Above and below, this is the lovely little 15th Century church just around the corner from my house. In Europe, it seems like there is history just everywhere. Note: Victoria's sister lives in a 600 year old house--that's nearly 3 times older than the US.
Here is the lovely town nearest to my village, where we do small shopping and little stuff like that. Just wanted to give y'all a visual of my existence...
I had to stop on the road (safely of course) and take a picture of this sunset. Seriously, it's picture-worthy most nights, I just don't always have my camera.
This is Montreux, and absolutely beautiful Swiss town about an hour from my village.
I've actually been doing a lot of fun things lately--nothing gets you motivated to start taking advantage of your surroundings like an impending exit to Asia. Speaking of that, I'm super excited about moving to China!! We leave in about 4 and a half weeks, which is amazing to think about. Ben just left for Hong Kong, so we won't see him until he comes home right before the big move. His absence will probably make this next month trying at some points--the boys tend to start acting out when he's gone for a chunk of time, especially Henry, so I anticipate some tantrums and a constant (incredibly frustrating) attachment to Mommy Mommy Mommy. We'll deal with it, but I'm sure there will be moments where I just want to tear my hair out. However, I have a truly amazing trip to look forward to, so maybe I'll use that as my happy place--Chris is going to come to Hong Kong in November, and we're going to take a 9 day trip from Thailand, through Cambodia, and into Vietnam. How incredible is that?!?! Really, I can't wait.
Today I took a lovely day-trip to Montreux, a town about an hour away in Switzerland, with Pam, Lauren and Christine. We're quite the United Nations of friends--a Chilean, an Australian, a German, and me. The day was gorgeous--the weather couldn't have been better this weekend. Montreux is one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen. It's situated at the very end of Lake Geneva, and is nestled inside all of the surrounding mountains. The lake is so huge, and so calm there--it looks like you should be able to step on the water like glass and walk right over to the nearest peak. I really wish that pictures could do it justice, but it's so huge, so expansive and awe-inspiring, that my pedestrian photography efforts can't capture it. But believe me, it's a sight to see.
I enjoyed the lake in a more physical way on Friday morning. Ben wanted to go skiing one more time before he left for Hong Kong, so we took the whole family out on the boat. The water was surprisingly warm. By which I mean that it was definitely cold, but not nearly as cold as I expected a Swiss lake to be. My skiing, unfortunately, did not go well--I think Ben's ski was too big for me, so I had a lot of trouble getting up. My forearms are still (nearly 3 days later) incredibly sore from my efforts. Still, though, I have now skied (sort of) on Lake Geneva, and I think that's pretty cool.
Activities here tend to revolve around the lake, so the other cool things I've done lately also involve Lake Geneva in some way. I went to a jazz festival in Hermance called Jazz Sur Le Plage (Jazz on the Beach). Hermance is a tiny village, the first just over the border into Switzerland, so it was a small festival with one stage set-up next to the water, and some food and wine vendors set up. Sharron, Johanna and I packed up a pic-nic of baguette, gruyer cheese and wine, and sat down for a few hours on the shore to watch the music, which was fantastic--there was a guitar player who did amazing things on the Spanish guitar, and a lot of the songs bordered on blue-grass more than jazz, I thought. I had just about the most cliched French thought possible (I must be converting) when I found myself annoyed that the night had become colder and it was making my Bordeaux cooler than it should be to be enjoyed properly. I warmed it up in my hands as best as I could and laughed at my wine-snobbery.
Later in the week I went to the outdoor cinema to see the new Steve Carrell movie (the name is escaping me at the moment). Thank goodness they show movies in English, though apparently even the French aren't a big fan of French movies. The massive screen is set up in one of the harbors in Geneva, with the lake at its' back so that the audience can watch the sun set on the mountains right before the movie begins. Truly, truly amazing--the view more so than the movie, but the movie was good too. And you get free ice-cream with your ticket!! Could it be any better?
That's about all of the blog-worthy things I've done in the last couple of weeks. There may be some exciting things coming up: some girls and I are planning to take a road trip to Munich in a few weeks for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest (I'm not sure why it opens in the middle of September, but who am I to question?). That should be interesting, and I'm really glad that I'll get to do it. I'm also trying to find the time for a weekend trip to Interlocken, in Switzerland, which has been highly recommended to me. Time is going quickly though--4 weekends left before China, but more like 3 since I'm sure I'll be running around crazy trying to get ready on that last one. God, isn't life interesting?
2 comments:
Betsy, glad all is going well with you. A friend of ours who works for a company in Ca., is presently in London, meeting bank and brokerage research analysts to learn more about European companies. I thought of you because I think you said you want to be a lawyer and do business in Europe. His name is David Kelley and his e-mail is ddkk33@yahoo.com. We've known him for a long time and he's worked with this company a long time.
We're getting ready to move back to Tx., to Kerrville, this time. Haven't lived there before but have been there quite a few times. We moved here to see granddaughters grow up. They have pretty much done that so we're going back where Don is from and be nearer his brother, and other family and friends who he and I have known well, me over the last 50 years and he since he was a kid.
Love, Jo Ann & Don
Great photos! Keep them coming Betsy. It helps us all to realize where you are and they are really coming out nicely with that little camera. I am taking a photo class and have noticed that landscape photos are much more interesting when the sky has lots of clouds. This last set you can really see the difference as the most compelling photos are the ones with lots of clouds in the background. Also, a few more of your friends and you in them might be nice. Have fun in Germany drinking beer for Oktoberfest!
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