end of summer. Apparently we chose a pretty ideal time because we missed the swarms of tourists, typical in July and August, but still had great weather to enjoy the outdoor activities.

View from our rental apartment

By train it is a 7-8 hour trip from Geneva with a layover in Milan.  We arrived in La Spezia late Wednesday evening for a quick overnight stay. Thursday morning we trained into Riomaggiore, the southern most of the five towns, as this is where we would stay for the weekend.  Our accommodations were small and simple, in a perfect location, and even included a nice little terrace with a harbor view (the video below shows more of our view) -- perfect for relaxing in the evening with some delicious Italian wine and cheese.  Luckily we were able to check in and drop off our luggage right away and start to explore.

We didn't plan any hiking for Thursday because the forecast called for thunderstorms and the trails often close under wet conditions.  It sounds strange, but we were actually glad that it was stormy on Thursday because the large waves crashing into the coastline were quite the site. Ironically, the guide books actually recommend coming to the area in the wintertime to catch one of these storms. We have a feeling that the one we experienced was fairly tame compared to those referenced in the books, but it was still exciting. Even though the seas were rough, it only rained briefly in the morning so we were still able to explore the different towns at a leisurely pace.  It was during a leisurely stroll in Vernazza when one of the most unexpected things happened...

Warren and Kitty

If you remember in our Matterhorn post we mentioned meeting Warren and Kitty, a wonderful couple from Denver whose grandson, Tim, was climbing the Matterhorn last Sunday. It's a small world afterall-- we ran into them out of nowhere walking through the town of Vernazza!  Out of all the places for either of us to be, we happen to run into them in a tiny village in Italy!  So random-- we had no idea that they planned to travel from Switzerland to Italy, nor had they known our weekend plans. Come to find out they have a couple more weeks in Europe (this time around we verified that we aren't going to be in any of the same places over the next two weeks). For this portion of their trip, they were traveling with their friends, Hans and Ellen, from The Netherlands. The six of us enjoyed a great dinner together on Thursday night and look forward to keeping in touch.  Small, small world.

Friday was our hiking day. The main trail that links the five villages is known to take 4-5 hours from end to end. We started in Riomaggiore at around 10:00 and finished in Monterroso at around 4:30, although about half of that time was spent dinking around the towns as we passed through. The scenery is incredible and the towns are ridiculously picturesque (our favorite shots are below).  The trail wasn't too tough but at the same time we probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much in the heat of August (it was about 80 degrees for us).

On Saturday we shifted gears again, this time to focus on the water. We found "Angelo's Boat Tour", recommended as the #1 activity in the Cinque Terre according to TripAdvisor.com (part of the Expedia, Inc family-- just a shameless plug :) ).  The tour consisted of 5 hours out on the Mediterranean swimming, snorkeling, exploring sea caves, cliff jumping and taking in the fantastic scenery. We petted a live jellyfish as it swam next to us-- Angelo assured us that it wasn't the stinging type (we believed him after he threw one the size of a basketball at Ang, haha), luckily he was right, and it surprisingly felt quite rubbery. The afternoon on the boat also provided us with views of each village from the sea, which was quite pretty. They ended the tour with a delicious lunch on the boat consisting of freshly caught seafood and local specialties. It was quite the treat and would recommend it to anyone.  You can see us in action in the video below.

Hayden and Grace

One of the best parts of the tour was meeting people from across the world in an the intimate setting of a 10-person boat tour. We met some great people from Australia, Ireland and the U.S. and hit it off particularly well with one couple from North Carolina, Hayden and Grace, who were on their first European vacation. We had so much fun with them that we had dinner together later that night. We never thought that traveling would be such a social event for us but it is always a pleasant surprise meeting new people and sharing our experience together.

Unfortunately our time in the Cinque Terre ended too soon but we're happy to take great memories and new friendships back to Geneva with us. 

Zermatt and the Famous Matterhorn

Saturday, September 4 - Sunday, September 5 2010

Many of you have heard of, if not experienced, the famous Disneyland ride named The Matterhorn.  This weekend we decided to see the real thing in a very unique way.  The Matterhorn is a 4-hour train ride from Geneva, located near the southern Swiss town of Zermatt, right across the Italian boarder.  Many claim it to be the most recognized mountain in the world, but you can be the judge of that.




Following the trend of our other weekend getaways, we left Geneva early Saturday morning and arrived in the late morning ready for action.  Because Saturday was supposed to be the clearest day of the weekend (we learned our lesson from our Lucerne mountain experience), we decided that it would be the ideal day for mountainous views.  Poor us, (yeah right) but in Switzerland it’s actually kind of tough to decide on which mountainous views to choose from, because there are often multiple options and transportation up-and-down isn’t cheap (often $50-75 per person, round-trip)!  After asking the locals, we finally decided on the Gornergrat lift, and were not disappointed.  The magnificence of these mountains, glaciers and valleys is hard to describe.  If you think the pictures look fake, it’s because the scenery looks fake in-person, too.  But of course with all the beautiful scenery staring us in the face, Ang couldn’t help but find the most pleasure in the two Saint Bernards hanging out at the top.  Their names were Minnie and Biscuit, and they were dogs, so they were great. :) 

Part of our inspiration to visit the Matterhorn was sparked from a book loaned to us by a friend, titled “100 Hut Walks in the Alps”.  There are literally hundreds of “huts” (quotations on “huts” because they may not match your mental image of a hut—they vary from hotel-like accommodations to non-electric log cabin-style living) that spread across the Alps in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Slovenia.  It’s quite remarkable; you can start in France and actually hike from hut to hut until you reach Slovenia!  We knew we wanted to see the Matterhorn and at the same time were craving an outdoor adventure, so the perfect combination became an overnight hike to the Hornli Hut, at the base of the Matterhorn.

According to our trusty book, the hike up to the hut would take 2-2.5 hours and was considered “nothing too difficult or outwardly dangerous”.  However, in researching the hike in more detail a couple days prior, Dave became particularly concerned by a youtube video (don’t watch unless you have 10 minutes that you never want back) which talked of the Matterhorn being one of the deadliest mountains in the world and that the Hornli Ridge was exceptionally dangerous in high winds.  It’s a terribly-produced video and looking back, it only served to unsettle nerves rather than help prepare us for the hike.  (For example, the Hornli Ridge is what people scale to actually climb the Matterhorn.  The Hornli Hut is at the base of the Hornli Ridge, so we wouldn’t even be hiking on the “dangerous” ridge).  We knew we’d be fine because none of our other research said it was a dangerous hike (on the contrary, said it was actually quite popular).  Anyhow, it couldn’t help but creep into our minds and add to the “excitement.” :)

Our original intention was to start the hike around 3:00pm and be at the hut around 5:30pm.  Unfortunately we got a late start and barely caught the last cable car lift of the day up to the starting point of the hike.  By the time we set off it was about 5:15pm.  The trails were running thin on hikers and the sun was starting to set behind the Matterhorn.  If the mind wasn’t already running just a tad shaky, these new variables certainly didn’t help.  Regardless, we trusted the book, said a quick prayer and set off.

As it turns out, the book was exactly right – the hike was not too difficult or outwardly dangerous…but it was definitely still a challenge.  At one point during the hike we almost convinced ourselves that the building we saw in the distance couldn’t be the hut (it was) because there was no way the ridge it sat upon could be reached simply by hiking (we thought it would have to be climbed via the aid of ropes and climbing gear).  We made sure to take a picture (left) and video (below) at this same point the next day while on our descent as reminiscence to the evening before.  After many switchbacks up the ridge, we finally reached the hut (10,695 feet above sea level) at around 7:45pm and it was clear we were late (dinner was being served and everyone gave us funny looks as we entered).  Regardless, we were relieved that our reservation was still intact and we enjoyed the Church Camp-style dinner with about 40 other people, many of which had plans to make the near-insane climb to the top of the Matterhorn the next morning.  After a much-appreciated meal and a few games of Rummy, we rested our weary bodies. 

After a night of restless sleep (who would have thought such high altitudes are tough sleeping conditions?) we woke early to watch the sunrise.  The views from the hut are stunning to begin with, but at sunrise it is truly one of the most amazing sights we’ve ever seen.  Despite what the photo below suggests, Ang was indeed awake to enjoy the sunrise but, as always, was extremely cold. :)  Most of the climbers woke up around 4:30am to start their climb to the top of the Matterhorn.  If you look closely at the zoomed in photo of the Matterhorn peak (below), you can see the caravan of climbers, on the right ridge, almost to the top.  Crazy.  After another Church Camp-style meal, we waived goodbye to the Hornli Hut, hopefully not for the last time. 

On a side note, we met a wonderful family from Denver right before we started our hike up to the hut: Warren and Kitty, their daughter-in-law Vicky and grandson (Vicky’s son) Tim.  Warren and his son, Greg, (Vicky’s husband / Tim’s dad) had climbed to the top of the Matterhorn 20 years ago; Tim (age 21) had come to climb it this time around.  We happened to run into them again the next day on our way down the mountain from the hut.  At that point they were guessing that Tim was at the top of the Matterhorn and they were eagerly waiting for his safe arrival back down the mountain.  It is quite fun to randomly meet such nice people from our original side of the world.

According to the book, once we hiked back down to our original starting place, we planned to follow a scenic and “pleasant” hike back down to Zermatt (rather than take the cable car back down).  The scenic part was correct (photos below), but by the time we got back down to Zermatt, we had both removed our hiking boots and opted for less-constrictive flip-flops, as the pressure of the 5-hour long descent against our feet was anything but pleasant.  Some of the highlights of this hike included a small village named Zmutt, and random, quaint homes scattered throughout the valley.   

It was an amazing weekend (seemed like longer than an overnight trip) but our bodies paid for it.  Our plan is to take it easy in preparation for our trip to the Cinque Terre on Wednesday, a region in Italy that is considered heaven for hikers.  

A Weekend In and Out of France… Twice

Saturday, August 28 - Sunday, August 29 2010

You may recall us describing Geneva, geographically, as a peninsula sticking into France (imagine Florida sticking into the ocean, that’s pretty much the same thing).  Needless to say, we are close and weekend trips are a breeze.  We decided to take advantage of that fact this weekend with two different trips into France, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
 
Annecy, France, is about 45 km from the Geneva city center.  It’s been a popular day-trip among our Expedia co-workers, so we decided it was our turn to pay a visit.  We caught a bus out of Geneva on Saturday morning and arrived at around 11am in Annecy.  (Of course, to prove that this really is a popular Expedia destination, we ran into one of our co-workers taking his family on the same excursion).  It occurred to us shortly after stepping off the bus that this was one of the few trips we’ve ever taken that didn’t have some sort of a schedule previously planned by us.  All we knew was that we needed to make it back to the bus at 5:15 for our return ride; the rest was up in the air...
 
We started by exploring the downtown market area.  The architecture was so quaint and charming it was hard not to take photos of every building (seriously, Dave took way too many-- our favorites are below).  To add to the charm, the once-a-month flea market was going on that day so vendors were sprawled out everywhere selling ‘antiques’ (mostly old junk according to Dave).  Ang saw a lot of cool stuff and was tempted, but the prices were even too much for her to swallow.
 

Notre Dame de Liesse

We are learning through visits of other European towns that part of the fun in traveling to these places is discovering new and unexpected things.  For example, the ice cream in Annecy was presented in a way we’ve never seen.  As you can see from the photo, it looked like blobs of frosting.  But when served, it’s as cold and delicious as ever.  Fun fact: Have you ever thought about what ‘Notre Dame' translates to?  “Our Lady”—made sense once we thought about it.  We came across a large cathedral named Norte Dame de Liesse, which translates to “Our Lady of Joy”.  It was beautifully ornate and peaceful.  Another treat was stumbling across a café that was playing covers of Michael Jackson songs, only in a very slow, swanky, laid-back fashion.  We tried to capture some of the audio when they were playing the song “Wanna Be Starting Something” but after reviewing the tape it didn't turn out.  The best was the first song we heard—“Thriller”—and thinking, “Wait, why do I sort of recognize this song, but sort of not…?” And then finally realizing what it was… while dumbfounded that someone would change up a classic so drastically and somehow make money off of it —very amusing to us.




We rounded out the day with a hike up to Basilique de La Visitation, which as you can see was hard to miss when viewing the town from the waterfront.  After reaching the basilica and checking out the great view of Annecy from above, we caught the bus and were back in Geneva to relax and prepare for another adventure on Sunday.






La Saleve, a large hill/small mountain in France just Southeast of Geneva, has been taunting us ever since we arrived here.  It’s actually in the same area where our friend Jaime and his family live, in Veyrier, and where the Tour de France rode by in July.  The forecast called for clear skies on Sunday so we planned accordingly and decided that we would conquer the beast.  Ok, beast is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it was a bit of a strenuous hike—a good challenge.  While we thought it would take longer, it was only about an hour and a half to climb up to the main attraction, the Telepherique du Saleve, a large cable car that transports less ambitious tourists to and from the top of La Saleve and the town at the base of the mountain.
 

As you can see from the photos below, we chose the right day to hike!  The views of Geneva and the surrounding lake and hillsides were amazing.  We could literally see our house from up there. (In the zoomed in city photo below—the one without the fountain—you can see a large circus tent in the middle-left.  Our building is the pinkish one two buildings to the left of the tent’s steeple.)  To add to the fun of the day, we ran into one of our co-workers randomly as we were enjoying the view. (We’ve heard Geneva is a small place but are now starting to realize it for ourselves.) 
 

Besides a lookout area known for stunning views, or perhaps because of it, La Saleve is a popular paragliding launch site.  We were lucky enough to catch a lift-off on our Flip Video (below).  Maybe someday we’ll head up and experience La Saleve on a whole other level…!