Geneva

I think Switzerland was what really convinced me that I wanted to try being an expat. A few years ago, I had to go to Lausanne and Geneva after a trip to (interestingly) Belgium. I was flying through Heathrow for some reason and bumped into a friend of mine from when I worked for a Norwegian company. He is a Swede, who married a Brit and of course, they live in Switzerland. They were in the UK visiting her family and I bumped into them on the jet bridge to the airplane. It was one of those small world moments that you could never expect. I had planned on flying to Geneva to spend the weekend and then have my meetings before heading onward to France. My friend would hear none of it and invited me to stay with them for the weekend. He would drive me to Lausanne Sunday night so I would be ready for my meeting.  I had a really wonderful time with them and seeing their lifestyle,  it made me want to expereince the same thing. I literally came home and said to SWMBO, "I could live in Switzerland, no I want to live in Switzerland". Well, we don't live in Switzerland, but that trip definitely played a significant role in our being in Belgium.

We decided on Monday at the spur of the moment, to use our three day weekend by taking a short trip to Geneva. It is an hour from Brussels and the cab from GVA to central Geneva is 15 minutes. So it is really feasible to do for a long weekend. The weatherman predicted fair to rainy weather but true to form, he was wrong and we had beautiful weather the entire time.

Geneva is an interesting place. It is a bit of a government town crossed with big business, with a bit of resort town mixed in. The one common denominator however is money. There is a lot of it as evidenced by the Ferrari / Lambo quotient, the jewelry and high-end watch stores for which the area is known and of course very pricey looking people. It is possible however, to visit on a reasonable budget. SWMBO searched out a very nice hotel a little further out than we would have ideally liked but still within a fairly easy walk to the center and old town. Mostly we wandered the city on foot. Stopped in the occaisonal museum and enjoyed some of the many cafes throughout the city. We did stop in a few watch shops on the first day but thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and we did not come home with any new bling. Although the gentleman at IWC did try to close me on a $38,000 Portugese Perpetual Calendar. Maybe next time.

I did try two new beers while in Geneva from the same brewery. The Calvinus Blonde and the Calvinus Blanche. Both were excellent, bottle fermented artisinal beers. The Blond had a crisp hoppy character with a creamy mouthfeel, while the Blanche was an unfiltered wheat beer with a nice fruitiness. Both were refreshing after climbing the many hills of old Geneva and worth paying the extra couple of francs for if you happen to be visiting.

Roma

Just returned home from 4 Days in Rome and I am conflicted. I really do enjoy history and Rome has a ton of it. It seems like every turn reveals more ancient ruins or something of more recent historical signficance. I think there are few places in the world where you can go that have the density of this many historical sites. It is probably because of this however, that I am conflicted. With all of this history come epic crowds and tourist traps everywhere you go.

I like to think of myself as a pretty experienced traveler. I do it for a living. And I have a few rules that have served me well over the years. The most useful rule has been 'Never Eat on a Main Road'. The principle here is that the best stuff, the stuff the locals eat, is usually in some small out of the way side street away from the tourist traffic. There are few places in the world where this is not the case, like Asia, where you are better off not eating in a restaurant at all and get the good stuff from a guy pushing a cart restaurant on the side of the road. Rome seemed to be a bit of an exception. Dinner the first night we employed our logic and we did find a place with excellent pizza, but also a bunch of tourists. Every other meal though, the food was mediocre and certainly not like what we were able to find in Venice. We finally surrendered our last evening and went back to the first restaurant where we started because we knew that at a minimum, the pizza would be good. And it was.

Another rule that SWMBO and I like to apply is plan as little as possible. There is nothing I dislike more than an agenda on vacation. I don't mind planning a couple of outings or a visit to the theater, but I do not want to live on a schedule. I do it when I work, I don't want to do it when I am relaxing. The best part of this approach, is that you are open to a little travel serendipity and this trip was a great example of that. The lines at the Vatican were miles long so after wandering around the square in front of St. Peters, we bagged going in and started investigating the surrounding neighborhood. While we doing that, we came upon a bunch of people setting up for the Mille Miglia. This is a race of classic sportscars that runs 1000 miles from Brescia to Rome and back. It is something that we have always wanted to see and we had no idea before we made the trip that it was going to be in Rome at the same time as us. Because we hadn't planned anything, we had the opportunity to attend and it was worth the price of admission (free). We saw about 100 new and vintage Ferraris in the Celebration of Ferrari that kicked the event off and then the parade of the Mille Miglia participants. It was a great evening.

So Rome was a mixed bag. Beautiful scenery, lots of History, and some awesome sportscars. Food was just alright and the crowds were insane. The company was excellent and we had a really nice time. Will I rush back, no. But I am glad I went. Now four days until we leave for Geneva!!

Long Time, No Blog

It's been a while. No other excuse other than the usual. Work, travel etc.

The biggest recent event was that the SunDevil graduated from ASU. It is so hard to believe that her college career is over. It seems like yesterday that I was flying out of Sky Harbor wondering what the hell I was doing leaving my little girl behind to fend for herself.

She did me proud though. Magna Cum Laude. No troubles. And a cute Grand-dog. She is now going to start graduate school, which again, makes me really proud. Her fitness regimen may be a little extreme, but it is hard to argue with the results. She could probably kick my butt.

It is times like this that make me wish I was back in the US. 20 hours of travel time to see my girl is a little much. Then again, I have made that trip 6 times since January, so I guess I should be used to it by now.