I'm not sure I have much more to say about Geneva - so I'll just describe the pictures :-). We liked Geneva OK, but were glad we weren't spending any more time there - I think the soaking from the rain took its toll :-). This is the Water Jet that shoots water 453 feet in the air over Lake Geneva. Pretty cool.
This is called the Flower Clock. It was amazing how precise they had the flowers arranged! Of course it was a soccer ball since the EuroCopa was coming. They are pretty much soccer crazy here in Europe!
Saturday morning was extremely rainy. Here we are near the Reformer's Wall. Somehow Katie got soaked even with all that covering :-). She was a good little trooper though.
Finally after a very yummy lunch of cheese fondue and a hash brown potato thing called "rosti", it cleared off and the sun came out. Here is Katie throwing rocks on "Geneva Beach".
We definitely liked central Switzerland better than Geneva - though the language was a little more difficult. They speak Swiss German in the central part (and French in the Geneva area) of which we know absolutely not a word (besides maybe Danka for thank you :-) ). Fortunately the Fannings know some German! They were such wonderful hosts - they really spoiled us at every turn! This picture is near the house they are renting. It is in the middle of nowhere basically :-) (though just 30 minutes from the capitol city of Bern), in the middle of the Alps. Truly amazing. All you can see is cows and mountains and all you can hear are the wonderful cow bells. I did a little searching on You Tube for other cow videos and apparently filming the Swiss cows w/ their bells is quite popular :-).
On Sunday, we went to Lucerne, which is a truly beautiful town. We had the privilege of the weather being clear so that we could see the mountains! Jan & Buist had been to Lucerne 5 or 6 times with various guests and they had never seen the mountains around the lake! I enclosed the pic of us b/c it's a good one and the one of Jan & Buist b/c it's good AND has the mountains just behind us. (the pics were taken in the same spot - maybe Tim can explain why you can see the mtns in one and not the other :-)) One thing we really enjoyed learning from Jan & Buist was the benefits of packing your lunch to take with you as you sightsee. It was so nice to be able to find a pretty spot whenever you were hungry, then sit down and eat lunch right there! So we enjoyed beautiful scenery during our lunches. We even did this in Rome, eating the 1st day in the middle of the Roman Forum (pics later) and the 2nd day in a courtyard in the middle of the Vatican Museum. Very fun :-).
This pic is of the Kapellbrucke (Chapel Bridge) in Lucerne - we heard that this spot is one of the most photographed spots in Switzerland. The bridge was built is 1333 and is "one of the best-preserved wooden bridges in Switzerland" according to Frommer's. Very picturesque town and the classic kind of buildings you think of when you think of Switzerland.
On Monday, we went to the Bernese Oberland area of Switzerland - near Interlaken, but less commercialized. The morning got off to a rough start... 1 thing Katie did NOT like about Switzerland was the curvy
roads - and yes, now Jason has had his official parenting moment where he said "Here honey, throw up into my hands". Not something that Mommy is likely to ever say... but we're thankful for Daddy :-). So after going shopping for a new outfit for Katie, we went to the Castle in Thun. It was cool b/c you could go up into each of the towers to see the view as shown in the pic at right. The mountains did not cooperate with us as much on this day - they were hiding from us - but it was still very pretty. There was a neat museum inside the castle too.
We capped our sightseeing off by visiting the Oberhofen Castle which had some lovely flower gardens. We made it back to the car just as the rain was starting - it was amazing b/c it had been rainy & cold before we got to Jan & Buist's and then it turned rainy & cold after we left - so we are so thankful we had some nice weather in between!So that's the long version of Switzerland :-). (or the rest of the story or something) I think we could have just stayed there all week - we love the mountains! And we definitely want to go back to wander through the meadows and explore the Wanderweges (the walking trails they have marked everywhere). That will be a relaxed version of a European vacation :-).
But Rome was great too... tho I need to pick Katie up from school soon so it will have to wait till later.
Becca
