Geneve at Night: Dinner at Le Lacustre

My first night in Geneve was quite uneventful except for the news that I received at the hotel reception: THEY FOUND MY BAG. I was ecstatic because I dreaded wearing the same clothes the next day. I already bought a few stuff at the nearby Coop store which I really regretted because it cost me a lot of money. Switzerland is not cheap. I do not like unnecessary spending.

Anyway, I was so tired. My body has taken its toll from waking up at 3AM that morning, the nightmares at the airport, the long sessions I had during the day—all I really wanted was to lay on my bed and sleep early. Had dinner at the hotel and went straight to bed. Boring? Heh.

So on the second evening I was a bit adventurous and joined a group of colleagues for dinner at Le Lacustre Restaurant in Geneve town center.

For dinner I had Risotto ai Frutti di Mari, 4 stars out of 5. The wines here though are 5 stars, superb! Service as well is very good, the waiters are nice, attentive and accommodating.


Le Lacustre Restaurant by day.

The Italian restaurant is located right on the banks of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) which is near Place du Molard (just right across), a famous square in Geneva. The terrace is connected to the promenade that is jutting out of the lake. It’s one of the beautiful and perfectly located restaurants in town; on the lake and with a lovely outdoor terrace.

This restaurant also serves sexy wines so for this reason we stayed longer after dinner. The group, as part of the natural process of socialising, decided to move outside to the terrace to further chill out and enjoy the sexy wine. It was a nice evening; dry, not too cold, just fresh. A lovely night full of conversations and laughs.

After saying goodbyes we took the tram going back to our hotel, however, we picked the wrong one. Happens all the time. And the last tram to the direction of our hotel happened to just passed by. The guys blamed me because I was the one chasing the tram. Oh well, the cab it is! Its on my bill.

On the promenade outside Le Lacustre Restaurant with the swans on the lake. Companies must be paying a lot of money to advertise their logo on top of the buildings on the lake. I see the ABN-Amro logo.

Place du Molard at night. I love the lights on the cobble stones.

Cabs are as expensive as in the Netherlands.

Rainier again?

Hey, Rainieris the biggest thing to ski in the NW. So it is always going to get some attention.










The upper line of Gib Chute off the Muir snowfield.





the first5000'




Brian Harder went 5:59, c2c, from Paradise yesterday in some really hard (as in HARD) snow conditions for skinning upand skiing from the summit. The timeincludes achat and pictures with me a few feet belowMuir.









Brian's blog is always worth a look

http://www.getstrongergolonger.com/





Gib Chute is on the far right side of the photo.





Gib Chute is the obvious gully center of the picture



A fair bit of elevationgain from the parking lot and in the conditions yesterday, some decent alpine ice climbing as well with skimo crampons and two Whippets.



A steepskier's dream line in the right snow conditions.







reality yesterday...and the added excitement of some serious rock fall.









all the climbing photos are Brian's



With no real dog in the fight between routes and the speed records, but some strong opinion, I'll add my observations to all thatin another blog.



Very inspiring efforts by Andy, Jason, Brian, Eric, Stano and Nick.

Congrads to all involved.

Guess what else

I have no willpower whatsoever.

They are all females, I think. The yellow one and the calico from yesterday are siblings. The other one is a little older and is very mischievous.

Still no names for any of them yet. (More suggestions welcome.)

Jasmine has met the bigger one. She seemed interested, but the kitten was not impressed. (Hiss, spit, hiss.)

Berlin Walking Tour: Nikolaiviertel, nearby Alexanderplatz to Am Lustgarten

If there is one thing Dutchman and I agree when travelling together... that would be WALKING. We both love to walk, a lot, except that he walks faster. While I tend to go astray, checking corners, peeking into alleys, a quick stop here, a long pause there. It is neverending. I cannot help myself really and I blame my point and click camera for this.

If I am retired now (wishful thinking I know) I would spend my days taking pictures of places, people and daily life on the streets. I have a quick eye and can right away see countless opportunities and angles to photograph. It gives me a sense of fulfillment being able to capture life, at least in my own way, style and interpretation. Sadly, I do not have the time to do this often because I have a demanding full-time job.

Apart from this (my real life world which clearly revolves around my career), photography, travelling and this blog are my breather. Like literally. They are my escape. I feel at home here.

Let me take you on a walking photo blog tour of a little part of Berlin. From Muhlendamm to Nikolaiviertel (Nikolai Quarter) to Spandauerstrasse to Alexanderplatz to Karl Liebknechtstrasse to Am Lustgarten.

Ready to go?

The view to Nikolaiviertel (Nikolai Quarter) and the Spree (river) from Muhlendamm (Mills Dam).

The Spree and the Berliner Dom.

Statues and gold details on the Ephraim-Palais on Muhlendamm.

Cosy Nikolai Quarter.

Nikolai Church and the Berlin bear.

Alexanderplatz, also called Alex by the locals.

Neptunebrunnen (Neptune Fountain).

The Rathaus (City Hall) and the Berliner Fernsehturm (TV Tower).

The Berliner Dom from the park on Spandauerstrasse.

The Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral).

On Karl Liebknechtstrasse.

Schlossplatz.

Altes Museum on Am Lustgarten.

Humboldt Box on Karl Liebknechtstrasse.

Alte National Gallery. Dutchman told me these could be bullet marks on the column.

French Summer Color

French Summer, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Red-hot marigolds in a garden at a countryside home in the Dauphiné region.

The marigolds in France are amazing - they grow to be bushes 3 feet tall, the largest I've ever seen. Maybe it's the soil, maybe it's the weather, but the gardens in France grow lush and healthy. There are vegetable gardens, or potagers, in the yards of many of the old homes.

Have any of you grown marigolds that just get huge? Most of the marigolds around here are piddly little dwarves...

Lower Hackberry Canyon

The first of two hikes that we did on Easter Sunday was Lower Hackberry Canyon. Similar to the Escalante River hike, this one would be mostly flat. It turned out to be a very enjoyable hike, as the floor of the canyon had a steady flow of water and the stream bed was almost entirely sand. The water depth averaged around 2 to 3 inches, so I actually decided to do most of the walk barefoot. The sand and water felt great on my feet and were a welcome change to the hot, dry hikes that we've been doing up to this point. An added bonus was that we got to hear several Canyon Wrens singing as we made our way up and down the canyon!

Myrtle Beach SC to Wauchula FL

Yesterday we headed south for our yearly migration to Florida. We went halfway landing in Brunswick, Georgia. We originally planned to spend a week there before heading to Florida but someone was anxious to get to Florida and asked if we could skip Georgia, so we agreed to alter our plans so we could accommodate that request.



We hit heavy traffic and it rained hard the second day so travel was slow. Much slower than it normally is. We were so happy to get to one of the places we call "home" which is Peace River Thousand Trails. Our friend Buddy and his pretty partner Diane are here. Rich and Donna are supposed to arrive at the end of this week. We picked out a nice spot that we hope to stay at for the next several months.



We will miss the beach while we are here but we will not miss the tempting (read fattening) food that we encountered in SC. This is one example of the food we did come across and Austin was brave enough to eat. Fried Corn:



We had fun what little bit of travel we did this year and we are looking forward to a wonderful winter with the good people that are here.