Switzerland!

Tuesday morning, bright and early, I arrived to pick up Grace for our trip to Switzerland.  When I got there, I noticed the house was unusually dark still, so I sent Grace a quick message to let her know I was there, but early, and not to rush.  10 minutes later, I still hadn't seen any movement or lights on in the house, so I sent another message, this time to the phone.  I then saw the curtains moving, and a mad scramble of lights on upstairs .. then off... then the door opening outside and Grace running for the car, socks and shoes in hand, dragging her suitcase behind her.  Her three alarms had not gone off.  She wasn't happy.

We still made plenty good time and got to the airport with enough time to sit and enjoy a coffee and a sandwich for breakfast (for Grace) before we boarded our plane.

EasyJet is just that.  An easy jet ride away.  Down stairs, up stairs, on the tarmac, through a tunnel ... but it worked and we got on the plane.  Sadly Grace was stuck beside some old dude that liked to smell her hair.

Geneva airport was pretty easy to navigate, and we were out to the currency exchange booth in no time flat, sadly without having to stop at customs and get our passports stamped! :(  We picked up our rental car, I girded on my courage, and we were off to explore Geneva.

We headed into the downtown area to find either the lake for a boat cruise or some shopping.  We found the lake first, so parked the car and got on a boat.  The 1 hour cruise around the lake was pretty nice.  The sky was blue, the temperature warm, and the breeze from the boat movement was just enough to keep you cool.  When we were done, we decided to have some lunch and then see if we could find some shopping, but sadly that part of Geneva was the ritzy expensive neighborhood.  We headed back to the car, and listened to "Samantha" try to speak French.  After a few wrong exits on the roundabouts, we made it to the highway, and were underway to find our B&B.

The part of the drive off of the highway to get to the B&B was slightly curvy and I was thankful to be doing this drive in the daylight!!!  After getting settled we went for a small nap, since I had been awake since way to long before daylight hit!  We then asked our hostess for directions to the nearest restaurant for some dinner.  We were informed that we could drive, but it would take as long to drive as walk.  So we decided to walk... over the hills, through the pasture, past the cows and down the lane into the next little town.  What she called a 20 minute walk, became a 45 minute walk for us.  But it was worth it ... it had some beautiful views! :)  And the food was good, considering I had to scrounge around in my brain to remember my French to order.

The next day I took Grace to her fifth country, France.  We headed out to go up the cable car at La Saleve. We saw about 8 or 10 para sailors jump to there deaths.  When I get it done, I'll upload the slideshow/video of the pictures I took of them jumping.

While we were up there, I was starting to get a bit lightheaded, so we sat at the exppppensive restaurant and had some water and I had a dessert, that turned out to be deep fried ice cream... yummy!

I didn't really get many more pictures, since we were just driving around.  We did some shopping on Wednesday night, and Thursday morning before we headed back to the airport to come back to Amsterdam.

Yesterday was a busy day, getting Grace's bike back from the repair shop, some groceries, and then dinner at a friend from church.  On the way to dinner we had some time to spare, so we were going to check out the museumplein area in Amsterdam, but decided to go check out the Dr. Fish spa place instead.  So we sat with our feet and hands in pools of water, with little fish from Turkey or Iran or someplace out there nibbling all the dead skin off, and leaving good enzymes behind.  Was a little freaky at first, but as you sat there relaxing, it was fun ... something I'll do again sometime! :)

Enjoy your weekend!