Kyriad - Annemasse Geneve

... I went to a UNRISD conference about the Crisis and Development at the UN. <br>On Saturday I leave for Croatia. Wow. I thought I had all the time in the world, and now, I don't. I'm trying to squeeze in a day trip to Zurich on Wednesday, but then my time is over in the Schenegen zone. But, I still have 1.5 months left in Europe!<br>And that has kind of been my life for the last two weeks... until I went to Portugal (see next blog)<br> <br>

... delicious! Accompany it will chilled white wine, dry but not too dry (in Switzerland the Fendant wine is most often served with fondue) and it&#8217;s very convivial. Conversation flows naturally.<br><br>Our conversation was fascinating and varied: the best fondue mixes, the history of Switzerland, and jokes about cantons. Appenzell in the north-east of Switzerland, for example, is home to a smaller people, so joke about them often center in their diminutive ...

... usually call it Lac Léman, a name that dates from the Roman Empire), was covered in clouds as was Geneva itself. Beyond the lake the snow-covered Alps were starkly visible against a bright blue sky.<br><br>We flew the long approach from north to south over the lake, descending into the clouds as we did so, it was rather gloomy on the ground as we touched down. At the gate, an immigration agent checked our passports even before we entered the airport proper. Then they were checked ...

... up her foot. Consistent with what I've experienced in Europe thus far, they did not offer her any ice. What is the deal with rationing the ice in this country? You would think it was gold bullion or something.<br><br>It took 1.35.42 hours for them to take me back to an exam room. There I met the RN who did not speak any English, but did speak Spanish, so we were able to communicate, but just barely. She was from Columbia ...

... in I tried to explain and she said I had to go off and get the right money. In the end I had to go and use the toilet in burger king down the road ha ha and when I got back to Ian he counted the money and said that I had 2 all along I had just counted it wrong OMG!<br><br>The train ride was nice and looked out the window the whole way, had to get a couple of buses ...

... Sky<br>View club to pass the next hour prior to flight. <br><br>The flight was uneventful, arriving in<br>Amsterdam at about 12:30 for a 2:10 pm flight to Detroit. We boarded<br>another uneventful flight over the pond and arrived in Detroit around<br>6:00 pm. Immigration and customs took me around 10 minutes and then<br>I checked the board for flights to Lansing. My scheduled flight was<br>not until 10:00 pm, the last flight into Lansing, so I saw a 7:20 pm<br ...

... a soccer game, and we all laughed and said we were Canadian, so the answer is no. We finished the night in an insanely smoky bar, we're too pooped to keep partying, so we all retreated to our quarters.<br><br>http://picasaweb.googl e.com/Jonny.D.Lawrence/9AroundTheWorldG eneva?authkey=Gv1sRgCLOSsZ2bopnx6wE&amp ;feat=directlink

We sadly left Chamonix and vowed to return there in the winter, and drove to Annecy. Annecy was kind of a repeat of Prague, beautiful old city, on the water, with canals... we were kind of sick of that scene by then. They are applying to have the 2018 Olympics there, with the ski events at Mont Blanc. It would be a nice venue for sure.

... own another pair of white boots! After that we headed to the very famous Chateau de Chillon. Now, I have visited a lot of castles in my time, but I have to say this was the most impressive. Parts of it date from the 11 century, and it has been beautifully maintained. The rooms and some furnishings are intact, as is some of the artwork and original features. Amazing! I took a heap of photos as you will eventually see. The chateau sits on a ...

... west to Vevey (about a 20 minute bus ride) in search of the "Food Museum" ("Musée de l'alimentation") where they enjoyed exhibits about the history of food. N also spent some time in the Montreux-Vevey Tourisme Office where they helped arrange our next adventure: a wine tasting at a local caveau. At 16:41 we all reconvened on a local train heading in the direction of Lausanne for our wine tasting. As the sun was setting we got off at Rivaz, trekked up the hill to the village ...