Weekend #5 of European Living: "M" cities in "S" countries

Weekend Adventures: Montreux/Geneva, Switzerland and Madrid, Spain

(July 9-14, 2010)

Truth be told, this is not really a weekend post; instead, a document of a Swiss weekend (if you count Thursdays as the start of the weekend a la college days!) and an amazingly-timed work trip.

As you may have read from the last post about the Montreux Jazz Festival, we had a great night. Preston flew home to Seattle (and San Francisco to meet Annie's new baby, Camden AND Vail for a Colgate friend's wedding) but my pal, Susanne, came to take a much-deserved vacation.

Friday night before Susanne arrived, two sets of Expedia friends were having cocktail parties. I first had champagne and "nibbles" (between my boss, Matthew, my friend Jo and Preston's new bestie, Ian, all being from the U.K., I hope to trade in some Americanisms for Britisms) at Jo's amazing apartment in Carouge with the GSO team (Jaime, Tina, Angie and Dave) then went "home" to our college dorm-like setting (our temporary corporate housing l lovingly refer to as "The Expedia Village") and had cocktails with the Supply Stategy & Analysis team (Aleks, Gracelda and Chariti). Look, friends in Switzerland!:

Saturday I went for a jog and went food shopping for my first weekend day in Geneva (I must've been channeling Preston because those are two of his everyday Geneva activities!) and took the bus to the airport to meet my first visitor!

Susanne arrived from New York via Zurich and powered through the day to enjoy a sunny summer afternoon in Geneva. We dropped her bags (she is a master packer; 11 days in Europe with at least two -- two different -- outfits per day in a carry-on!) at The Expedia Village and ventured around town.

Since I haven't lived in Geneva very long (and aside from our two pre-move visits, I had never been to Geneva on a weekend), I was a little nervous to play tour guide. But I at least know the Jet D'Eau (and Christian Louboutin!) so how bad could it be?

I showed Susanne Jet D'Eau, the fountain in Lake Geneva (aka "Lac Lemon" for the French speakers), we stopped by the Garden Anglais to see the Geneva Flower Clock and went for a glass of champagne and rose at Le Lagoste, the restaurant where Lake Geneva meets the River Rhone (not a bad way to start a girls' vacation!). We then boarded one of the yellow lake boats that took us under the Mont Blanc bridge and stopped at the right bank. Here's Susanne as we passed under the bridge:

After our little lake excursion we stopped to watch the craziest parade either of us have ever seen (and we've lived through a lot of NYC parades, if that says anything!). Quiet Geneva turned into Techno Dance Party Parade-central as "floats" (which were really trucks with open sides) with techno music and dancers passed by. Techno Parade is described as an event where each float is "a rave on wheels complete with costumed dancers and pumping beats." Okay...

After we had enough techno dance party, we went back to The Expedia Village to relax for a bit and get ready for dinner in Old Town. We chose "Au pied du Chochon" for dinner and it didn't disappoint; it's a good little Old Town spot for good food and people watching.

After dinner we caught the last part of the "fete" around the lake. There were more intoxicated teens than I could have ever imagined but I think my favorite was a boy with a Louis Vuitton "murse" who asked us for three francs to get home (he was on his bike!). I was half-temped to ask HIM for money considering he was carrying a bag that put my little Longchamp to shame! AND he had wheels!

Sunday we got a late start and just spent the day at one of Preston's favorite spots, Geneve Plage. We had a fun day of sun tanning and catching up on the U.S. magazines Susanne brought me. We finished the day watching the Spain/Netherlands World Cup finale. Which brings me to "Weekend #5 of European Living: "M" cities in "S" countries" part deux ...

Susanne and I bid adieu ('till friday in Paris!) early Monday morning. She was heading off to France via train for a few days of touring and I was going to the airport to Madrid to see the Western European Directors that were all meeting there. That's right, Madrid ... the day after the World Cup win!

After a few travel delays, I arrived at the Expedia Spain office and our meetings lasted until 7:30 when we cut short the last presenter to go watch the World Cup parade!

We decided to watch from our hotel, The Vincci Capitol, which proved to be the PERFECT venue.

Here I am on the roof with the crowds below:

And here's the World Cup on the lower left ... and the team!:

We had dinner after the parade and two more days of great meetings. This trip to Madrid was definitely one for the books ... or blogs!

 

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Weekend In Geneva and Work Trip to Madrid

Dates:

Friday – Wednesday, June 9-14, 2010

Where I stayed:

- "The Expedia Village", aka the Walls' corporate housing in Geneva
- Vincci Capitol Hotel, Madrid

The Walls' Review:

1. Staying in Geneva for a weekend isn't so bad!
2. I really do love our Expedia preferred hotel in Spain, The Vincci Capital. It's in the Swepps building, couldn't be in a better location, is across he square from the Expedia office. It has a great roof top lounge area and a spa and workout facility. It's a boutique hotel with big hotel ammenities.

Weekend #1 of European Living: Visit to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn

Weekend Adventures: Zermatt and the Mattherhorn
(June 11-13, 2010)

Friday began with yet another apartment search. Elisabeth, our character of a relocation specialist (she loves the word “merde,” drives like she’s on the autoban and has pointed out seemingly every cabaret in Geneva), took us to a lovely apartment with an incredible balcony, amazing wood floors, lots of space and light. We put in an application only to learn within five minutes that it was already accounted for – such is life with trying to find an apartment here.


We tried to not allow the apartment let-down ruin our day and headed to the Geneva train station to plan our weekend adventure to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. After three trains, we arrived and the long trip was well worth it. Our hotel made an amazing impression before we even checked in; we had to enter through steel gates (a la Wizard of Oz!) and walk through a cave cut out through the base of the hotel’s hill and take an elevator up to reception.

We checked into our room that overlooked the Matterhorn (the weather changed very quickly so one minute you could see the peak and the next it was fogged over) and ventured into the lovely town. The people are incredibly friendly (they speak impeccable English) and it reminded us of locals living in Whistler -- they are there for sport, fresh air and amazing views. We toured the climbers’ chapel, the little shops in Zermatt, loved the electric cars and stopped at La Dolce Vita for a great dinner.

Saturday morning we got up early and hiked all day. We took a gondola to Sunnegga paradise (2288 meters). We stopped for some photos and continued up to Blauherd (2571 meters). From there we hiked the rest of the afternoon to the Rothorn paradise (3103 meters). Aside from the mountain goats that looked like they'd never seem Americans before (Preston showed them some dance moves!) and a CRAZY guy riding a bicycle down the glacier, we felt like we had the entire alpine valley to ourselves. 

By the time we stopped hiking, within 10 minutes, the snow rolled in. After some rotti and a much needed drink at the summit lodge, we descended the mountain via gondola. From there we hit the spa at the hotel. They had multiple steam rooms and a view of the Matterhorn from the hot tubs. That night we watched the U.S. vs England World Cup match at Grampi’s pub and people watched.

Sunday we had breakfast at the hotel and wandered around to the gondolas to take us to the Klein Matterhorn. We found this random trail that had the stations of the cross along it and Preston loved the architecture of homes build on stilts of stone and wood.

I was petrified of the heights the gondola scaled and when we got to the top there was about three feet visibility! We walked through ice caves, took some pictures and had hot chocolate at the top. As you can see in this photo, ice storms are not rare during June in Switzerland!

We boarded the 4:30pm train back to Geneva. Great weekend ... our half price Swiss rail passes will surely be coming in handy!

Complete photo album here: Zermatt album

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Weekend Trip to Zermatt
Dates:
Friday – Sunday, June 11-13, 2010

Excursions:

• Saturday hike: Inner-mountain train and gondola to Sunnegga paradise, hike up to Rothorn paradis, visit to the Zermatt hikers chapel, shopping in Zermatt
• Big U.S.A. versus England World Cup match (spectating only!) at Grampi's in Zermatt
• Sunday gondola rides to the top of the Klein Matterhorn

Where we stayed:

Schoenegg Swiss Q Grandhotel, Zermatt

The Walls' Review:

Hotel review: An amazing hotel with a friendly staff and incredible views of the Matterhorn. Stay there just to go through the underground cave that leads to reception! The free wifi in the rooms is fabulous too.

Other comments: Visiting Zermatt this weekend was a first for both Preston and I. Zermatt is definitely a town you can see in a weekend but it's a place we'll surely visit again. Between the hiking, undoubtedly amazing skiing, the spas and the scenery, it's a place we'd visit during any season. We also saw people zipling as we approached town descending from the Klein Matterhorn.