A Mall, A Mall, My Kingdom for a Mall!

Well, not really.  Actually, CW doesn’t have a kingdom.  Not even a small fiefdom.  But that’s beside the point, which is, in case you were wondering, that shopping in Switzerland Stinks (with a capital ‘S’)!  But wait, you say, I didn’t think CW was a ‘mall-y’ kind of guy.  He’s not.  But go back to the point a couple of sentences ago.  Seriously, it’s really stinky here, and this in a land renowned for stinky cheese.  Allow me to explain.

A Disney store!

CW is convinced there are only about a dozen stores in Switzerland aside from small boutiques.  And Italian restaurants.  But these same dozen stores are everywhere.  They mostly sell the same stuff at more or less the same price (competition doesn’t mean much here with respect to price or service).  But not worry, what we lack in selection, we make up for by low quality and high prices.  Or at reasonable quality and even higher prices.  [Except, of course, for watches.  But not everyone can spend $390k on watch--Brad Pitt watch] But for us mortals, as an example, go to Sears or Penny’s back in the States and pick out a polo shirt.  Now reduce the thread count (yes, CW knows (or at least pretends to know) terms like ‘thread count!’) and pay 3 times the label price.  That’s what it’s like shopping here.  And none of that would really be a problem if we didn’t have three pesky kids who seem to keep outgrowing everything.  Mail order helps, but it only gets you so far.

They even have a water show every half hour!

So imagine our surprise (and on SweetSwissTeen’s part, unmitigated joy) when we learned that the largest mall in Europe was less than two hours away.  CW must admit he had certain doubts about the term “largest mall in Europe.”  It sounded a bit like being named the prettiest girl at the South Pole. 

Nevertheless, on Saturday morning (SweetSwissTeen, dressed and with purse on shoulder, roused us up out of bed at 6:45…a.m.), we launched off on an excursion to Lyon, the second largest city in France.  It’s an easy, lovely drive through the Jura mountains.  It is quite a scenic route traveling through tunnels and down onto the plain of southeastern France.  Lyon, we’re told, also has a wonderful old town as well as great restaurants, but we had no time for that.  We had shoppin’ to do!

We arrived and went straight to work.  By which CW means lunch.  And where do we go?  Subway!  Yes, we come from a land of freshly baked baguettes (though admittedly skimpy sandwich fixin’s) and went to SweetSwissTeen’s favorite American fast food chain.  So, first mission accomplished!  In actuality, it wasn’t quite the same but it sufficed.

From there we shopped for the next 8 hours.  Le Part-Dieu actually is quite a large mall—about 300 different stores, restaurants, services, a movie theater, etc.  They had quite a few boutique stores, but also Foot Locker, GAP, Levis, Timberland, Claire’s—in short a good assortment of American stores to supplement the local brands.  SweetSwissTeen  and SwissSis found a few cute outfits and AAB found one or two things in GAP, as well.  And all at prices about half of what we would have paid in Switzerland.

Ah, the excitement is palpable!

SoulSwisster was quite pleased to find a very large ‘Bricolage’ store.  Basically,  it is a small scale Hobby Lobby—but ENORMOUS for European standards.  She’s loaded up and ready for fall crafting.

Alas, we did learn an unfortunate fact while we were there.  The French have small feet.  Unfortunate, obviously, because the Ahlstroms do not.  CW takes a size 12 or 13 depending on the shoe, which in Europe is about a 47 or so.  Shops in France seem to stop around 43 or 44.  SweetSwissTeen also had trouble finding the right size.  We’ve decided we may need to go Germany or Holland to find shoes for tall people.  Either that, or hope the shoe elves will come to Switzerland.

We ended the day with dinner at the Hippopotamus Grill, a nice outdoor place where we had steaks (not hippopotamus) before heading home.  There was actually a Mexican place there, but we decided not to press our luck.  This time.

Yes, we’ll be going back.  Not soon, and maybe next time we’ll check out the rest of Lyon.

The player piano

Quote of the day from SweetSwissTeen:  “You know that expression “shop ‘til you drop?  Well, I’ve dropped!  Can we go home, yet?”

Water, Water Everywhere

Heading out from Geneva with CW's Mom and sister Laura

We’re closing in on almost a year here in Switzerland and believe it or not, we haven’t really done much in the way of experiencing the region’s largest landmark—Lac Léman (Lake Geneva).  Sure, we’ve seen the Jet d’Eau (Jet of Water—the big fountain downtown), we’ve ridden the ferries once or twice, and we’ve eaten by the lake, but we’ve never gotten “up close and personal.”  Until now.  Twice in the past week, we’ve gotten a chance to really enjoy being on (and in!) the water.

Come Sail Away

Pretty as a picture

Not very friendly, is she?  :)

First, we had a great opportunity while CW’s mother and sister were visiting last week.  BuyClub Geneva had a special where you could book a two hour cruise on the lake on a private boat for half off the normal fare.  So on CW’s birthday, we decided to take to the lake! 

Celebration!

Finding our departure point took a little bit of doing because the first 12 days of August are the Fêtes de Gènève, a carnival in the city around the lake with rides and food and drink booths, and our guy wasn’t in the place we originally expected him to be.  But after a bit of searching and a few phone calls, we finally connected and boarded the boat—a beautiful, wooden 25’ cruiser—and we were off.

Just relaxin'

Mom and Laura

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer evening—about 75 degrees or so (though you wouldn’t know it from SoulSwister’s winter outfit!) and clear.  The lake was calm as we slowly motored northward for about an hour or so, had some champagne, cheese, and bread, and just relaxed.  We floated for a while almost directly beneath the landing lane for the Geneva airports watching the planes come in and then turned around for the cruise back to the dock.  On the way back, our captain turned on the “disco lights” as SwissSis called them—lights in the floor of the boat.  He turned up some music and SwissSis and All American Boy showed us their moves.  Meanwhile, SoulSwister tried to clean up glass from two champagne glasses that broke when they fell onto the deck (only 1 was our fault!).  Did I mention everyone was barefoot?  Luckily, there were no cuts! 

Birthday celebration

The whole gang

Definitely a good time had by all and something we’d do again—albeit with plastic champagne glasses.  Duh!

By the way, the new banner at the top of the blog was taken as returned to port.  You can the see the Ferris wheel right St. Peter’s cathedral.

Not allowed on Spring Break for 20 more years

Almost back in port

Coming back into port

Slip Slidin’ Away

A little forward, non?

Tallulah showing her drying technique

The second opportunity came through a colleague at CW’s office who happens to live right on the lake and offered to take us out on his boat for a bit of aquatic sport.  We met at his house after work and changed into our suits.  Fortunately, it still stays light until 9-ish, so there was plenty of time to get out on the water. 

Working together

Here they go!

SwissSis was in heaven even before we got wet because Mr. William has a dog—Tallulah.  Tallulah loves to play fetch and we all obliged her by throwing her chew toy into the lake.  ‘Lula never got tired of the game and even helped get us accustomed to the water temperature through her rigorous drying exercises.

Mr. William has lots of toys including a paddleboard and a kayak.  The kids tried both of them before the main event, though if you’ll look closely, you’ll see AAB is just a bit front of center.  In any case, they both did pretty well on both—only got a little bit wet. 

Round 2

The highlight, by far, was getting in the ski boat and being pulled on an inner tube!  It’s big enough for two people to ride side by side with good handholds.  First to experiment were AAB and SwissSiss.  They gave a “thumbs up” and Mr. William took off.  Neither of them had any trouble holding on and had a great time swinging back and forth behind the boat, jumping the wake.  AAB switched out with SweetSwissTeen and off we went again—check out their cool goggles! J  Finally it was AAB’s turn again, but this time with CW.  Unfortunately, Mr. William got moving a little too fast for this brave pair and AAB got smacked in the face by CW’s elbow.  But we finished none the worse for wear.

Our gracious host--Mr. William

Which one is the little boy?

Then SoulSwisster got into the act with SweetSisTeen.  CW believes that people at the other end of the lake could have heard the two of them laughing and screaming as Mr. William took them on a merry ride.

A few more rounds for the kids, and then for the last ride of evening (just before 8 PM—apparently the Swiss don’t allow fun on the lake after 8), CW went for a ride on the tube by himself.  It started out well enough, but soon Mr. William and SoulSwisster decided we weren’t going fast enough so off we went.  CW got to experience some of the great forces of physics firsthand before his ultimate launch into the heavens.  He still thinks he has water in his ears.

Or little girl!

After Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, we did a quick change and then went across the lake to the French town of Yvoire for dinner.  It was a beautiful evening for a cruise and for a lovely dinner.  While we were still over in Yvoire, fireworks began shooting off across the lake. We’re still not sure what they were celebrating, but they were quite nice. 

We finally headed back across the lake to Mr. William’s house where we secured the boat and headed home.  Quick showers and into bed around midnight.

We’ve had a couple of wonderful evenings on the lake.  Can’t wait to do it again!

Hey, we can stand!

Or maybe not!

Let's get started

Faster?

Umm--too fast??

Yup

Great shot of the inner tube!

Fireworks over Nyon from Yvoire

            

On the Ropes Again, I Just Can't Wait to Get on the Ropes Again

First blog post in a long time, but it’s been a busy Spring and Summer so far.  CW worked on a project that kept him in Houston for five out of seven weeks in April and May with SoulSwister and the minions joining him for the last week.  That was a nice time for everyone to meet up with friends and enjoy being back in the States.  Afterwards, everyone was back here for a month or so and were excited and grateful to have two sweet families from Houston come visit.  We loved visiting, first with the Kochs, and then with the Jacksons.  We toured castles, visited (and tasted our way) through a chocolate factory, strolled through a French Renaissance village, explored Roman ruins that date back to the time of Christ and got our second speeding ticket!  Oops!  Didn't even know we had earned it until July when it arrived in the mail.  (Speed cameras.) Funny that our first speeding ticket was awarded during Tina and Matt's visit in the early spring.  Hmmmm.....can we really afford to have more guests?  You betcha!!  While more blogs will be required to report on all of the fun had by everyone--CW would like to begin the adventures in the spirit of Tarzan with....ROPES.

  

Practice time--Don't Look Down!

Over the river and through the woods

One of the most enjoyable activities we’ve found over here and have been able to share with our friends are “parcours” parks or ropes courses.  We’ve found two near the house, one in France and one in Switzerland, but there are a number of these close by.  “Parcours” means “course” or “route” and in the US, we call them “ropes courses” (though the ropes are all wire rope).  The idea of these places is that you have a series of elements or events at particular heights off the ground.  The adventurer’s objective is simply to complete all of the elements.  Different courses are at different heights—for example, the park in France has courses that are 1m, 4m, 10m, 15m, and 20m (>60 feet!) off the ground.  The Swiss park has about 10 different courses of varying heights for everyone from toddlers to adults.  You pay one fee and can do any of the courses all day long.  The elements range from simply crossing a suspended balance beam while holding onto a guideline with each hand (easy) to crossing a rope where your only support are hemp ropes suspended about every 3-4 feet (harder) to hoisting yourself up into suspended barrels and crawling through them (hard and funny if you can imagine some of the less svelte dads who tried this—trust CW—these courses favor the thin and those with a low center of gravity!)  But everyone agrees the most fun are the zip lines!  Just hop off your starting platform and enjoy the ride.

Zip Slidin' Away!

She Flies Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease

That's Mr. Jason in there Somewhere

Dash and Miss Jennifer Taking a Break

Reece Jackson, the Next Flying Walenza

If you’re wondering about safety, they do quite a good job.  You can see that everyone wears a harness with two carabiners as well as your zip line trolley. You are always supposed to have two carabiners hooked on to the guide lines.  In France, you have to do this manually, but at the Swiss site, there are actually locking mechanisms that ensure that you can only ever have one of the carabiners unlocked at a time.  So it seems to be perfectly safe.  Both sites had helpers who would patrol the course in case anyone has a problem.  Like All American Boy.  One element was a standing swing trapeze.  You were supposed to step on it and push off, gliding to the next little platform.  AAB didn’t really push.  So he got halfway across and stopped.  CW couldn’t reach him from the landing platform and AAB’s cub scout buddy hadn’t completed the prior element, so he couldn’t be pulled back to the start of the trapeze to start it again, so for about 10 minutes, AAB just hung around (literally) and giggled.

Bekah Jackson--No Fear!

There is one real danger to these courses.  They exercise muscles you didn’t know you had.  You might not know it at the time (though you definitely stretch), but the next day, your arms, shoulders, hamstrings, and calves will feel it.  Guaranteed!  And I must admit, no one looks good in the harnesses!  But they’re a great way to have a family adventure filled with laughter.

Stuck on the Trapeeze and Not Bothered At All

London Calling

At the Turkish restaurant

Over Easter weekend, we took the short hour and ten minute hop from Geneva to London--an easy flight allowing us to exchange the land of wine, cheese, and chocolate for one of theater, royalty, and bangers and mash.  But most importantly for our crew, switching from French to English!  Not that the French lessons aren't going fine (things appear to be clicking for SoulSwisster), but it's always lovely to be able to read signs and menus and actually understand them!

After collecting our bags, we jumped on the Heathrow Express for the 15 minute ride to Paddington Station and then took a quick cab ride to the hotel in the West End.  Our chatty cab driver told us all about the preparations for the summer Olympics, including all of the ongoing construction.  We quickly put our bags in the room (rooms, actually).  For those of you still in the family planning stage, it's impossible to find a single hotel room in Europe that can take five people.  Most take three at the most and quite a few boutiques only accept two.  We, then, headed out for lunch.

On the Big Bus in front of the Texas Embassy

In Geneva, there really aren't many different types of restaurants.  There's Italian, Thai, Italian, the occasional steak place, Italian, and oh yes, did I mention Italian?  Granted, it's pretty good Italian, but it lacks a bit of variety.  Not so in London!  Mere steps from our hotel door, we found traditional British pubs, Japanese, Chinese, Italian (of course), and a Turkish place that ended up as our destination.  Great food in a fun atmosphere-the ceiling was hung with variety of different lamps that gave the place a lot of character.

In front of the Eye

Afterwards, we went shopping.  Mundane, right?  But there actually aren't many different types of stores in Switzerland (or else they're hidden deep in underground bunkers and are Swiss-only), so finding a Gap was cause for celebration!  We walked down Oxford Street a bit and enjoyed seeing names we recognized. We also walked through Selfridges, the huuuge department store that's the rival of Harrod's.  CW thinks that the sum total of the stores in Switzerland would easily have fit inside Selfridges.


Friday night was our night at the theater.  We went down to the Theater District to see The Lion King-the stage version of Disney's modern classic.  It was outstanding, from the recreation of the opening sunrise to the animals coming down the aisles of the theater to the stage to (Spoiler alert!) the stampede which kills Mustafa.  The talent was wonderful and the costumes and puppet work were outstanding.  Our favorite characters were Timon and Pumba--they were hilarious.  Although the show ran a bit late, only All American Boy got a little tired and then only near the end, but he perked up for the finale.  All in all, a very successful first trip to a Broadway-style show.  Our trip back to the hotel was no less exciting.  Our cabbie, an older fellow, was a bit of a speed demon.  Driving through the West End on a Friday night is a bit like trying to walk through an airport on the day before Thanksgiving.  At one point, we had to slam to  a screeching stop when a rather inebriated couple decided to cross the street and just stepped out in front of us.  Fortunately, Mr. Cabbie was paying attention or that would have ended badly.  Alas, there were still several miles (yes, in London we can use miles, not kilometers--another plus) to go and at a narrowing of the road, another cab had almost pulled over to let out his fare, but was still sticking out into the road.  Our cabbie, while observant, wasn't the patient guy and tried to squeeze through.  He didn't make it.  A loud Screeeeeech shocked us, but did our cabbie stop?  Oh no! He paused, exchanged hand gestures with the other cabbie, and kept on going.  When we got out at the hotel, there was about a yard long scrape on the cab.  CW noticed it as the cab streaked off into the night without a word from Mr. Cabbie.

Flying the Eye

Saturday, we rose bright and early to cold, damp weather.  In other words, typical London.  And what do the Ahlstroms do when visiting a foreign city on a cold, damp, and rainy day?  Why, we take the Big Bus tour and sit on the exposed upper level of the bus!  (That's exactly what we did in Paris.  Why break tradition?)  We rode over to the Thames River where we hit the highlight of SweetSwissTeen's visit, the London Eye or Millennium Wheel, the giant ferris wheel that overlooks Big Ben's clock tower and Parliament.  One revolution takes about 30 minutes and gives a great view of London.  Afterwards, we took a little boat ride down the Thames past the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater and ending up at Tower of London.  We continued on our Big Bus tour and stopped at Hambly's, a 5 story toy store that was utter chaos, but a bunch of fun, then ended up at our dinner destination--the Texas Embassy.  Not the actual embassy of the Republic of Texas, it is, in fact, a TexMex restaurant.  How the mighty have fallen.  But, it's the best TexMex we've had on this side of the Pond since we left Texas (other than SoulSwister's, of course).

At Hambly's a 5 Story Toy Store--All Legos, All of the Time

Sunday, we headed to Tower of London where we saw the Crown Jewels.  No pictures were allowed of the jewels, though.  As Easter is State Holiday, there was actually a very short parade between the Beefeaters' quarters and the chapel inside the Tower walls.  The Beefeaters dressed in their official red and yellow garb.  Also attending the special Easter service was a band of Korean War veterans.  Mostly Scots by the look of them.  And in among them, a lone Yank, which was neat to see, holding a California flag.  CW, AAB, and SweetSwissTeen went on the guided tour, but SwissSis was a little worried that the stories might be too gory, so she skipped it and instead she and SoulSwisster watched some period actors entertain the crowd.

After the Tower, we took a quick trip over to the British Museum where we found the Rosetta Stone, as well as ancient Greek, Roman, and Babylonian artifacts.  But by that point, we were a bit drained and decided to head back for dinner and some relaxation.

At the Embassy

Know why they're called Beefeaters?  Neither do they

The State Parade

Korean War Vets

At the least the Yanks are smiling

The Rosetta Stone

Monday came too soon and with it, the trip back to Heathrow.  From there, CW went to Houston and the rest of the fam returned to Geneva and the land of Italian.  But it won't be our last trip to London.  We're looking forward to many more!

Wait for it!  AAB thinks he's the next James Cameron.
Scene: The Tower of London, present day
Take one.  Action!