Aug - Fete de Geneve

Every year Geneva hosts a 10 day festival at the start of August called Fete de Geneve. It's full of lots and lots of food stands, carnival rides, and a stage with bars and pubs around it. It reminds me of the Kansas State Fair minus the farm implements, livestock, and all the 4H exhibits....oh yeah and all the English speaking people : )  Makes sense, right? The best part of the whole thing in my opinion is that they finish the festival with an hour long firework display on the lake set to music. It is always an amazing show!! I love fireworks and I've missed 4th of July back home the past few years so this helps make up for it a little. Rather than watch from our balcony this year, Jeff bought us tickets to watch the show from the reserved seating down on the water. The show was incredible!!!

Our favorite treat at the festival, malakoff. It's fried cheese
with a hint of cinnamon and sugar in the outer coating. It is so yummy!!!!

These are a couple of the many barges where crews are working to put together all the fireworks that will be pulled into the center of the lake for the grand show.

During the week they had a cool air show.

Here's how cool the fireworks look. This isn't even zoomed in...that's right above us!!

There are fireworks constantly going off everywhere!!

I wish I could put on shows like this in my backyard someday!!

Hey, a girl can dream, right?!?!!

The Jayhawks in Switzerland!!

As I'm pretty sure everyone knows, I am a HUGE Jayhawk basketball fan!! I love college basketball and count down for the start of the season every year!! It seemed like fate when I found out that the Jayhawks European tour that only happens once every FOUR years was going to be THIS summer and to top it all off one of their two stops was going to be in Switzerland!!!! I couldn't believe it!! My little bit of home was going to be right here in my backyard. It was a dream come true! The guys had two games against the Swiss National team two days back to back in Fribourg just a little over an hour drive from us in early August. 

Jeff and I went together for the first night. Most of the fans came on three tour buses with a group from the US to support KU. There were probably 30-40 or so locals that showed up to watch the game as well. A few of the locals were originally from the US, so it was nice to meet a few fellow expats and hear their story. It was a late afternoon game on a weekday so I'm sure that's why such a small crowd. It made for a totally different experience, though, because every time coach would yell at the guys on the court you could hear every word he said....definitely made it more entertaining!! The second night Jeff couldn't make it, but that didn't stop me from making the drive again. It was totally worth it. KU won both nights in close games! Not sure how this young team will come together for this year's season, but they have a lot of great potential!!

This little girl was at her first Jayhawk game. She's an American whose family is living in abroad for her dad's job. We loved her sign!!

This was her other sign....too cute!! 

This sums up everything!! 

Just getting my picture with Jeff Withey. He is so flipping tall!!!

I even got coach to stop for a picture with me after the game!!!
This was huge because (as true KU fans know) coach rarely comes out after games for autographs or pictures so I was really pumped!!!

 Nothing beats a basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse, but this was definitely an awesome second best experience to watching my guys play at home!!

July - Mom's Big Visit Across the Pond

The last two weeks of July my mom was able to take some vacation to come see our home in Geneva and of course do a little sightseeing in Europe while she was over here. Jeff had to work most of the time she was here so for the most part it was the two of us embarking on adventure together. We spent some time enjoying Geneva. Then we were off exploring and we saw A LOT of great places so be prepared for many pictures!!

First on the list, we arrived in Paris to visit the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal; a church dedicated to St. Catherine of Laboure. The Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Catherine conveying her mission to create the Miraculous Medal (picture below). The church stands today where one of the apparitions took place. Her incorrupt body also lies in a glass coffin in the church. It was really neat to visit the church and learn more about her life.

This is typically what the front and back of the Miraculous Medal looks like.

Then it was off to see some of the other famous landmarks in one of the most famous cities in Europe! Here's just a few of our many pictures!!

Am not the best at good self portraits, but yes that is Notre Dame Cathedral behind us!!

Mom is a trooper and made the 387 steps to the top of the cathedral tower!!
Check out the great gargoyles behind her!

Here is Sacre Couer. I had missed this on previous trips. You can always see it off in the distance. It always looks like such a magnificent building sitting atop a hill. Well it is a huge church, but the inside was disappointing...not nearly as ornate and detailed as many of the other churches I've seen. The location, though, makes for an amazing view of the city. As you can see in this picture on a Saturday night, the steps of the church were packed with people.

If you are ever in Paris you MUST check out Angelina's Cafe. It started out as formal elegant gourmet tea room. Now they are also known for all their delicious pastries!! They have fruit tarts and traditional eclairs, as well as, all sorts of creations like this bit of chocolate heaven that my mom and I shared one afternoon. 

Why am I including this picture you ask? How good is your knowledge of sporting events? Look closely.... see the men bikes?? Yes, this is the Tour de France. Exciting, right?!?! No! We did not know this was taking place when we booked our trip. In hindsight I wish we had left Paris a day earlier to avoid the masses of people. We were trying to get back to our hotel and just happened to be in place to see the bikers FLY by in all of about 20 seconds. Yes, all these thousands of people cramming the streets for a split second blurry distant shot of who? You definitely can't pick a person out of the crowd. If you are ever considering going to watch it in person.... my advice is to skip the crowds and watch it on TV where you can see the whole thing and not just a few seconds. It was nuts!!

From Paris we made a day trip by train to Lisieux, France. We were headed to visit the home and shrine of my mom's patron saint, St. Therese of the Child Jesus. It was so interesting to learn about her life and see where she was raised. She and all four of her sisters became nuns! St. Therese's life story is really moving. She became a nun at the age of 15 and unfortunately only lived until the age of 24. They referred to her story as "a leap to grandeur," which is poignant considering her short life. 

This is the grandiose and beautiful basilica built to honor St. Theresa of Lisieux.
It is a beautiful inside!

When not in Kansas they give you a blue line to follow instead of a yellow brick road :)
They make it so easy to find your way around in Lisieux so you don't miss anything.

This is where St. Theresa was raised as a young girl.

After a day in Lisieux it was time to fly to Lourdes, France. I grew up learning about the story of St. Bernadette and Mary, the Immaculate Conception, appearing to her in 1858, as well as, the healing waters still there today. It was somewhere my mom had wanted to visit since she was a child and had learned of the story, so I was excited we had the chance to experience it together. They say about five million pilgrims come to visit Lourdes every year!! It is one of the most famous pilgrimage sights in the world. As of today there are 68 healings rated as scientifically inexplicable as a result of praying for healing and in a lot of cases bathing in the healing waters. 

This is the amazing shrine built over the grotto where Our Lady appeared to Bernadette. It's hard to tell from this picture, but there are actually three churches built on top of one another over the years to accommodate more pilgrims.

Here is where Bernadette dug in the ground to find fresh water that is still flowing today.

Here is a side view. If you look closely you can see the grotto under the church on the right.

There is a torchlight procession every night at dusk to say the rosary. It is an awe-inspiring event. There are thousands of pilgrims from all over the world singing and praying together in their own languages. It just gives you goose bumps!  It is such a moving thing to be a part of it!!

We met a wonderful family from Ireland that let us join them for the procession. 

After our travels around the country of France, next up was Italy with a visit to another famous pilgrimage site, the Vatican! Regardless of your faith, it's really an amazing place that everyone should visit if the opportunity arises. We also did some sight seeing across the city to the ruins, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, and of course several stops for delicious gelato (a must do in Italy)!!!

We made the trek to the top of St. Peter's basilica to see the beautiful view of the city.

We are in St. Peter's Square with the basilica and pope's residence behind us.

After Italy we flew back to Geneva to meet Jeff for mom's last weekend with us. We decided on a road trip across Switzerland. We drove around the beautiful Lake Geneva, stopped for a visit at Switzerland's most famous castle, Chateau de Chillon, spent the night in Lugano to enjoy the Swiss Italian atmosphere, and ended our weekend by going up to see Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. It was a crazy weekend, but we wanted to get as much in as we could before she had to head home!!

Stopping along Lake Geneva to enjoy the beautiful scenery and vineyards everywhere!

Chateau de Chillon, Switzerland's most famous castle, dating back to the 12th century

Here's a model to show what the castle grounds look like from above.  

Here's how it looks on the inside.

Mom and I up in the tower

I had been the tour guide for most of the trip, so I enjoyed sitting back and letting Jeff take the reins when we got to Lugano :)

Enjoying some beautiful weather at Lake Lugano.

On our way home from our road trip to Lugano we stopped through France one last time to take mom up to see Mont Blanc. It's snow capped year round; and even though it's summer it is most definitely cold up there!! The clouds kept moving in and out the whole time we were up there. It was pretty neat to literally be standing in the clouds. Here you can see how they lift just enough so you can see Mont Blanc in the background. 

In the next moment though, the clouds are back and you can't see a thing! It was crazy!!

Then the fun was over and it was time to send her back to Kansas.
Had to snap one last pic in the airport!

Thanks Mom for coming to visit!!!! I had a great time and glad we could see so many great places together while you were here!

A road trip to Lugano

The first weekend in July we went for a road trip through Switzerland to visit the city of Lugano.  Jeff lived there for three months back in 2004 and still has some friends in the city. You may wonder why he was living in Lugano, Switzerland.... Well back in 2004 Jeff was actually living in the Cayman Islands on assignment for his job and Hurricane Ivan came through and wiped out their office. There was a link between the two offices, so he was shipped to Lugano until the Cayman office was back up and running. He made some great friends with the people in the office and has kept up with them ever since.

We decided to take the longer scenic drive to Lugano to see some of the beautiful Swiss countryside and it did not disappoint!! It was so hard to drive and focus on the road and not want to pull over every ten minutes to take more pictures. The landscape here is just stunning!!

We live in wine country and there are vineyards everywhere!!!

Here you can see how the road just follows the edge of the lake with the mountains in the background.

Did I mention that taking the scenic route also means driving up through a pass in the mountains?

It looks something like this....

Here's looking back down as we are climbing up through the mountains.

It looks worse than it really is! Just a small part of the drive looks like that. You can't see it in this picture, but there was still some snow up there even in July. A local gentleman told us the pass is only open a few months in the middle of the year because usually there is so much snow they have to close it. 

Gian Andrea leads the office in Lugano. He and his family kind of "adopted" Jeff while he was there. They are wonderful people and have kept in touch over the years. I had the pleasure of meeting them all last summer. Their youngest daughter was a high school exchange student for a year in New Zealand. The father of her host family in New Zealand was one of the head chef's and owner of a large restaurant there. Gian Andrea found out we were going to be in New Zealand on our honeymoon, so he set up a dinner at their restaurant for us. Long story, but the restaurant was closed the weekend we were there so the family had us to their home for a home cooked meal. It was such a treat and we had a great time! Well the New Zealanders happened to be making a trip across Europe and they were visiting Lugano that same weekend so it was a nice little reunion for all of us! (Okay, so I know that was a lot of people and connections, but hopefully you kept up!)

Here's our Italian friends in Lugano and the New Zealand family together!

Lugano is in the Italian part of Switzerland. It's a city right on the lake similar to Geneva. A big difference is the landscape and climate. The mountains jump right out of the lake rather than the lake sitting down in a flat valley. For those who have been to the National Teton Park in the US it reminds me a little bit of Jenny Lake.

Looking out over Lake Lugano.

Yes they grow palm trees here AND get snow!!

We took a ride in this, a fincular, up the mountain side to see the view from above.

The lake snakes around between the mountains. 

Here you can see a lot of the city.

Across the lake the mountains are so steep there really is no room to build anything.

The second night was also filled with good food and friends! Another one of Jeff's friends from the office, Orlanda, invited us over for dinner and drinks with some of her friends. We had such a great time!! Everyone was so wonderful and inviting! One of the girls made American cheesecake especially for us. It was her first time making it and she was so worried it wouldn't live up to what we were used to back home. It was quite delicious!

This back patio was amazing! I want a built in stove and covered patio in my dream home someday!!

The main course - ceviche! I was a lil nervous because I'm still not a huge seafood lover, but this was so good!!

This is Juan. He was our entertainment and bartender for the night!
He's peeking through the window asking anyone if they want more pisco sours.

Here's Jeff and Orlanda. She is such a sweetheart! Am so glad we got to finally meet!

The trip was a great weekend filled with wonderful people and delicious food! We are definitely hoping to visit again before we move home.