Tag: Switzerland
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Setting Sail for France
With all of the frolicking we’ve done around Lake Geneva, we were shocked to realize that we hadn’t made use of its extensive network of boat routes to get around the region. And, given that a beautiful scenic cruise across the lake costs the price of public transportation, it’s the best ticket in town! We…
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Chasing Alpine Views
The theme of our winter so far has been the pursuit of Alpine wonderfulness. And in the Alps, there is no shortage of wonderfulness to be found. In fact, we can sometimes be so spoiled for choice in Switzerland, with its 48 peaks over 4,000 meters and unlimited opportunities for outdoor fun, that deciding where…
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Gruyères. The place, not the cheese. But also the cheese.
A few things come to mind when thinking about Switzerland. Snow-capped mountains. Beautiful towns. Cheese. Chocolate. Gorgeous countrysides. Medieval architecture. It’s pretty amazing, then, when one destination combines all of the above in one fabulous package. That is exactly what we were met with when we arrived in the town of Gruyères, a two-hour train…
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A Swiss Holiday
We just arrived back in Switzerland after a month of being back in the States to our apartment still decorated for Christmas, which had me reminiscing about our Swiss holiday fun. While some holiday festivities were still canceled this year (sadly, we still haven’t been able to experience the 1602 dress, parades, and cauldron-crushing of…
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Traveling in Time in Fribourg
So far, we have experienced incredible architecture in Switzerland, mostly in the grandiose and ornate buildings of La Belle Époque or the picturesque rural homes of the Swiss chalet style, with small pockets of preserved medieval architecture in the vieilles villes, or old towns, of cities. It was an unexpected treat then to find the…
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A Year in the Life
It’s hard to believe that it has been a year since Kurt found out that he was chosen for a post-doc opportunity at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. I find myself reflecting on the past year and all that has happened and marveling at the number of life changes and challenges we have faced. After he…
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In Pursuit of Flowers
A popular phrase here right now is La Neige de Mai, or the May Snow. Now this is a type of snow I can get behind, as it’s not frozen water that is currently blanketing the mountain meadows, but white narcisses, or daffodils. Such a sight was worth a muddy, rainy, and foggy trek into…
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Fun Times in France
In the midst of the whirlwind of moving, apartment searching, and the never-ending bureaucratic nightmare that is living as expats in Switzerland, we managed to make the most of our few weeks of living in France. Kurt gets all of the credit here; I think he got tired of looking at my frazzled face and…
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Bienvenue en France! Welcome to France!
Our latest Geneva adventure has been a two-month saga in apartment hunting, which we had no idea could possibly be so complicated! With our new apartment not ready for a few weeks (one of the important lessons of Geneva rental practices: there are only two days per month on which a lease can begin—the first…
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Signs of Spring in Montreux
With temperatures hanging out in the 50s and even—gasp!—approaching 60 °F for the first time in months, it felt like time for a celebration! That’s not to say that I dislike winter; I actually really do like winter. But there is something indescribable about that first consciousness of slightly longer days, air temperatures that lack…
On A Grand Tour 