Adventure in the Alps!

The bakery across the street from our hotel finally opened. They had a very nice vacation, and we now have some very nice crescents! Seems like every time I say crescents, the baker has no idea what I want, but the pointing method always works.

We drove to Mt. Blanc, but of course had to stop in Annemasse for some shopping. Finally, I found a place I could afford to shop. Some good deals or at least affordable. Kirk was a dear and drank coffee at a nice cafe while I wandered up and down the shopping plaza. Beautiful fountains and one of the most urban toilets yet found.  It was all automated and mechanical and in French. Put in a coin, the door opens, walk inside, door closes, directions come over the speaker in french on what you are suppose to do, and how you are suppose to flush. I was worried I would push a button and the door would open and I would not be able to close it again. Once finished, it automatically cleaned the seat and the floor, you were suppose to leave before this happens...oops! The floor is covered with water to the drainage slots....strangest toilet yet.

We headed further up into the mountains and the sky was clear, so Mt. Blanc was awesome.  Arrived in Les Houches (close to Chamonix) and found a chairlift to the glacier, thank goodness we did not have to hike!  Got to the bottom of the glacier where there was a cafe and Kirk had a beer. While we were sitting there, a huge piece of the glacier fell away...the sound was incredible, the scree fell down the mountain in huge chunks, quite a awesome sight!

Returned to Geneva for dinner, the usual driving stress and parking panic, but we succeeded. Found a nice raclette restaurant and had delicious cheese and meat, flaming parfait for dessert and topped it off with cafe au lait. Including the parking, we spent the same as in Villigen, well worth it, what else could you expect for downtown Geneva, the Manhattan of Switzerland. Expensive, but manifique (...and another great shopping spot)!

At CERN, in the Alps, and fine dining in Geneva!

CERN. And Voltaire

CERN and Voltaire

Kirk and I spent the day at CERN, it is a incredible place. It feels like so much science and so many people. The bonding assurance lab was heaven on earth for Kirk.  So many toys, so little time.  Ian the bonding expert is brilliant, what a great resource to have.

We went to the CMS building and saw a life size picture of the detector, sent pic earlier.   The place goes on forever.  CERN is larger than most universities.

Came back to Ferney Voltaire and went looking for Voltaire's chateau, found it on the side of the mountain overlooking Mt Blanc and a field of grazing sheep.  This guy must of had money, even though he changed his name , because this house is huge and he pissed off a lot of people with his politics, fore runner of separation of church and state, and  religious freedom beliefs.  So I figured it out, I can voice my beliefs if I am rich and not get my head cut off.  But for now I better shut up. Voltaire was about religious freedom, people back then just could not handle it, probably the same as now; power, money and keeping people ignorant.
He was very prolific, wrote over 20,000 books consisting of prose, poetry, treatises...

Why people can not respect other people's beliefs and  end up taking up arms against one another is very sad, but then you have to follow the money and money is not behind respecting others beliefs. Maybe some day...

I do not think it was by accident that Voltaire and CERN are rather close to each other...tolerance and knowledge, they go hand in hand.

Voltaire said,
"I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write."  
"Ours [religion] is without a doubt the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and the most bloody to ever infect the world."

Nyon and Yviore

Talk about the medieval adventure this one takes the cake along with a price. We decided to drive to Nyon and take the ferry across Lake Geneve to Yviore, France and tour the village. So we get to Nyon which is in Switzerland, we pay 60 dollars to take a 20 minute ferry ride to Yviore to see a castle and village. Sounds reasonable, just wait....

Okay it is a beautiful day and Mount Blanc graces the skies for us to see, spectacular. We take the ferry ride with about 200 other willing and able tourist to Yviore. As we disembark you see a medieval castle that is privately owned and not available for tours, then imagine this, take fish town, put it on a steep hill, add a lot of old walls twisting and turning with every imaginable tourist shop stuffed in every nook and craney of the place and triple the price of anything you buy or eat and then make the roads 1/4 the width and cover them with uneven cobblestones. They have you pretty much trapped. The good news is no cars are allowed. I think the deal is you have to buy something and eat something and then they will let you board the ferry for Nyon, requirement I am sure.
If this is not the ultimate scheme for milking tourist I am not sure. Although we did have a lovely time. Flowers everywhere, very charming place.

We returned to Nyon and drove the coast back to Ferney Voltaire, with a stop for beer and coffee on the way. All together beautiful day.

Medieval Adventure

The room we got this time is on the third floor so we wound our way up the stairs with the big suitcase. It has a Charley Chaplin look because of three odd art clockwork on the wall, antiques everywhere and three windows this time and none of them on the street so it was quite and very cool.

The next morning we went to the market in Ferney Voltaire it is simply amazing. Everything from vegetables to dresses. We loaded up on food for the room so we could avoid the pricey restaurants. The cheese is to die for, dresses were wonderful but too expensive. So we settled for nuts, grapes, cheese and bread. All the streets in town were closed down for cars and every street was full of tents with great stuff everywhere. Kirk and I wondered around until they closed it down around 2. The streets are all very small and cobblestones with edges of buildings coming right up against the street, so you have to be very careful when crossing if there are any cars around. I like the market because there are not cars on streets that look like sidewalks.

We headed out for Annecy on the other side of Geneve about a half hour drive. This is a real medieval town. You drive to the center and then most of the streets are just for walking, much safer for us. The town is surrounded by mountains, lake and is criss crossed by canals. This is the Venice of France. Flowers, parks, ancient buildings everywhere. Plus the buildings are surrounded by water. Tunnels and bridges everywhere going from one street to another, and shops galore.

We had. A nice stroll on the waterfront then went shopping. Dinner was fondue, had to get that in before we left France. Delicious!

We returned to Geneva and strolled the waterfront and saw the water spout at night, we walked out to get wet, spectacular. Stopped by a cafe and watched all the party boats and even a pirate ship. Lots of partying on the waterfront. Time for us to go home, so back to hotel France.

Jet d'Eau at night...magnifique!

Day of tunnels

On our return from Villigen we took the long way round and went through the Alps. What a spectacular drive. Many many tunnels, and every time you turned around there was another senic pull out, we stopped at most of them. We followed a river that turned into lakes as we headed up into the mountains. We went by Interlaken, a town between two lakes, and had a geat view of the mountains. Spiez a small town in the mountains on the lake we stopped and walked around, they had 30 to 40 foot sailboats in the harbor, not sure where they sail to. Beautiful day, the tops of the mountains were covered with clues and only came into view from time to time.

We tr eled back down the mountain and returned to Ferney Voltaire and had dinner at a buffalo bar, much more reasonable prices.

Back in our favorite hotel, ready for a good night sleep.