You Go Nate!

WHERE I WENT NEXT...

Berlin-- I woke up on the last day of 2008 to sunny skies and big plans. I had a plane to catch around 1pm which meant I could take my time checking out and getting to the airport.

Not far from my hotel was the Oberbaumbrücke, which is a pleasant little bridge over the Spree. So I decided to take a little walk down to the Spree to get some pictures and grab something for breakfast.


Here's the Oberbaumbrücke...

And there was a nifty morning view of Berlin from over the river...

I ate a banana and then saw a tray of perfectly-glazed Berliner pastries sitting in a bakery window. I couldn't refuse a Berliner in Berlin, and I'm glad I didn't try...

I checked out of the hotel and took the S-bahn to Berlin Schönefeld airport where I went through the regular rigamarole and finally boarded the easyjet™ airplane.

Because it had been snowing at our destination, we had to wait for over an hour on the tarmac before we could take off. This was a budget airline where they pack the seats together as tightly as they can without violating some part of the Geneva Convention... which was good because that was our destination!

After an hour of recirculated air and a tiny glass of water, we finally took off and flew for about an hour and a half to the great Suisse city.

I arrived in Switzerland, got my luggage, and was met by my friends Joseph and Emily who were there to pick me up.

Joseph and Emily and their two-year-old daughter Megan are friends from my church ward here in Munich. They grew up together in the same part of France, right across the border from Geneva, each with one parent being European and the other North American. Thus they are both comfortable speaking perfect French or English and they both spent some time previously in Germany so they also speak German. We are all about the same age and they have been great friends here in Munich. I eagerly accepted their invitation to come and spend some time with them and their families in France. I am also their home teacher.

We put my luggage in the car where Joseph's younger brother and his wife were waiting. Because of the delay of my flight, we had to head straight to our New Year's Eve party an hour and a half away in Lyon, France.

We arrived at the apartment of some friends and we enjoyed a fun evening with good food (Turkey!) and conversation (though a lot was in French, which I don't speak. Nearly everyone spoke some English however.)


Here you can see Joseph standing left of me with Emily seated at my right. They Lyon friends are beside Emily and then Joseph's brother Morgan and his wife Sarah seated on the right...

Soon came the big moment where we celebrate the passing of time as though some effort or achievement had been made resulting in this temporal phenomenon.

We hung out, snacked, drank kiddie champagne (sparkling apple juice, featured in the video clip) ,and talked until about 4:30AM when we got back in the car and drove the hour and a half back to Joseph's parents' house near the Swiss border.


I didn't see much of Lyon, just the night view from the rear of the apartment...

I went to bed at the crack of dawn and slept well into the next day. Joseph's other younger brother is on his mission, so I got his room.

We spent the next day relaxing, playing Wii, watching movies, and eating. In fact, we did the same for the next few days as well. We also drove across the border a couple of times to visit Geneva.

Of course Geneva was ground zero for the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Here John Calvin taught and worked to establish Protestantism. He founded the University and taught in the church for many years. We visited the Monument to the Reformers, a large memorial with statues of Calivn, Knox, Zwingli, and others.

Here's Jordan (Emily's younger brother,) Joseph, and I with some of the fathers of the Reformation...

Nearby was a park of frozen chess pieces...

We walked into the old town where there was no wondering which country you were in...

Old streets...

We passed the birthplace of Jean-Jacque Rousseau (1712), the famous philosopher.

There were cannons...

Then we made it to the Church of Saint-Pierre, Geneva's main church...

It was here that Calvin taught for many years until his death. Notice the sparseness and plainess of the interior. Calvinists were highly critical of the opulence of Catholic churches. Calvin himself was even burried in an unmarked grave of a common cemetery so that he would not be treated as a saint...

We did find the grave to one of the Riders of Rohan though. Not sure how he got here from Middle Earth...

Outside, evening was approaching so we headed back to France.

The next day Joseph, Jordan, and I went back to Geneva to have another look around. This time we went to the waterfront...

Geneva sits at the end of central Europe's largest lake: Lake Geneva...

The freezing wind blew strong as we went out on one of the piers. We were amazed to see a man swimming in the lake...

All around the waterfront are fancy hotels, banks, and luxurious boutiques selling Swiss watches, jewelery, and clothing. Geneva is a rather expensive city...

We walked into town where old buildings and new buildings sit alongside each other...

There were many people out among the pedestrian streets...

On Sunday we went to church. I took French in Jr. High, but I was a horrible student. However, between what little I remember, and my Spanish, and even some German, I was able to get the gist of some of talks and lessons.

That night we enjoyed a French tradition that usually takes place on the day of Epiphany (the 6th) but we celebrated on the 4th instead. We sat around the kitchen table where a wonderful pastry known as "galette" sat ready to be served.

The galette is a flaky pie-like pastry with a light, sweet, buttery-marzipan filling. Somewhere inside the galette is a small porcelain figure, usually a shepherd or a donkey; whoever gets the figure in their slice, "wins" and gets to wear a paper crown. Thus, when it comes time to serve the slices, one person sits under the table and tells the server who to serve the next slice to. This time, two-year-old Megan got the porcelain figure, and so she got to wear the crown. I think it was rigged...

Joseph's mom is French, but his dad's Canadian and they had just returned from visiting the States, and so we had A&W Rootbeer with our galette...

We went to bed a bit earlier on Sunday night so as to be ready for our road trip on Monday to a new city in a new country. I won't tell you where yet, but here's a photo of something we passed along the way...

...