Botanical Gardens, more Reformation and a papal mass

Woke up and felt the effects of all the travels plus the sky was overcast so I decided to start the morning with a stroll up the west side of Lake Geneva. As the clouds lifted and the sun appeared, I felt a bit better and more than an hour later, I realized I walked all the way up to the botanical gardens! The flowers were beautiful and they had a special exhibition on botanicals; different plants which should fix various maladies plus a section on plants which could be made into poisons! They also had a small section for animals which had a herd of some sort of central Asian deer which look like American deer but are the loudest animals I have ever heard! They looked like Bambi but brayed like donkeys and wagged their tails like they were nursing sheep!


The gardens with the backdrop of the lake and the mountains were lovely. I peaked briefly into Swiss science museum on the way back. I think my brother would have loved it but a good bit was well, too scientific for a Sunday vacation.






Headed back into the old town and decided to check out the religious museums. I also decided to work on my language skills so I requested the German audio tape. The Reformation museum had lots of fascinating artifacts on religion from the 16th century through to the current. Of course since I decided to listen to the lecture in German, I am not sure my actual knowledge of any details has improved all that much! The museum started with Martin Luther and included a 16th century English Bible. It also had a lot on John Calvin and John Knox, as well as a bit on Beze who was one of yesterday's giant figures I had never heard of. I am pretty sure he was a leader here in Switzerland after Calvin. There was an entire display of artifacts leading up to the St Bartholomew Day massacre under Catherine deMedici and her sons. I followed the detail of that display based on knowledge of Alexandre Dumas novels. There was another on Protestant 17th century writers. I was glad the German audio tape gave me a reason to skip that room!
The Mayflower was again prominently shown, along with information on how the city of Geneva really grew into its own as a sanctuary for other fleeing Reformers. Something like 200,000 French Huguenot's fled here. Makes you wonder why the Pilgrims fled to Massachsetts, this place is a heck of a lot closer and hardly as hostile as Massachesetts Bay was in the 1600's! The 19th century exhibit focused on all the charities which grew out of the reformed movement including the Red Cross and the international SPCA. The 20th century exhibition centered on men like Nazi martyer Dietrich Bonhoffer who I read in college so I found that interesting. Also, Billy Graham was prominently featured and they had a copy of the 1966 copy of Time with the headline "Is God Dead?". That was cool.
While summarizing this makes me realize I did understand some things, I decided to switch to English for the narrative and tour of archeological Geneva. Descending underground, I saw a tomb of an Alloboges chieftain (knew those five years of Latin were good for something - I can spell Alloboges and actually know they were one of the tribes Caesar fought!)








As we were one or two stories underground, you could see burial sites from before Christ as well as everything built on that same site since, baptism fonts from the 5 th century, the mosaic tiles of the bishops house from the 7 th century. There are some tops of Roman columns that have been recovered and the remaining shell of a huge building built slightly before Westminster Abbey was started. I am told what makes this site unique is that archeologists have been working on it for 30 years so the learning from this site is vast. The tour referenced a couple other old churches as the original site of a pre Christian burial, so I went looking for them and realized there was another free concert being offered tonight. This one was by a male group who sang a cappela-and sounded like Il Divo x 3. This place was standing room only as they sung a famous papal mass. Could have been the debut of a papal mass for all I know of the subject but they were phenomenal-albeit not as cute as Il Divo.
Finished the night with a dinner of French onion soup-possibly the best I have ever had, and fondue, also pretty darn good. I think I need tomorrow to come so that I can start working off tonight's dinner. Tomorrow the group gathers and we head to Chamonix!

More on Geneva

After lunch, i walked down to the shore of Lake Geneva and watched a bit of a water skiing show and some dragon boat races. There actually was a bit of a crowd but i take that as more due to the unseasonably warm and humid weather than the excitement of either particular event. (For those of you who thought the dresses could stay home, I am glad I brought both as the jeans and the tops I have for dinner when we start hiking are way too warm in this weather!) Spent the afternoon walking more of the old city and came upon a monument to Protestantism I am still the puzzling over. It is a three city block long wall with all sorts of what I guess are Protestant milestones. There are smaller figures, including Roger Williams one of the early American church leaders, carved in concrete about twice life size and then there are four figures four times lifesize, including Calvin and Knox.



The really confusing part is that the Mayflower charter is on the wall (in English) and is next to a motif of John Knox lecturing Mary Stuart. History must be taught differently here because I thought that the Mayflower charter and the religious freedom sought by the first colonists were rather universally acknowledged as something good and the jury was still out 400+ years after the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Finished up the day with both a carillon and an organ concert. Seems the Cathedral has weekly guest cariolineers who perform starting 5 pm and then guest organists who start at 6. As a cariollon is best heard outside, everyone gathers in the square sitting and listening for 45 minutes and then moves inside for the organist. The week's cariolineer is Japanese and is not the first Japanese citizen I have heard perform on a carillon. As carillons are definitely European, this is a bit strange. He performed music from The Nutcracker and finished with the Can-Can. The organist was from Montreal and played a series including Bach and Schumann. Both concerts were very well attended.

First impressions

Landed safely and somehow found my way to a little hotel run by the Salvation Army. It is clean and small in the European way and I have started exploring. An awful lot in Geneva seems dedicated to the Reformation, especially in the old city. There is a lot of "John Calvin was here." I did manage to find a lovely creperie in the shadow of Geveva's 'Uncle Peter church" aka the Cathedral of St. Pierre.

Lunch is a buckwheat crep avec jambon, gruyere and mushrooms. It is served like a pizza. I can hear the church bells and carillons playing on the hour. There are actually a couple of concerts this weekend which might be worth checking out.

As for the cleanliness, the contrast is not quite as great as all those years ago but I did snap a picture of a series of recycle bins, in a public park and all the correct materials were in the correct bins. Green class from white, papers separate. Don 't see us Americans getting there any time soon!

On Childhood Impressions

A few years ago my brother and his wife took their two young children to Italy on vacation. I will never forget the conversation I had with my niece when she returned. I asked her what she saw and liked and she talked about the gelato and about "Uncle Peter's church." I agreed with her that gelato was special, she insisted it was better in Italy than in the US. She talked at length about "Uncle Peter's church" about how large it was, how it had pictures painted on the ceilings and whether Uncle Peter knew he had a church in Italy. That conversation comes to mind a lot lately because some adult probably had a similar one with me when I first visited Switzerland. I was in junior high school when I took my first trip to Europe and our first stop was Switzerland. At the time we lived in Sterling Forest, a rather homogenous community in Tuxedo Park, New York. We made the occasional trip into New York City and this was before NYC was cleaned up, when it was in the verge of bankruptcy and a total complete mess. Garbage was all around, subways were terrifying and dirty and all the more so for a child growing up in the country who visited a couple times a year to see a show or go to a museum. So I get to go visit a Swiss city, Zurich and I was as dumbfounded as my niece was by the big church. Here was a very clean city, no garbage, clean waterways, no people behaving in a scary way. Everything was so clean! I had no idea that a city could be like this and was amazed to see such a sight! So many people and so clean!
The impression really remained with me, so much so that after almost 25 years of working in a cleaner New York City, I am really curious to see what my impression will be tomorrow. How do Swiss cities compare today with New York? Oh and like my niece, I discovered a special European food: croissants. I remember those being better than any in the US just as Grace loved her Italian gelato. Hope that memory really is correct.

Welche Sprache?

A long time ago, I managed to travel through Europe and do not think anyone ever pegged me as an American. I left the t-shirts and sneakers home and my language skills in French and German, while never good enough to pass as a native, were good enough so that no one ever thought I was an American. I pretty much got by on my German speaking skills, my French passive comprehension being much better than my active language ability. It was actually a handy skill to have at the time because back then, in the midst of a terrorist outbreak, Americans needed a visa to travel in Europe and having arrived before the new rules were in place I did not have one. Still I managed to criss-cross 6 borders on public transport and never be asked for my passport.

I'm still capable have having random thoughts and the occassional dream in German, although my conversational skills have decreased notably. My French has become even more passive but I can still read a bit and get the general picture - can no longer follow a conversation unless it takes place v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and is very simple in nature. I'm thinking these skills - plus the incredible growth of English speakers on the continent will get me through the first part of the trip. Think I can find my way into Geneva and over to the little bed and breakfast before we meet the group. Should be able to find my way around Chamonix when the group all assembles - managed to do ok in Provence a few years back - even escaping my friends on one occassion to test my skills over dinner in a remote restaurant. (They wussed and ate at our hotel - and missed a great meal!)

Roughly a third of this trip is in Italy. One would think with my last name and heritage that this would be the easiest part of the trip. Ha! My Dad would tell stories of trying to speak to me in Italian (my grandparents and aunt spoke three languages: Italian, French and Arabic). My Dad, born here, spoke passable Italian and some French. He said as a toddler I had an uncanny ability to answer anything said to me in Italian with the English translation. The result is that I know nothing.

Actually, that is not exactly true - I know how to make sounds that my Dad used to say whenever he was trying to tell me "you won't be happy if your face freezes that way." There was second phrase he used when the first phase elicited a smile. I think they translate roughly as "Ugly face" and "Pretty face." I also can spit out a bit of gibberish which my childhood memories recall Dad using whenever I was fusing over my food (often). I never really got an accurate translation of that one but I'm pretty sure it went something like "Be quiet and eat what is put in front of you." I ignored those instructions as well as I ignored the Italian my Dad tried to teach me. I know on this trip he will be watching down over me as I struggle in Italy and I will be able to hear his voice reminding me that I should have paid attention to my dear old Dad.

Also, hoffentlich auf dieser Reiser, I kann mich an genug Deutcher erinnern. Grammatik zählt nicht! (There should be an umlaut over the 2nd a in this sentence but I have no clue how to type one!) Followup note - thanks Kye! No idea why you know how to make an umlaut but glad you taught me! :)

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.....

The full quote - at least according to my friend Kathleen's fb page goes: I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." MJ

I was looking for a title for this essay which is based on conversations I have had over the last month with a few people who react to news of my trip with the phrases: "You're doing what? Why? Are you sure you can do it?"

I'll answer the last question first: No, I am not at all sure I can do this entire trip but then I wasn't sure I could run the half marathon earlier this Spring - especially after a winter that allowed for next to no outdoor training time! (Really, I moved to Central NJ to avoid the blizzards - ok, that is another story....). As I've gotten older, basically since I passed that magical age of 40, a few years back now, I have stopped being so afraid of failing at these sorts of things. I never would have tried the half marathon at 30. This Spring, I came to work the following Monday and proudly told everyone of my 6,022 finish and my time guaranteed not to impress: 2:47. It impressed me because I didn't know if I could finish with an official time-under 3 hours. (Call out to Megs - who finished 13th - for asking me to try in the first place!)

I made it through last year's hike across England (see sister blog) despite three really, really, really tough days. The first one saw my feet on fire (ok, not literally but it sure felt that way) and my whining (loudly) "are we there yet?" at every hotel we passed on the main street of a town that seemed to exist purely to have hotels-ours was the last one in town. The 2nd day I walked further than I have ever walked before and finshed the walk with a dash across an active freeway and a half mile (400 yards my arse!) added to the end of the day. I didn't recognize my feet that night. The last occurred when my thigh muscles tensed up (admit it: forgot to stretch) making walking down hills extremely painful and embarrasingly slow.

I don't know what is going to happen on this trip. I am comfortable with the distance; slightly wary of the inclines and declines and nervous about the higher altitudes. Figure if I don't make it, the views from the hotel as I wave goodbye to everyone in the morning will still be pretty special.

As for why I do this - simple, because I can. I am fortunate enough that this sort of adventure is viable and as my childhood friends know, I learned at an early age not to take the future for granted. My Mom never got around to her long list of travels, they would come when my Dad retired, but Mom didn't see 50. I think that is why my siblings and I do some of the crazy things we do (Dan's Ducati not included), we are "lucky" enough to realize that if you can do it now, you need to do it now.

Also, it's been a year of a few too many reminders of that fact. Many of you know that for at least one day on this trip, my thoughts will be with my friend rebuilding her life after loss. There were too many this year: a highschool classmate, my Uncle's best friend and his wife. All the more reasons to keep doing and keep living.

So, if the way to succeed is to be wiling to fail, I'm going to Chamonix and going to begin walking around Europe's highest mountain. We'll see what happens. Carpe Diem!

The Map

Thought I would provide a map again this year so you can see the hike details. It's not quite as interesting as last year because 'round the mountain' is exactly that - a circle. The mountain in question is Mount Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps - at 15,782 ft. The first recorded summit was in 1786. President Theordore Roosevelt summited Mt Blanc 100 years later.
I won't be doing that - just walking around it - starting in Chamonix where the first Winter Olympics took place, hiking into Italy where Courmayeur is the famous Italian town and then back into Switzerland.
No one is really sure who actually owns the summit - France or Italy. It used to be part of Sardinia but since the time of Napolean the actual ownership of the summit has been subject to debate centering around various treaties and maps. The two latest agreements between the two countries - in 1947 and 1963, totally ignored the issue. I am actually somewhat curious as to the border controls on this hike - into and out of EU nations. Hope we get to ignore it all too.