Geneva

Marty and the 3 Liter Tower of Beer
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Day 1

After 24 l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g hours of traveling, I finally arrived at our hotel in Geneva. And the hotel was so nice! It was the Hotel Auteuil (how this is said in French I've no idea, but I'm guessing "Hotel Ahhhh-tel"?) Anyway, super modern and sleek, hard wood floors in our room, big windows, A/C (!!!), etc. After an awesome shower and change of clothes, Marty came back from his conference and we went exploring. In the pouring rain. :) We met up with two of his friends from the conference at a restaurant where they brew their own beers - Les Brasseurs -  where the guys decided to split a 3 liter tower of beer. I had my own much yummier beer, something limey and refreshing brewed at the restaurant, and promptly passed out in the hotel after dinner :)

Les Brasseurs - where the guys decided to split a 3 liter tower of beer.

Marty pretending to have drank the entire 3 Liter Tower of Beer by himself
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Day 2

Mmmm...all you can eat buffet for breakfast at the hotel.  Very yummy.  Gruyere cheese, salmon, scrambled eggs, pain chocolat.  I love French food!  Then I got to go exploring (= shopping) while Marty went to the end of his conference.

For the afternoon, we took the bus to CERN (the European Center for Particle Physics), where we met with my advisors from when I worked at CERN as a summer student in 2001.  It was really cool to talk to them and hear about all the progress they've made since 2001.  I worked on a little model detector that summer, and now the giant, full-fledged detector has been completed and mounted in the beam line.  It was also nice because my advisors said lots of nice things about me showing lots of potential when I was there that summer :)  After having "coffee" (= diet coke) with my advisors, I met with my friends Judy, Sve, and Atila from summer 2001 in the CERN cafeteria to have some beers.  Except, we were too early for beers, so my friend Sve brought a giant bottle of Peach Stoli's and a jug of orange juice.  I can always count on Sve! :)  It was so fun reminiscing with those guys about that summer, and hearing what they've been up to for the last 6 years.

3 Guys + 3 Liters = 3 Guys with a good buzz
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We had a not-so-delicious dinner at the CERN cafeteria, and then took a ride with Sve into France to pick up some things.  We stopped by his friends house, where I learned that vodka-redbull is also said "vodka-redbull" in French.  And then, finally off to Pickwick's (a bar) in Geneva to meet Atila again, and finally - finally - I got to drink a Desperados beer, which I'd been craving since I left Geneva 6 years ago.  (It wasn't quite as good as I remembered, but still yummy.)  That was it for Day 2, and unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures!

Jet d'Eau - Worlds tallest fountain
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Day 3

So the delicious breakfast buffet yesterday was 25 Euros each, and since Marty's not on per diem anymore, we decided to try to find a cheaper breakfast location.  We walked across the river to more of the shopping district, and found this really sleek "food-court" style eatery.  We got sandwiches (weird for breakfast, but oh well) and crepes - yum!  Then we shopped a little bit (everything is way too expensive) and checked out the old town.  We went in the Cathedrale de St Pierre, which was beautiful, and we also went in the architectural dig museum underneath the cathedral (not so interesting.)  We had salmon topped pizza for lunch, and then wandered around town a little more, eventually walking along the lake and checking out the flower clock in the Gardin Anglaise and the Jet d'Eau (the worlds talled fountain!, according to Lonely Planet.)  We had fondue and raclette for dinner (even after eating raclette, I still don't understand what it is...) and met Sve (my friend) and Nicola (Marty's friend) + Nicola's girlfriend for drinks (more delicious Desperados!)

Cathedrale de St Pierre
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Day 4 - Our 1 year Wedding Anniversary!

For our anniversary breakfast, we had Nutella and Brioche we'd bought at the grocery store.  I miss Brioche!  It's really delicious "egg bread", or something. Marty wasn't such a fan... :)  Then we took a cruise on Lake Geneva to Yvoire.  The cruise was ~2 hours, nice and relaxing, with great views, and Yvoire was this really tiny town that still looks like it's in the middle ages.  It's famous for it's flowers, and it's on a steep hill, so there's lots of beautiful views.  We shopped around, had a really nice lunch of perche at a restaurant on the lake, and just lazed around on the grass in a park next to the lake.  We saw 2 beautiful husky dogs, and we want one so badly! We cruised home after a few hours and a little too much sun, and then went to dinner at the restaurant next door to our hotel.  We would've gotten the works (wine, dessert, etc.) but we were just way too tired!  We figured we'd had a great anniversary already, and decided to call it a great day and get a good night's sleep.

Marty and the Flower Clock in Gardin Anglaise
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Day 5 - Took the train to the airport to catch the plane to Prague :)