After arriving in Geneva we stumbled upon a large park in the middle of the old town/university area. Even on a cold Sunday evening, it was bustling with couples, joggers, families, ice skaters, and tourists.
Matt realizing he's sunk...
Me with my winning kings 
Then it was back to Geneva to discover more of the old town. To see the rest of the pictures from Montreux, including more trolls, click here.
When we shopped for dinner at the Chalet Martin, we were a little bit more adventurous and bought the ingredients to make raclette- a melted cheese dish similar to fondue, except you put the melted cheese on the food instead of dipping food into melted cheese. We had a great time melting the different cheeses (pepper, garlic, and regular) under a special burner and spreading it on bread and broccoli. Mmmm!
From the first mention of possibly moving to Delft for a year, I had some romantic notions about the possibilities of experiences: spending our anniversary in Paris, partying in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day, touring the champagne region, ice skating on frozen canals, sleeping in castles, ect. The most fanciful of these notions, however, might just be the thoughts of skiing in the Alps - a la James Bond in For Your Eyes Only.
Fortunately the "freshies" were thick enough to cushion the falls, even though "don't brace yourself with your hands" was quickly forgotten every time gravity took us to the ground. We got better as the day wore on; I spent more time going down and less time going sideways and Matt spent more time upright and less time on his butt. We never graduated from the beginner runs - maybe next time - but we did manage to conquer quite a few runs and the art of getting off a chair lift without falling down immediately.
Looking out the left of the train, we saw the landscape was dotted with small cottages, old churches and farm buildings built up the side of the Alps. In between the land was covered with vineyards. Every once and a while you pass through another small town built on the Swiss Riviera on Lake Geneva - picture perfect buildings in lakeside resorts. The buildings became scarcer the higher up in the Alps we looked until it was nothing but a snow-covered peak with a Chalet on the top of a mountain.
When you get bored of the Swiss Alps, you can simply look right at Lake Geneva and the French Alps. The clear, blue water of the lake sparkled right up to the mountains with little towns dotted along the shores.
After we changed trains in Bex to go up the mountain to Gryon, the landscape slowly became covered in snow. The towns along the way were the ski villages that could be featured on any alpine post card to draw in skiers and tourists. Imagine small cottages with snow covered roofs and smoke flowing out of the chimneys.
We arrived in Gryon only to be presented with more snow covered beauty....
We then hopped onto the tram and headed out to Botanical Gardens for a picnic lunch. The gardens (and conservatories) were free to the public. Even in the dead of winter and the middle of the work day, they were quite full of people. It seemed to be a popular running spot for locals. After enjoying our lunch in the warm tropical conservatory, we perused the gardens and noticed there was even a deer reserve in the gardens. I imagine this would be the perfect place to spend a warm spring afternoon when the flowers will be in full bloom.
Our next stop was the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. The permanent exhibit explained the founding, history, and role of the organization. While I believe the museum was cutting edge at one point, the 10 projectors needed to show a single 8-minute slide show seems a little out of date. I wonder what the return on investment would be to pay someone to create a movie with the slides verses the cost of running so many projectors. However, features like the large transparent, layered photographs of wars and natural disasters were visually compelling. One of the rooms contains all of the POW cards from WWI and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Also on display was the Nobel Peace Prize that Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, was awarded in 1901. Dunant was the first recipient of the prize. The International Committee of the Red Cross has gone on to win 3 more Nobel Peace Prizes during the last century.
The highlight of the museum was actually the temporary exhibit Walls Between People. It was a look at 8 different walls that have been built to separate people. The photographs of the walls showed how people were separated, lives disrupted, and other effects of the wall. It was interesting to see the world/humanitarian view of the wall between Mexico and the US and how it wasn't depicted that much differently from the barbed wire enclaves of Spain in Morocco or the barbed wire line between Pakistan and India.
Our last stop for the day was the United Nations' Palace of the Nations - quite possibly the least inviting tour ever. Nowhere was their a tour schedule; water damaged directional signs pointed into locked doors and the one open door lead to workers sitting at their desks beneath signs that completely mislabeled their function. After the security check, badge issuing, and payment, we were directed to an obscure door #39 "past the parking lot and to the left." To our amazement, there were actually a lot of people behind the door, and we joined them for what was actually a pretty good tour.
The tour took us through the "old" and "new" buildings, a few conference rooms, temporary exhibits and past gifts from around the world. It was similar to the Peace Palace in The Hague, in that every part of the building was built with materials from around the world and decorated with gifts from visiting dignitaries.
As the sun set, we strolled along through the parks that follow the shoreline of Lake Geneva. The view of the lake and mountains was positively breathtaking.
The rest of the day's picture are on our Flickr site.
Delft is famous for Delftware - the hand painted white and blue china - and a visit would not be complete without a tour of one of the factories. While researching the different tour options and places, I found out you could paint your own tile or vase and I knew this was the perfect activity for mom and me.
One thing I did not know before visiting the factory was that at some point the clay for Delftware was hard to get and the factory made these gorgeous clay wall tiles and decorations instead.
Having gathered our ideas, we were off to the workshop to begin our vases. The artist suggested we use one of their patterns that they apply to the vase with a charcoal rubbing. Yeah right, use someone else's ideas - no way, we had our own!
Painting on the vases was like painting with one color of watercolor - everything shows up and and there is no eraser. The paint looks black, but turns the trademark blue in the firing process.
Two and half hours later we had finished with our vases. And frankly, I hope they come back from the kiln better than they went in.
Even if our vases get relegated to a storage closet, it was a great experience and hopefully I will be back to paint a tile soon!
We went to the market on Thursday in Delft. After picking up the usual assortment of produce, fish, and cheese, I took mom to paradise - I mean the flower market. Unable to contain herself (and aware of the fact that I only own one vase), she bought 7 bundles of flowers.
I think the Louvre is more quantity than quality, but we did visit our three favorite ladies: Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and Mona Lisa. (See how I did that - I shared the art with you without taking ridiculously awful pictures you didn't want to see anyway at the museum while obstructing the view of countless other visitors.)
Our walk down the boulevard took us straight to the Arc de Triomphe, where after climbing more steps we were rewarded with a beautiful view of night time Paris. From the roof of the Arc we watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle in all her glory - one of my favorite thing in Paris.
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