It’s been awhile! Life has been busy over here in
Switzerland, and I just haven’t been able to make myself stop/sit down, reflect,
and document everything. Part of the reason for this blog is to tell friends
and family all about our adventures, but it’s also for me and Andy to look back
and remember everything we’ve seen and done – so I figured I better catch up
before I forget it all.
We’ve settled into a bit of a rhythm for our travel plans
that seems to be working well for us – we travel two weekends each month and
stay in Geneva the other two weekends. We try to alternate them, but sometimes
it doesn’t work out that way because of holidays. We have two dog sitters that
we alternate using, and Sam loves them both. Our weekends in Geneva have been
spent skiing, hiking, and just relaxing, as well as any “life administration”
we need to catch up on – cleaning, laundry, bills, etc.
So since my last post, we’ve been to London, Vail, Porto, Barcelona,
Budapest, and Vienna…
London
London is a city that you really need to visit a few times
to see it all, or you need to stay for a longer period of time than just the
two days that Andy and I did. It’s just so big! It was also a very different
experience culturally from our other trips so far, because it just doesn’t feel
that…foreign. It’s very reminiscent of New York to me – HUGE city, people
everywhere, culturally diverse, but everything is in English.
Our first night, we got a late dinner and drinks here:
It’s a Prohibition-style speak-easy, so unique and fun. We
had fancy drinks with ingredients we had never heard of, Andy had one of the
best burgers of his life, and we enjoyed live jazz music.
We did our best to hit the London highlights: we had
afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason, and we took a “Big Red Bus” tour and saw
Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. My absolute favorite thing
we did was attend the Choral Matins service at Westminster Abbey. The church is
obviously absolutely breathtaking, but the choir is even more stunning. It was
one of the more profound worship experiences of my life, and I highly recommend
it to anyone visiting London.
Sidebar: I don’t think I’ve mentioned my work bestie Shannon
on the blog before – Shannon is also American and started at my job the same
day I did. In short, Shannon keeps me sane. There are many times when I feel
overwhelmed/confused/frustrated by something I don’t understand about this
country and culture, and Shannon is my sympathetic ear at work (and I’m the
same for her). Experiencing this together has made her what I imagine will be a
life-long friend.
Anyway, she’s originally from the Philadelphia area but
moved to London in 2014, and she still “lives” in London on the weekends and in
Geneva during the week (her boyfriend is British). She and Nick took us to
dinner Saturday night at the Smokehouse, where we had an amazing meal:
Vail, CO
What a fun and refreshing trip this was. Even though we
lived in Colorado for 2 years, i.e., not in the same state as our families,
being this far away is much different and much harder. Trips home are just not
frequent enough, and the time change makes communication a bit trickier. The 6
days in Colorado were so wonderful and just what we needed. We flew in one day
earlier than my family, so I got to see my old coworkers for a happy hour in
Denver, and we were able to spend some time with two of our favorite people, Nicole
and Michael Evans.
We had an AWESOME time in Vail. Family + skiing in the Rocky
Mountains = my happy place. Snow conditions were perfect, the weather was
beautiful, and we made some great memories.
Porto, Portugal
Our weekend in Porto came at a perfect time. Basically,
Porto is a charming coastal town where people go to eat yummy food and drink
Port. That’s it. After some busy weeks at work for both of us, it was just what
we needed. It was one of our more relaxing, un-scheduled trips, but here are
some of the highlights:
- We took a food tour with this company: https://www.tasteporto.com/downtown-porto-food-tour. Portuguese food is kind of like Spanish food but not, and this was a great way to experience the town and try a little bit of everything.
- We toured two Port wine makers, Sandeman and Taylor’s. Neither of us really love drinking Port on a regular basis, but it was still a fun and interesting experience.
- We walked around a whole lot. We’d walk, stop to get a glass of wine, walk, stop to get a pastry, walk…it was great.
If you’re traveling to Spain, Porto is a great place to add
on to the beginning or end of your trip to visit for just a couple days.
Barcelona, Spain
I had been to Barcelona before (I spent part of summer 2007
studying in Spain) and really loved it, so I was excited to go back and
experience it again with Andy. Barcelona
is known for its pick-pockets, so I think everyone goes expecting it to be this
scary, dangerous city – but it’s really not so bad. The streets are actually
incredibly well-lit at night (I assume because of the pick-pocketing), so it’s
really nice to walk around and explore. I think the key is to try not to look
like a tourist and just blend in, and you’ll be fine. And bring your tall,
200-lb. husband with you.
It was a pretty quick weekend trip – landed late Friday
night, left Sunday afternoon – but we managed to get in a Fat Tire bike tour
and a tour of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (and plenty of delicious Spanish
food, obviously).
It’s kinda weird to have brand-loyalty to a bike tour
company, but we do, because: (i) Fat Tire Bike Tours was founded by an Aggie
(actually a pretty cool story, you can read it here: http://www.grouptravelparis.com/about/company-history)
and (ii) they do a really good job. We did a bike tour through somebody else in
Madrid, and it wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. If you find yourself in Paris,
London, Barcelona, or Berlin (the four cities in Europe that Fat Tire offers
tours), I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to spend the day outside
exploring the city, and also to learn a lot about the history and culture.
The Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic basilica and the
most visited place in Barcelona. The most interesting thing about it is that construction
began in 1882, but the building still isn’t finished; it’s been started and
stopped multiple times throughout the years, because the building is funded
entirely by private donations. It’s the most unique church I’ve ever seen, and
a lot of progress was made during the 9 years since I was last there, so it was
really cool to see it again.
Budapest
Andy and I had been looking forward to visiting Budapest
basically since we moved to Europe; everyone we know who has been to Budapest has
loved it, and it was also one of the places we most strongly considered moving
to besides Geneva.
The city has a fascinating history, is full of beautiful
architecture, and has tons of interesting places to visit and explore.
BUT…it smells.
Like, really bad.
There’s a prominent homeless population, Budapest is
somewhat of a party destination for Europeans, and there are no public restrooms.
So. Yeah.
Also, we found Hungarians to be pretty unfriendly. Not just
unfriendly, but often times downright rude. I got a lot of eye rolls and head
shakes from waitresses, ticket vendors, bartenders, etc. when I opened my mouth
and English came out. We usually try to make some effort at the local language
(at least asking if they speak English first in their language), but that was
kind of difficult for us to do in Hungarian.
I know plenty of people who did not experience any of this
in Budapest, so I still think it’s worth visiting and seeing for yourself. It just
made us even happier about choosing Geneva, and we still had a very enjoyable
trip.
We toured the Hungarian Parliament building, took a cruise
down the Danube River, visited Buda Castle, and checked out the thermal baths
at the Gellert Spa. Dinner at this restaurant was one of the best meals I’ve
ever had: http://www.onyxrestaurant.hu/en
Aaaand that was Budapest!
Vienna
We went to Vienna straight from Budapest (they’re only a 2
hour train ride apart) and immediately fell in love with it…mostly because there
was just an immediate, HUGE contrast as soon as we got off the train. It’s so very
orderly, clean, and civilized, and with even more of the beautiful history you
find all over Europe.
This was another city where we spent just a whole lot of
time walking, getting a coffee, walking, getting a pastry, and then walking
some more. We did a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace (the last residency of the
Habsburg dynasty) and visited the State Opera House, but mostly we just
wandered.
We were in Budapest and Vienna for the 4-day Easter weekend,
so we managed to find an English-speaking church to attend in Vienna on Easter
Sunday. Holidays over here can be bittersweet – we are of course creating
lifelong memories, but we also miss our usual traditions, rituals, and our families.
This church service will be a particularly sweet memory for me though; in
Vienna, Austria, we sang some of my favorite worship songs and shared in the
Lord’s Supper. Thousands of miles away and with a bunch of strangers we’ll
never see again, we remembered His sacrifice for us and celebrated His resurrection,
and it was awesome.
Next on our list is Reykjavik, Iceland, and honestly, I’m
pretty nervous about it. This is one of Andy’s lifetime bucket list trips, so I’m
excited that he’s so excited, and it looks just beautiful. But it’s going to be
cold (duh), and we’re going fishing in the cold…and I’m pretty sure I read
somewhere that they eat puffin there. This is a puffin.
So I’ll report back on the puffin.
