You Only Live Once: Experience the World: Chocolate, Watches, Wine and Cheese; We're in Switzerland!

Brace yourself: many, Many pictures in this post of our week in Geneva!
It is such a beautiful city and Nick and I had such an amazing time with my Great Aunt and Great Uncle, I can't even describe how enjoyable this trip was! And I definitely took entirely too many pictures - I practically documented every hour of each day!
But hey - isn't that what a digital camera is for?!

Here we go!

We arrived Tuesday evening

Isak picked us up from the airport and we enjoyed
a lovely meal that Ingrid prepared for us

Then Ingrid and I made a schedule for the week
so we could make the most of our time in Geneva

Then it was bed time in the most lovely guest bedroom and
magnificent bed!

Wednesday morning we got the day started by exploring the city by foot

We went to the Catedral de Sant-Pierre

Like most of the churches in Geneva that were converted during the Reformation from a Catholic church to a Protestant church the inside was very plain - the idea being that people came to church to pray and worship, not look at pictures. But the organ was beautiful!

We also explored the Old Town, walking around the cobblestone city which still looks very much like a set for a movie set in the 16th century! It was drizzling that day, so we seeked shelter in the Maison Tavel (no pictures allowed) and the Musée d'art et d'histoire (also, no pictures allowed)

Thursday it cleared right up and we spent another day seeing the sights of Geneva.
We began the day with a tour of the United Nations

Outside of the UN is the famous jumbo chair:
it represents the people (approx 1 every 30 minutes, daily)
who looses a limb to a land mine all over the world.
While every nation in the world (except the Vatican) are part of the UN,
there still are countries that continue to participate in making, buying, selling
and trading landmines to other countries all over the world and continue to wreak havoc
on innocent people everywhere.
Are these countries part of the problem, or the solution?

We spent the better part of the morning learning about the goings on
and history of the United Nations in Geneva

Of all the conferences rooms we saw this ceiling was
the most captivating! (and they were all different)

Then we headed out to the Muséum d'histoire naturelle.

I really enjoyed this museum, but the Museum of Natural History in
New York City definitely holds a special, unsurpassed place in my heart ;)

Then on our way back we caught a glimpse of the Jet d'Eau which was on for the first time in months!
That's the Geneva crest on the flag on the right. Very patriotic city!

This is a view of the city at night all lit up from the buildings and Christmas decorations.
This was taken on on of the bridges that goes over the Lac Geneve

That night we went on a tour of Arbres et Lumière which is a yearly display of lights on trees which artists from all over Europe come and decorate trees (not related to Christmas) all over the city. This year there were 9 trees, but I will only share with you my favorites

The artist counted all of the letters in the Book of Genesis and
placed them randomly around the base of the tree.
Naturally the nocturnal cityfolk of the area
decided to rearrange the letters into more interesting captions

This was by far my favorite tree - it was actually a projection sequence
which took about 13 minutes to complete
and I loved the use of colors and the story it told and how it included the passing of the seasons

When Nick and I first saw this during the day we assumed that it was a really old tree that they wanted to preserve during the winter so they covered it in the white sheet to keep it from falling over. LOL
At night though it was a whole different story!

The next day, Friday the 9th Nick and I went on a day trip to Chamonix, France! We went to the top of the highest mountain in Europe and spent the day in a small French village in the middle of the Alps. It was wonderful

The morning sunrise over Lake Geneva

At the top of Mont-Blanc

The amazing view of Charmonix on the train ride down the mountain

Saturday we found out, was a holiday! L'Escalade is a yearly celebration that the city of Geneva celebrates. In 1602 invaders came and attacked the Old Town (the border of the city at that time) in the darkest part of the night, and the story goes that a mother of 13 was up and brewing a pot of vegetable soup and heard the clatter of the invaders and went out with her cauldron and threw it at the attackers. The city was defended and the invaders were fended off and all was right for the citizens of Geneva!

This, of course, was not the only way the city was saved and the invaders defeated, but it became the central symbol of celebration for their win. So every year the city celebrates by (this being Switzerland, of course) getting a chocolate pot, filled with marzapan vegetables and smashing it (and eating it, of course - yummm) and celebrating in the Old Town all weekend with people dressed up in 17th century clothing.

So Nick and I got really lucky and got to see some of the festivities!

All the Chocolatieres in Geneva sell all sizes and flavor marmite (pot)

Our Marmite

Then, before venturing out into the Old Town Saturday evening, we had a lovely Swiss lunch of Raclette. You melt the cheese and scrape it over small potatoes and little pickles, tomatoes and dried meat.