Category Archives: Summer

Gratitude Friday: Travel

by

Post by Lauren

An easy gratitude selection this week. We have T in town from the US. We just returned today from a great overnight trip to Bernese Oberland where we explored the valleys, stayed in a peaceful Alp town, and scaled the mighty majestic Schilthorn. So, simply, this week, I am thankful for our ability to travel here. So many parts of this beautiful world are close and accessible to us during our time here. We are grateful for this opportunity and hope to make the most of it!

Here are some snapshots from the past two days:

Gimmelwald, Bernese Oberland

Murren, Bernese Oberland

Ascending to the Schilthorn with views of the Monk, Eiger and Jungfrau

Bon weekend, everyone!

Why Everything is Always Closed in Europe

by

Post by Lauren

Before we decided to move, one of Gabe’s cons to moving to Switzerland was that stores weren’t open on Sundays. I questioned why that mattered so much and proclaimed that I would gladly exchange my current over-stressed situation for one that forbade errands to be done on Sunday. It would give me a chance to relax, after all instead of to squeeze in 10 errands from dawn til dusk! He just shrugged.

The jury is still out on preference, but I will admit I was a bit naïve on the impact this has to day-to-day life. I figured it was time to delve into the topic of Sunday closings as well as European vacation time.

Stores
Here is how it works here, without exception:

#1: All stores are open 9-7pm** on weekdays. They close at 5 or 6pm on Saturdays. Clincher: this includes ALL grocery stores.
#2: All stores are closed on Sundays. Clincher: this includes ALL grocery stores
#3: Stores are closed on any holiday. Even the random ones in the middle of the week that no one has ever heard of. Clincher: this includes ALL grocery stores

**Note, most of the time small stores, post offices, and independent businesses are also closed two hours for lunch. Forget getting stamps or nails from the hardware store during this time.

The nice thing is you don’t have to wonder if a store opens late on Sunday or is open on Sunday. In the US it was only Chic-fil-a you had to be careful of. Here, you just know its EVERYTHING!

Grande Vacances

You may already know that Europeans take off 4-8 weeks every summer for their grande vacances. We knew this from working with Europeans in the US but never gave a ton of thought to it except to be jealous.

When we first moved, a lot of people asked us where we were taking our holiday. I would reply that we were just working on settling and we planned to take some time in the winter holidays to visit friends and family. They would look at me strangely.

My French tutor informed me in mid-June that she was going to depart in a week for 6-8 weeks of vacation and we’d resume in mid-August, date TBD. I asked if we were still meeting the next week since she still had a week before she left. She looked at me funny and told me she had to pack over the next week for vacation. Oh.

Gabe was on a conference call and the question came up as one of the managers wanted to get the schedule straight of who was in when. Pretty much every single person he works with is off at least a full month in July/August. He likes it as he is getting to do a lot of big independent projects without a single person in the office.

While this works for Gabe, if you are in client services, you can’t work as your client is gone. Our friend A works with a client who was closed for August, so they encouraged him to take the month off as well.

It is very common to see signs all over town – restaurants, businesses – just closed for 8 weeks. A ran into this when she was baking her cake treats for a Canadienne buffet. The only bake shop in Geneva is closed for the entire summer, so she had to make do without it. We ran into last night when out to dinner with S & S. We arrived to the restaurant I selected in Carouge to find “closed” signs on a primo Saturday night due to their 3 week vacation.

This concept is very hard for Americans to understand. We have a personality of production and are generally not given a lot of vacation time. A few of us had a big conversation on this at the AIWC one day. How do they afford to take four weeks on vacation? How do businesses run without anyone there for 4 weeks? Don’t they need groceries on Sunday? What if you need medicine? If you are single and work full time, how do you ever get groceries or necessities…especially with so many lunch closings!?

The short answer that I was given is that it’s for their health. The Europeans believe that they will simply get sick if they don’t take at least a month off to decompress in the summer. While it is a stretch to afford a four week trip, they truly think they can’t afford not to do it in terms of stress/illness.

And in regards to the Sunday closings and early evening closings, that is the time that they set aside for families and charging their “batteries”. That is why it is forbidden to do any type of work – cleaning house, yard-work, taking out the trash, recycling, laundry, even drying laundry on a Sunday or after 8pm. It’s a time for rest for everyone. You aren’t allowed to exercise your hyper-productivity as a foreigner either. You’ll be pointed at and corrected.

And, it actually isn’t rooted in religion like you might think. My theory is that it maybe originally was. But now, its simply that they fear the stress will kill them.

Switzerland has the #4 life expectancy rate in the world. Take a look at this life expectancy chart. Many Western European nations are at the top. Should I continue to complain or take heed….maybe they have figured something out?

 

Swiss Sporting Events

by

Post by Lauren

Everyone was off of work Monday for the national holiday. It was the first one Gabe had taken since everyone in the US continues to work (and need things) on his Swiss holidays. We had planned it to be leisurely and imagined it like the tranquil scene below:

However, things got a bit “sporty”.

First, we met up with the group down at the river. Since Geneva has a plethora of yacht owners, they have been talking about taking out their “yacht” on the lake or the river ever since we had met. They had launched about an hour prior, and this is the scene to which we arrived:

We rode around in the yacht (or at least some of us did, as we couldn’t all fit at the same time with the picnic) for a little bit and hung out in the sun. Note the patriotism demonstrated by crew.

After we discovered how strong the current was after all the rain, we realized that it was going to be hard to get the ship back home upstream. Therefore, we had to come up with an alternate plan. It involved Adam scaling the wall.

Once the yacht was aboard land, we came up with an another activity as can be seen below. I was a chicken at first but the group quickly convinced me to partake in the fun.

 

 

Happy Swiss National Day

by

Post by Lauren

Happy Swiss Day, everyone!!! Just to give some perspective, the 1er août (said premiere-oot) is like the equivalent of the 4th of July for Switzerland. They decorate everything all over the city, and of course, everything shuts down in true Swiss holiday tradition.

They even changed the trash bags out in honor of la fête!

We wanted to get the hard-boiled eggs featured below to celebrate in style, but forgot to get them 3 days in advance before all the stores closed for normal Sunday and Holiday Monday.

Based on taking French from two Swiss-French teachers, I actually know some history on this holiday. My AIWC teacher, Esther, loves to teach us little things about history in basic French, which is really appreciated by all of us. So, here goes:

In 1291, in early August, there was no Switzerland. There were constant attacks of other countries wanting to conquer the areas which now are Switzerland. Three independent republics made a pact saying they’d protect each other, which formed the groundwork for the later development of the Confederation Helvetica, or CH.

Still today, all the cantons operate independently, with their own police, transportation, taxation and school systems. There are four different languages spoken in Switzerland, and the canton official language depends on your geography. This system allows different geographic regions to still exercise their historical preferences, but still be a part of the overall country of Switzerland.

Based on this date back in 1291, they have a fête on the 1st of August every year to celebrate this confederation of Switzerland.

We checked out the festival this evening in our city, Geneva, which has quite a big to-do. However, this type of festival takes place all over Geneva in all the little towns and villages. They say you can go out to the mountainside and it is quite a sight to see the bonfires in the distance. S taught me that the bonfires symbolize the communication the towns had with each other as that was their only method back in the day. Therefore, bonfires and lanterns are some of the characteristics of the 1er août fête.

Check out some of the scenes from the fête as well as a video of the huge bonfire in the park!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-JM6lCMMuk

 

A picnic in Aix-les-Bains, France

by

Post by Lauren

This weekend, we did a quick overnight trip with A & A to Lyon, France.

Since we knew dinner would be an “experience” in Lyon, the culinary capital of France, we opted for a picnic to stop on the way.

We ended up in Aix-les-Bains which was a cute little French town on beautiful lake, Lac du Bourget.

Not a bad place for a picnic!

Gabe confirmed the water was frigid, just like Lake Geneva.

Gratitude Friday: The Great Outdoors

by

Post by Lauren

One of the things I am so grateful for in Geneva is the beautiful parks and green spaces. I wrote about this on a previous post when we first arrived.

However, I am just continually impressed by how the community uses these spaces, especially in the summer when the fountains are on for the kids swimming pleasure. Even better, the ville de Genève hosts tons of extraordinary events outside. These don’t just happen every week, or once a month. There is something literally every day and usually two happening in the same evening. Sadly, we haven’t been able to experience it much this week because of the monsoons, but here are just two ways we have enjoyed it in the last 2 weeks:

# 1 – Free concerts in Parc a la Grange – these are twice a week – Wednesdays and Fridays for the entire summer. There is seating, or you can choose to bring a picnic. Large groups of people meet and picnic together, listening to the music. Gabe and I biked there and enjoyed a little picnic for two.

# 2 – Free movies in Parc Perle du Lac – this happens four times a week. Gabe really wanted to see Top Gun, so we spread the word and had a really nice evening with A & A, D, and C & M last Saturday night.

We loved the spirit of the movie-goers. Someone dressed up as an air-traffic controller, and others brought sparklers. However, the funniest part were the Swiss spoofs on Top Gun they did before hand. You can see the spoof videos as well as more detail on the evening here on A’s post about the evening.

We look forward to trying out the other things but in the meantime, we are just so thankful that Geneva offers these programs and we get to enjoy them in the beautiful open air, gratuits!!!

Bon weekend, everyone!

Yvoire, France

by

Post by Lauren

We had heard from our friend A that Yvoire was a really cool medieval town on the lake to check out. He had traveled there on a co-worker’s boat for dinner one evening. We personally think his way was the best way to travel. However, since we were in Northern Geneva countryside so that Gabe could attempt to teach moi how to drive a stick shift, it was only a 15 minute trip.

It was a cute town and I can’t wait to bring my Mom back to see the beautiful flower covered buildings. But, as A had noted, a bit crowded so we might choose to go back in the evening or when it isn’t the middle of summer.

Another small world story – we bumped into a lady Gabe works with in Yvoire. So, two days in a row, we have collided with people we actually know while we were out and about. Switzerland is starting to feel like home!

Gratitude Friday: Witnessing Something Truly Majestic

by

Post by Lauren

Some of you may recall the movie The Bucket List. A few years ago, my church did a series playing on the theme of movie – related to being a good friend, a good spouse, a good parent, being a good employee, etc. and not putting those things you wanted to improve before life suddenly “ran out”. I loved the series and ended up seeing the movie in the theatre with my friend Pamela. I specifically remember coming out of the theatre with faces tear-stained and bumping into mutual friends. They were laughing at how hard we must have bawled during it to get faces looking like ours! Nevertheless, we both took lessons from the movie.

At the time, we had lived in Charlotte, along with our friend Randi, about 8 years and always had a list of things we wanted to do but never did. Her’s consisted of hiking Crowders Mountain. Mine was going to Lazy 5 animal ranch. Amongst other things along those lines. We were all off from work the week after Christmas and staying in town so we ended up doing a Charlotte “Bucket List”. We crossed something off every day:

Bucket List Week / Charlotte, NC 2009

At the end of the week, we had always wanted to host a neighborhood bar crawl in the little part of Charlotte we lived in (Dilworth) and that culminated the week. My favorite part of Bucket List Week is that a certain gentleman joined us on the bar crawl and that was the night that led to us dating (and you know the rest of the story) and we moved to Switzerland and that leads us to….

Bar Crawl / Bucket List Week / Dilworth, NC 2009

…..today’s gratitude post. The movie, Bucket List, included a theme where the two main characters who both were dying of cancer created list of things they wanted to do before they “kicked the bucket”. Morgan Freeman’s character had written “witness something truly majestic”. Witnessing something majestic had always sounded really intriguing, and this past week, I think I hit it when we were on the top of Mont Blanc on Sunday.

According to wikipedia, Mont Blanc is the highest peak in Europe, (on this side of Russia) and is the 3rd most visited natural site in the world. We visited in the middle of summer, and it is still snow-capped and amazing. The contrast to the surrounding mountains that are adjusting to their summer climate while Mont Blanc still is glacial, is simply mind-blowing. And, I had never thought I would actually ever see a glacier that close in my life.

So, this week, my gratitude Friday is dedicated to witnessing majestic Mont Blanc and being grateful for the beautiful majestic things we have on this Earth. Bon weekend, everyone!

All photos courtesy of Henry Birmingham

Montreux Jazz Festival

by

Post by Lauren

We had so many neat adventures this past weekend that I wanted to dive deeper into a few so that you could get the full experience. Luckily, guest Henry Birmingham is an amazing photographer so the next two days of posts are going to have more eye-candy than you are used to (all of the photos are his).

On Saturday, we traveled to Montreux Jazz Festival. According to wikipedia, Montreux Jazz Festival is the 2nd largest music festival in the world, after Montreal’s. If you recall, Gabe and I had been to Montreux on our first trip to Geneva – most of the sunset photos on our first post are of its beautiful Alp-view shoreline and the Chateau Chillon.

Throughout the week, artists such as B.B. King, Ziggy Marley, Carlos Santana, Natalie Cole, Jimmy Cliff, Seal, Quincy Jones, Paul Simon, House of Pain, Liza Minnelli, and everyone’s favorite Ricky Martin were playing in the different venues set up on the lakeshore. With us going the first Saturday, all the shows were sold out, but nonetheless, we decided to go check it out. Also, we heard there was a Jazz Train and Latin Music boat that could be cool options if we wanted a different pace from the land part of the festival.

We set out upon our day and had a little bit of a hiccup as it was the International Gay Pride Festival and they had started to close off the Geneva streets close to the train station. We finally decided to jump out and walk the last part. Here, Gabe is doing a victory cheer for beating the bus (bus in the distance)

After an hour train ride, we arrived and were immediately greeted by great music, beautiful art and our favorite find….reasonably priced AWESOME food. We are used to paying ridiculous prices for average food back home in Geneva. We prioritized and immediately split up to go get some eats and meet back at a table. This one kind of had a nice view.

The jazz train and salsa boat (above, bottom left) did look like fun, but we ended up just hanging out in the park watching the free jazz and wandering along the coastline to all the cool vendors.

We found the experience to be really cool, even without checking out one of the shows. We calculated that we can buy train tickets to Montreux, eat delicious festival fare and it will still cost less than an average low-budget meal in Geneva. Based on that, we may try to go back before it ends in 2 weeks. Maybe even to a real show this time!

 

A fantastic 4th of July with Henry Birmingham

by

Post by Lauren

Sorry for the tardiness of this post, but Gabe and I have been trying to recuperate from the weekend and it has taken us some extra time to get back in the swing of things, due to its epic proportions.

As most have caught on, we give our friends abbreviated names often times to protect their privacy. So, instead of a simple abbreviation, our fun-loving guest chose his alternate name as Henry Birmingham. It is a combination of the street he grew up on and his first pet or middle name. Some of you are catching on….

Anyhow, Henry was in Europe for work and we were quite excited when he announced he was coming to see us at the end of his trip for the 4th of July. We had so much fun, we have dedicated this post to…..

Top 10 reasons why we love to travel with Henry Birmingham

#10 – The flower clock reads 3:30 on Friday July 2. Gabe would normally be at work at this time but motivated by his buddy being in town, he took off and we were able to have an incredible Friday afternoon spent exploring Geneva and lake-bar-hopping. Awesome!

#9 – He is always up for Donor Kebabs and trying new beers!! Exactly what Gabe likes to do best so I am glad he had someone to do it with wholeheartedly!

#8 – Ingenuity – I mean, who else can create a cup-holder so resourcefully in a country known for no cup-holders in cars!?

#7 – His appreciation for art – he got some amazing shots at Jazz Festival

# 6 – Love of adventure. I mean, this guy just had knee surgery like 3 weeks ago and he scaled the wall for this photo. However, along this same theme, I may need to deduct some “awesomeness” points in this category as his encouragement of a third bottle of wine on the train may have given the author a headache the next day and prevented the timely posting of this entry.

# 5 – It would have been anticlimactic if Gabe and I saw T’s doppleganger by ourselves

#4 – We haven’t made late night food in a long time. Thanks for re-igniting the magic.

# 4 – We couldn’t have justified ordering both raclette-for-two AND fondue if there weren’t three mouths to feed.

# 3 – We finally have photos of both Gabe and I in Switzerland, not just one of us taken by the other one. Thanks for all the incredible shots 🙂

# 2 – His interest in snow & ski led us to pick this 2nd day trip to Chamonix / Mt. Blanc which is only 45 minutes from our house. Keep in mind folks, this is June. Outrageous!

# 1 – It was just awesome to see a great friend and have the luxury of spending a nice weekend catching up and making new memories. Thanks for coming — we had a blast !!