Le Salève

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Pat and Chris came to visit and we hiked our rear ends off, both literally AND figuratively!

As followers of this blog are undoubtedly aware, one of my favorite things to do here in Geneva and elsewhere across Europe is hiking. So when our two sons expressed an interest in getting a lot of hiking in during their 2-week visit, I was happy to comply. The best part, of course, would be the time spent exploring the great outdoors with the boys, but as an added benefit, we’d achieve a common fitness goal: to be in better shape after the two week vacation than we were beforehand.

Here’s a day-by-day rundown (with photographic evidence) of our hiking regimen during their two week visit to Geneva and points beyond. Continue reading →

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Watch me cross the Swiss / French Border 3 times in multi-modal fashion!

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it sort of fun to cross a national border? To me, its as close as most of us will ever get to the whole “that’s one small step for man…” thing that has the added benefit of not requiring one to leave the planet. Living here in Geneva, I get plenty of opportunities to cross many national borders, most frequently, from Switzerland into France, since Geneva is essentially bordered on all sides by France. (It’s weird I know, but get out a map and look at it, you’ll see what I mean.)

So I decided it’d be fun to share with you my experiences of crossing the Swiss/French border via three common transportation modes. Continue reading →

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I hiked all the way to the top of Le Salève. And unexpectedly, back down again.

One of the things that I’ve been meaning to do but hadn’t gotten around to yet is hiking up Le Salève, Geneva’s local mountain. One morning last week I got up with a whole Saturday to kill, so I decided to head over on the 8 bus to Veyrier, France, at the foot of the mountain, and do some serious hiking. Continue reading →

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We welcome our first American (adult) visitors, Ed and Mary!

We recently hosted our first adult visitors, our friends of 20 years from Saint Paul, Ed and Mary. (The honor of first overall visitor goes to Chris’ girlfriend Holly, who visited this summer.) The primary purpose of Ed and Mary’s trip abroad was to visit their son John who is working this fall for a design firm in Antwerp, but they figured as long as they were on the same continent, why not work in a visit to Geneva!

I know what you’re thinking… “Hmmm, I wonder what they did on their visit, because that would give me/us some idea of what I/we might do for fun if I/we were to visit.” Continue reading →

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An Unbelievable View from Our Neighborhood Mountain, Le Salève

Le Salève, and on a clear day we catch a glimpse of the Alps

Le Salève, and on a clear day we catch a glimpse of the Alps

Another of the blog posts I am planning will be a description of the coolest things we can see from our apartment. One of the things that will be included on that list is the view we have of our closest mountain, Le Salève. (Yes, it’s partially obstructed, but we are one of the fortunate city dwellers that has any view of the mountains at all.) Continue reading →