Day 3

We left Geneva and traveled to Lyon for lunch before heading down through Provence to Marseille.
We passed through downtown and saw the water spout that was closed the previous day due to high winds. The Jet d'eau shoots water almost 500 feet into the air and is very impressive.

It was too impressive to get a good picture.

Best to check online.

We drove onto to Lyon.


Some have noted that we seem to be only discussing food on the blog. This is because:
1. Daphne has always loved cooking food, entertaining friends and family, and the idea of food in France and 2. we now realize that our children have no hope of appreciating this trip for the culture, history, or landscape.
We are able to recognize the obvious and move on. We are.
So - - we are making the kids try food that they may love or hate, but are sure to remember.

Yesterday, I asked them to try traditional croque-monsieur.
Brian and Julia said yes and they brought a tennis raquet sized sandwich with a salad. Both tried it and did a good job. Here is the pictures of the restaurant.

The problem was that Daphne has caught a bug and her stomach cannot handle anything. This is really sad. I would love to insert a personal joke here, but even I cannot.


We did some sightseeing in Lyon before going to Marseille.
The highlight of the day: the novotel hotel in Marseille had a PS3 in the lobby for the kids to use.

Geneva

Day 2.
Locked and loaded!

Finally - it stopped raining. We set out today to explore Geneva on foot. We had breakfast this morning near the hotel with Nutella crepes and Cokes. (no pictures but believe it. The kids were sleepy. Cheap fix.)

Daph had a cappuccino that she claims was the best of her life. Mine was tasty.

We walked down to the lake and it was bright and windy. With temps in the low 40's, the lake felt even colder but we loved the sunshine. It was pretty and the kids loved walking along the rock walls with a good chance they could fall in the water.

Loads of boats and lots of people enjoying a nice, sunny and cool Sunday morning.


We walked out on a barrier wall that marks the harbor and David posed for me. He then noticed the tai-chi group exercising out in the fresh air. Another pose from out dramatic son. He is his biggest fan.



We took a "solar powered trolley" ride along the banks and everyone got to learn some history and see the huge houses along the lake front.

We walked old town which was mostly closed on a Sunday but was still very pretty and fun. David wanted to try "real Swiss" food so we stopped into a small restaurant. It turns out it was pretty nice and we all had traditional food including Rosti. The kids tried creme brulee for the first time. 2 loved, one not.

We walked outside and noticed the sign that said Bill Clinton ate at the restaurant as President in 1994. Daph and Julia posed for the picture figuring Poppy Joe and Megan would be proud.

The afternoon included a walk to the UN and the Red Cross Museum. A full day.

Tomorrow is Provence. The kids are SOOOO not appreciating this. (a bit like Daph in Germany, I guess....) David wants to get home to play the Wii. Brian suggested we cut the Red Cross short to get back to the hotel to watch High School Musical. Why are we trying.....

Vacation - day 1

We are taking a week's vacation by driving around Europe - Clark Griswald style. We are doing 4 non-German countries in 7 days.

Day one was a drive from home to the city of Bern, Switzerland. (We go through Austria to get there.) The idea was to have lunch in Bern and then end up in Geneva in the evening.

We had more traffic than expected and did not get to Bern until about 3pm which cut our sight seeing short. Bern is named after the first animal killed there (the bear) and bears are the city symbol. They even have a huge bear den for visitors.

We had lunch including Rosti and Fondue (later we drove through the town of Gruyere which was very neat.)


The weather was terrible. We had driving rain with intermittent wet snow and ice. The rain stopped long enough for us to take a few pictures in the town center.


The kids seemed to be bored by the drive along lake Geneva with the mountains rising up along the lake. Daphne seemed to like the whole day - likely a ploy to allow future trips outside of Germany.
We arrived tonight in Geneva safe and sound ready to explore tomorrow (Sunday).

Visiting the Zugspitze

Today we took our visitor, Chris, to the Zugspitze. The Zugspitze is the highest point in Germany at 3000 meters. It has a glacier on the top and we saw loads of snow. You will notice we had on winter coats at the base.



Daphne arranged the trip - we would drive to the base at 1000 meters, take the cablecar to the summit and then take the train down from the top.

The cable car goes up 2000 meters with only two towers. Speaking for those of us who don't love heights, this was the most uncomfortable 20 minutes of my time in Germany. Please click on some of the pictures to get a feeling.

The picture from the base shows the cables disappearing into the mountain/clouds. What you don't see is that the car goes straight up to the summit. Straight up.

I also have a picture of another cable car going up to the Austrian side.

Once we were at the top, we walked around and took pictures. Chris took a picture of himself looking out at the mountains.
The picture of Daph and Brian is in the cable car.



The ride down was the train. It is more than a mile tunnel (to avoid avalances and rock slides) that decends over 1000 meters. It was much better for me.

Later we drove to across to see where Daphne's Mom spent time in Mittenwald. On the way we stopped and saw an alpine amusement ride where you ride carts down the mountain on toboggen tracks. Imagine a cement and metal bobsled track and each of us on a little car that only has a break. It was fun.

The kids loved it. Here is a picture of Julia on the cart.

Daphne adds: no safety equipment like seatbelts or helmets.

Driving

I had a meeting two hours north of Munich this week and got to experience all three types of driving in Germany.

First, there was heavy traffic so I got to spend 30 minutes in first gear. Traffic is global.

Next, since I was now late, I took advantage of the autobahn sections that do not have a speed limit. I had rented an Audi and it easily pushed past 200 km per hour (125 mph). I still wasn't the fastest car on the road. It is quite an experience to have a very well made car on an excellently maintained roadway. Pure fun.

On the way home, late in the evening, it began to rain pretty hard. The third type of German driving was now on display: high speed driving in the rain. I could not participate. These guys were still flying at 160km+. Too much for me.

Daphne's brother is visiting this weekend an unfortunately David is sick. Dave and I are home now while all the others are touring the Allianz Stadium.

George, the dumb dog

Oh boy.

You would think George would be team player.

He got his bed and toys on Thursday. The picture shows him relaxing.

After he and I went for a jog (with the kids on their bikes) and a stop in the park for him to run around, he came home and was bad again.

We left for a pasta dinner across the street and came home to find he grabbed a loaf of bread off the counter and ate it. He also opened my laptop bag, reached into a pocket and grabbed two pieces of candy. The candy was wrapped in plastic. He must have been looking all over for ways to be bad. He probably was smoking and we haven't found the ashtray.

Once Mom and Dad showed their unhappiness, the kids rallied to his defense. Mom was spouting the usual, "...He's got to go..." but I think we have invested too much to send him home in an Amazon box. His Lufthansa ticket was $600.

His punishment was time in his crate. He flew over in the crate in the body of the plane. Does he look repentant?

Lazy Sunday

We thought Sunday would be a lazy day since Brian was invited to a soccer party.

The party was at an old warehouse that they have converted into a full indoor soccer park. They have eight or nine full fields and a big sports bar in the middle. Poor Julia was doing her report on Heart Attacks during the party. All the kids had a blast and Brian came home dirty an smelly with a goody bag. Great party from his view.

After the party, Daphne was feeling tingling in her fingers and called her father. After a cross-Atlantic consult, he suggested we go to the ER to make sure it wasn't serious.

Now - both Daph and I hoped not to ever go to the local:

- Hospital

- Police Station

- Auto body repair shop

- Child welfare office

or Pet cemetery but we had to face the recommendation.

Luckily - the hospital is across the street. We got our passports, international insurance cards, etc. and set off. We entered the front door and hit a language barrier. Once the information person got an English speaker on the phone we found out how to get to the ER. We walked in, a doctor greeted us in English and helped us get registered. We were the only people there and were directly taken to an examination room where they took Daph's pulse, BP, temperature (in Celsius), and a EKG. 2 minutes later a surgeon came and examined her, gave a diagnosis, and made her feel more relaxed. The whole group was extremely professional and friendly. They said she bruised a nerve in her arm.

To top it off, they said they could not charge us since it was a brief exam and she will be ok. Wow. We ain't in Kansas anymore.

As long as she doesn't die from a obvious error in the exam today, I am impressed.