Back in Switzerland: Geneva, Montreux, Chateau de Chillon, Zermatt

We arrived in Geneva very late at night, and luckily, just caught the last train leaving the airport and into the city. We arrived, hungry and wouldn’t you know it, there was a Chinese restaurant with karaoke right underneath our hotel, where we both enjoyed the most expensive (roughly 35 francs total), mediocre, Chinese meal ever.

The next morning, we allotted 2 hours to tour Geneva, which you wouldn’t think was enough time, but when your city’s claim to fame is a clock made out of plants:


and a fountain in the middle of a lake that they wasn’t turn on that day because it was too windy, the two hours outdoors on a cold day was plenty. And by the way, I just used the words windy, lake, and cold in the same sentence – not the greatest of combinations as you can imagine, right Waverly?



After strolling the streets and passing by dozens of high-end watch shops, we high tailed it back to our hotel, grabbed our luggage and were off to Montreux, a beautiful city on the shores of Lake Geneva.

The sun finally came out in the afternoon, and we perused the winter markets by the water:


walked for about a mile along Lake Geneva:


and eventually made our way to Chateau de Chillon:


which apparently is the most visited tourist spot in all of Switzerland – although I’m sure the garden clock in Geneva came a very close second.

We did a self guided tour of the inside of the castle, which was overall, very underwhelming. Sure, some of the views from the very top were nice:


but more than anything else, it was the setting of Chateau de Chillon that made it so enchanting:


The sun was setting, and it was time to head off. Instead of walking back to Montreux, we hopped on a bus, pretended to put money in the self service pay machine towards the back (those Swiss are so trusting) and crossed our fingers that no one would ask us for our fare ticket until our stop came up in 10 minutes.

We caught our train to Zermatt, which required a change along the way, but after 3 hours or so, we arrived. What’s neat about Zermatt is that there are no cars allowed. None whatsoever. It’s kind of a funny scene when all these tourists arrive at the train station with confusion and bewilderment on their faces with no cars, taxis or buses in sight.

Luckily, our hotel had arranged for their electric shuttle cart to come pick us up. Speaking of the hotel, this was the best hotel we’ve stayed at on our entire trip. We had a balcony with a partial view of the Matterhorn, which I was particularly excited about when the hostess pointed it out, even though it was pitch black outside and I couldn’t see a single thing. And after staying at a 100 year old hotel that was facing demolition in London, hostels during our France-Spain road trip, and a hotel in Zurich that I swear had prostitutes working in front of it, this place was our Four Seasons.

We ventured out into town in the freezing cold for some dinner and came upon a Fondue place, where afterwards I felt ill and swore off any form of melted cheese dipping for the rest of my life.



We ventured back out into the cold, and boy was it cold. You know it’s cold when the bar outside is made out of solid ice:


On our walk back to our hotel, I received a call on my cell phone and it was for a phone interview from Yahoo! (I had interviews lined up before the trip, but never got the emailed the schedule and luckily, Waverly told me to keep my phone on just in case. In fact, while in Paris, we were stopping at internet cafes so I could check my email and see when the times were and was stressing out because I hadn’t received anything.)

So because I can’t stand having another person in the room with me while I do phone interviews, I decided to talk for 40 minutes on our balcony, which really wasn’t the brightest thing to do considering it was well below freezing outside.

I think it was a combination of warm liquid cheese in my stomach and being outside in the cold, because I quickly became sick beyond belief. Coughing, sore throat, and fever set upon me, and needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well that night.

Paris: Day 4 - Last Day

Our last day in Paris was a relaxing one. We decided to revisit two spots we saw at night but not during the day; Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.

It was a gorgeous day, the sun was out, and definitely made up for yesterday's winter chill. It was only fitting to see Paris' two greatest sites with the sun reflecting beautifully off it. And not to mention, it made for great photos:











Our day ended sitting down at a cafe, enjoying a typical French meal of onion soup, escargot and duck confit, and with the sun set reflecting off Notre Dame in the background.



Life is good.

Paris: Day 3

Cold, wind, and outdoor walking does not make the best combination. We experienced that first hand on our third day.

We first went to the Arc de Triomphe, where we scaled 284 steps to the top and although that doesn't sound like a lot of steps, try telling that to Waverly.



At the top, we took in a 360 degree view of Paris, albeit under fog.



After we were done, the plan was the stroll down Champs-Élysées, then walk towards the Louvre, and catch whatever scenery on the way. A good idea on a warm spring, summer, or fall day, not such a good idea in the middle of December.

However, we persevered, and did our share of window shopping. And what woman's trip to Paris is complete without stopping by the mother ship, aka the Louis Vuitton flagship store. Notice the devilish grin on her face:



We eventually made it to the Louvre, where I was reminded numerous times by Waverly who the architect was that designed the glass pyramid (hint: he's Taiwanese).

With this being probably our 20th museum on the trip, we made a bee line to the famous pieces; Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and then basically killed time, not wanting to go back out into the bitter cold. Oh, and we also snuck in a one hour lap behind some statue.

It was eventually closing time at the museum, and I couldn't resist a night shot of the glass pyramid (who was that architect again Waverly?).



We roamed the streets for a bit and stumbled upon a nice place for dinner where Waverly got the Beef Tartar, which is a fancy word for uncooked hamburger. Good thing she asked for it seared instead of completely raw which is how it is normally served.



After dinner, we had one last stop in the cold, the Grande Arche at La Défense, the major business district of the city.

Paris: Day 2

When I last visited Paris, I didn't get the chance to visit the Palace of Versailles, a place I remember reading about in my high school history text book as a palace that was not only beautiful and enchanting, but also where the treaty that ended the First World War was signed, a treaty so harsh and unfair that evidently laid the groundwork for the Second World War (Okay, I confess, I wrote a paper on the treaty, a 20 page paper in fact).

When we woke in the morning, we hopped on the metro and took a 20 minute ride outside the city, where along the way we passed the Statue of Liberty, a smaller version of the real thing (sorry, we were moving too fast and were too far away to snap a picture of it).

After getting off our stop and walking a couple of blocks, we saw the palace and one world could sum it up it best:

Grand.

And I mean grand in every sense of the word. So magnificent and extravagant, that our Canon point and shoot digital camera could never do it justice.

But that doesn't mean I didn't try...

The hall of mirrors:


Painting of Napolean's Coronation:


The garden:


After walking around the whole day and immersing ourselves in the palace and the outside grounds, we said goodbye and boarded a train back to Paris and planted ourselves in front of a heaping plate of mussels and fries for dinner.



Full and content, we strolled around and found ourselves at the Eiffel Tower, where we posed for pictures and almost ruined the most romantic memory any couple could have between them. Here's how it went down:

After Waverly grew tired of countless pictures of us with me holding the camera with my outstretched arm and cutting off the Tower in the photo, she deplored me to ask someone to help us take one of us together. So low and behold, there was a couple to our left, nuzzled together, partaking in a romantic moment, with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the background. I had my reservations about being that annoying tourist that interrupts people for a picture, but had very little choice with Waverly breathing down my neck. As I waited for the right moment to intrude, I glanced over to find the young man holding a jewelry box open with a ring inside. Now, imagine me, ruining that perfect moment with a "uhm.. excuse me, can you take a picture for us?"

But you know what, the pictures I did take with my outstretched arm will do just fine.

Paris: Day 1

Our easyJet flight, much delayed, arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport pretty late into the night. We took a train into Paris, transfered once at a station, and miraculously found the right line to our hotel.

After we got out of the metro, we had a hard time finding the street our hotel was located and was forced into the unfortunate situation of roaming the streets of an unfamiliar city at night with our luggage, looking very much like targets tourists.

The next morning we headed over to the Sainte Chapelle, which is filled with beautiful stained glass windows. Unfortunately, it wasn't very sunny -- rainy in fact, and there was no sunlight to shine through the chapel.



Afterwards, we went to the prison that Marie Antoinette was apparently held before her execution, and then grabbed some grub at a cafe. This was the first of many tasty treats we had in Paris -- egg, sunny side up, on top of melted cheese and toast with ham.



We wandered through the Latin Quarter (at least I think that's where we were) a bit, and eventually made our way to the Pantheon -- not to be confused with the Pantheon in Rome.

Inside, they had these weird white drops hanging form the ceiling - apparently it was "art", which I thought detracted away from my whole Pantheon experience. Now, instead of thinking of the Pantheon as a marvelous, grand temple of the gods, I'll instead have nightmares of white goop crushing me:


It was already dark, and we decided to take a tea and crepe break before heading out into the cold again, and eventually headed to Notre Dame, which looks awesome at night.

London: Day 3

Our final day started off with us delightfully leaving our hotel, which in 3 weeks will be met with a wrecking ball -- and it couldn't have happened sooner.

After dropping off our bags at the front desk and paying 5 pounds for the privilege (the first hotel in Europe we've stayed at that charges for that), we hoped onto the tube and headed towards the the City to check out St Paul's Cathedral and the financial district.

After exiting the subway and walking in the wrong direction for about 15 minutes, I asked a very helpful policemen bobby, who pointed us in the right way.

The odd thing about St. Paul's was how there were hardly any tourists there -- just normal, everyday people. Who would've thought, a church in Europe where people actually came to worship and not just to pose and take pictures... like this:


After St Paul's, we walked over to the financial district, or "Bank Junction"



and stopped by the Bank of England museum to learn about things we forgot shortly after.

We hopped back onto the tube towards Buckingham Palace, where it was a foot race to make it for the changing of the guard. Luckily, we made it before it began, but unfortunately, the masses had already swarmed the area.



After crowding around the gate and admiring the back of peoples' heads for half an hour, we decided to leave and promptly dubbed it, "most over-rated changing of the guard...ever."

We then proceeded to take a stroll in the park where Waverly met up with some of her friends:


To cap off our adventures in London, we headed over to the biggest tourist sucker of them all, the London Eye. The ride took about 30 minutes, with the first 10 minutes filled with "ooo's" and "awww's" and the last 10 minutes with "is this thing over yet?"





With all the main sights of London under our belt, we retrieved our luggage, dragged it cross town to a random train station in order to catch a train to Luton airport, where it was off to the one most beautiful cities in all of Europe...

London: The Cornish Pasty

I feel in love with the Cornish Pasty during my summer in Bristol some 5 years ago. Picture an apple turnover, with meat, potatoes, and onion stew inside. Amazing stuff, and I ate one almost everyday. History has it, workers in Cornwall wanted to have their meat stew for lunch at work, but being difficult to eat, their wives conveniently baked it into an enclosed crust. I actually had the opportunity to go to the Cornwall area that summer and try one there.

So on a cold night, Waverly and I spotted the Cornish Bakehouse, and we of course had to indulge ourself -- the sign did say "award winning" after all.

London: Day 2

With this being our only full day in London, day 2 was jammed pack with good old English excitement. Our fist stop was Westminster, where we strolled along the river, with the London Eye across the water and Big Ben straight ahead. Before we reached Westminster, I had the sudden urge to make a phone call while holding the phone booth door open:



After I finished my call, we found ourselves at Westminster Abbey, where I pretended to be a student and Waverly and I both got in for a discounted price of 14 pounds (that's 28 dollars to you Yankees). It was interesting to see all the elaborately decorated tombs of the royal family, and the highlight was being able to sit see the coronation chair.



After the Abbey, we headed across the street to the Parliament and sat in both the House of Lords and House of Commons for some riveting debates about the UK Royal Mail.

We eventually pulled ourselves away from the intellectual battle over what time post offices should be closed and hopped on the tube and took it to the Tower of London, which can be seen here, behind the giant fish & chips we had for lunch:



The great thing about the Tower of London is how throughout the years, it's transformed from a Royal Residence to a prison, and now a tourist destination with a temporary ice skating rink built on what used to be the moat.

After doing the usual Tower of London things...

...posing in front of the Bloody Tower (or at least the sign for the Bloody Tower):


...looking at knights in shining armor:


...and taking pictures in front of head chopping blocks:


...I managed eventually to kill our camera battery taking a zillion pictures of the Tower Bridge:


...so we decided to head back to the roach Regent Palace Hotel, charge the battery, and take a nap before finishing off the rest of the night, which included:

Eating dinner at a pub (fish & chips and meat pies were on the menu):


and then heading back to Westminster, to see the glorious lights at night:

London: Day 1

London was the first leg of our final trip in Europe. We planned on flying to London, then to Paris, and finally to Geneva and taking the train back to St. Gallen.

With full suitcases, we arrived in London in the afternoon, and what a surprise, it was overcast, gloomy, and looked like it was going rain. We unloaded our things at the Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly Circus and it was pretty much what you'd except from a big, 1000 room hotel that was 100 years old and going out of business at the end of the year; weathered, worn out, and kinda unpleasant. But for 49 pounds a night (an absolute steal especially when they were charging walk ins 129 pounds a night), and being located in Piccadilly Circus, you couldn't really complain.

We headed over to the British Museum and marveled at the world's greatest treasures under one roof. The British Museum is kind of like if your neighbor came into your house and stole all valuable things, and then displayed it in their living room and invited everyone on the block to come and look at it. The best example being the Parthenon, where the most famous ruins sit in the museum and not in Greece.



Other highlights from the museum included the Rosetta Stone:


and Cleopatra's mummy:


After being told the museum was closing and ushered off several times (there was just too darn much to see), we roamed around the streets and at night's end, found ourselves at a pub, where I ordered one of my favorite drinks, snake-bite and black.