Geneva, Switzerland

The last place we visited on our June trip through Europe was Geneva (Geneve), Switzerland. Geneva is located in the west of Switzerland and it borders France. The city is also connected to one of the largest fresh water lakes in Europe, Lake Geneva. It was a big change going from central Switzerland to eastern Switzerland because they spoke German in the central part and French in the east.

Geneva is perhaps best known for being the home of one of the headquarters of the United Nations. The Palace of Nations was originally built after WWI, and it was the home of the now debunk League of Nations. In the 1950s, the United Nations moved into the building, and we were told that they used all the of the information that the former League of Nations had there. Today, though there are many meetings in Geneva, most of the UN's most important councils meet at the headquarters in New York City.

In the photo above you can see the stone monument that was given to the UN by the Soviet Union after WWII was finished. The Palace is filled with works of art given to the UN as gifts from member countries all over the world.

Here is one of the the many council rooms. We were only allowed to spend limited time in this room because security discovered a rogue bag in one of the rear seats. We had to leave so they could contain the area. I don't think it was anything dangerous.

Unfortunately there were other cool council rooms that we weren't allowed to enter because they were being used for meetings at the time. It's cool though; nations uniting is a good thing.

This giant chair was an art piece sitting in a big square right next to the Palace of Nations. I thought maybe a car ran into one of its legs. It now stands a humongous hazard to giants everywhere looking for one of the world's only chairs big enough to fit them. Switzerland with its high standard of living should know better.

Here I am standing in front of the Palace of Nations entrance. There is a nice walkway underneath the many flags of all 192 member states.


This guy was definitely checking out this strange statue in downtown Geneva. I guess it's pretty hard not to stare.

The most famous site in Geneva is its Jet d'Eau fountain in Lake Geneva. The EuroCup championships still going on (and Switzerland was a host country, along with Austria), it seemed appropriate that a giant soccer ball hung suspended above the ever flowing shoot of water.

Ab and I went onto the pier to get some cools views of the shipyard and the lighthouse and lots of people swimming and sunbathing. The last day of our 15-day trek through southern Europe, it was also probably the hottest day of the trip, easily topping 90 F.

There were lots of big ships coming in and out of the Geneva port all the time. The pier is a great place to relax and watch the action. We only spent a little over a day in Geneva, but I thought it was a really nice place, albeit expensive. We didn't buy any Swiss watches or knives, though we could have. We ate a little bit of Swiss chocolate, which was of course wonderful. Frankly, we were at the end of our trip and at the end of our funds. It was a good thing we slowed down when we did, because I just barely made it!


We flew back from Geneva to Madrid and went over the Alps on our way out. They look big from 10,000 feet too.

Interlaken, Switzerland

Stuttgart, Tubingen, and Esslingen (Germany)

Munich, Germany

And then we reached Germany! Munich (Munchen) is a classy city. Pretty beat-up during WWII, the city has been restored beautifully. Everything is so nice, new and clean, and absolutely gorgeous. There are many different churches there, many excellent restaurants, great beer houses and beer gardens... and beer.
This is inside the first church we entered, St. Michael's, or St. Michaelskirche. The outside is under heavy construction, so I didn't have a good shot of that. But the inside was impressive, and almost completely reconstructed. Along with its sparkling white walls are artistic and structural relics from centuries past that were saved from the destruction of the War.

This one is a different church, the Frauenkirche. A two towered monster, this church gave us wonderful views all around the city. Including the next picture.

The center square, main square, of Munich is featured in this shot. Located between all those big buildings (the new Rathaus on the left--the new townhall--, a church on the right, and the old Rathaus behind it), the square is known as Marienplatz.

As you can see, there are many people gathered in the square below. It's normally a busy square, although the tourists all come for the hours of 11 and 12 to see the famous glockenspeil clock at the new Rathaus.

We are standing here in front of the new Rathaus in Marienplatz, the main square. The glockenspeil is on the front of the gothic building, and you can see the two towered Frauenkirche church in the background.

Here's a closeup of the glockenspeil in action. For 12 minutes or so on the hours of 11 and 12, the life size figures spin and turn to the traditional German music. Slightly melodramatic, though still interesting. It's worth checking out just because of all the hype, all the people, and the wonderful square that it takes place in.

We went to Munich's famous marketplace, the Viktualienmarkt. This market has all the fresh foods and spices as well as beer and sausages of all kinds, all ready to go. It's German custom to have their baked sausages and pretzels or bread (and beer) before lunch--although, being a bit behind our descendants, we got there a little after noon. There are beer gardens (biergartens), which by the way, are freakin huge in Germany, and it's all located right next to the main celebration area for Oktoberfest in... yes, that's right... October.

This is a famous beer house that Ab and I visited called the Hofbrauhaus. The ceilings were very nicely painted, which made the beer go down sooo much smoother.

I had a 'dunkel', which is fun to say. It means dark.

We cruised out to the Olympiapark to check out the artistic design to the home of the 1972 Summer Olympics.


Abby is standing in front of the Olympic Stadium, where soccer teams dueled it out for world supremacy back in 1972, and a few days from when we were there, Cher went on... I think.

Prague, Czech Republic

Fantastic! Utter brilliance. Prague made it through the World Wars without many of its beautiful buildings getting destroyed. Nicely done, Praha; you managed to save one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. The architecture is once again outstanding, as is the river location, which is eerily similar to the layout of Budapest: a river in the center (in Prague's case it's the Vlatava) and a hilltop castle on the western shore providing stupendous views of the entire city and surrounding landscape. I think it's a pretty good format to structure a city; I'll probably model my own after this one.

Me with the Vlatava River. There are many bridges joining the two halves of the city.

The oldest most famous bridge is called the Charles Bridge. Charles Bridge is like Las Ramblas on a bridge. No kidding. There are tons of artisans selling their art, there are musicians playing, and street performers dancing, not to mention the fabulous statues of saints of religious figures adorning all sides of the structure and the outrageously cool views of the Prague Castle up on the hill and the unique designs of the entrances to the bridge on both ends. It's a party smashed onto a bridge. Sound like a good idea to you? Maybe not, but it works.

Here is one of those gateways to the bridge that I'm standing in front of. The color and style of buildings like this one (there are more like it in Prague) is something that I had never seen before. It may appear a little strange at first, but I really think that these structures are special in a good way.

We took advantage of another opportunity to climb the highest thing in the city to get some cool aerial shots. Not only are we on top of the highest hill, we're on top of a mini-version of the Eiffel Tower on top of the highest hill. They told us that it was near the exact height above sea level that the actual Eiffel Tower was at (since it has the advantage of being on a hill). Anyways, this is a photo of the Prague Castle. The castle district contains a palace-museum, a large church, an old old neighborhood of shops, dungeons, towers, and fortress walls.

Nearby our hostel was a rock-out restaurant-tavern called Jama. They served Czech food along with lots of other stuff too, but I just had to try to "Czech Feast". I actually didn't finish this one, so those who know me know how big it must have been. The "Feast" included pork, steak, chicken, red-apple kraut, roasted potatoes, and some biggy dumplings. Yes, there was gravy; yes, there was Czech beer.

The inside of the Prague Basilica which stands within the walls of the great castle. An immense Gothic style church, it dwarfs everything else inside the castle district.

The Prague Basilica from the outside. It was a nice day that day, wasn't it?

From the hilltop castle district we had some nice views of the city. Compliments to my photographess.

Oh, here's a good one. Some statue near the castle of a young boy. Some of these statues you see around are lucky to touch, for some reason or another. The lucky part to touch on this boy just happened to be his penis (you can tell because the dark bronze gets really shiny from everyone touching it). These Japanese guys thought they were pretty funny. And so did we.

One of me standing on a different bridge. That's the more famous Charles Bridge straight behind me and the boat. The Old Centre of the city is to my left.

I am standing in the Old Centre of Prague right here. I couldn't help but grab a Czech beer while we walked around and marveled at all of the wonderful buildings within this old square. The big black structure behind me is the Town Hall. We didn't get the chance to go inside, but that's all the more reason to return someday.


Ab is doin her thang in the Old Centre square, Town Hall to her right, and the tower with big cool clock to her left. I think that I could spend more time in that square than just about anywhere else we visited.

Vienna, Austria

Wien, Vienna, the capital of Austria. This was our introduction to Germany. I'm sure if I spent more time there, I would learn a lot of differences between Austria and Germany; but, as it was, I was in the two countries a grand total of three days; so the major comparisons will have to wait.
They both speak German! And they like beer and pretzels and sausages. The architecture here was a lot like it was in Budapest, which surprised me. But there were a lot of classical statues and pillared designs. We were only there one day, which is much too short, and so we weren't able to take full advantage of all the fascinating musical history that exists in Vienna. Beethoven, Schubert, and several other famous composers have homes/museums in Vienna.

I am standing here next to one of the national museums in the city center area of Vienna. Connected to these impressively large museums is the Hofburg Palace which used to to be home to the dynasty of royal families who ruled Austria.

Here's a large pedestrian street chalk full of monuments, restaurants, and shops. Farther down the streets are several of Vienna's most famous churches.

St. Stephen's Cathedral. A little work being done of the top of the spire there, but check out the cool colored roofing on that gothic bad boy; eh?

We rode up the elevator to the top of the cathedral (finally! an old cathedral with an elevator!) and received this excellent closeup of the roof. You can't quite see it behind me, but the crest of Austria is displayed amidst the pattern of diamonds on the roof. Look more closely at the picture and you'll notice the the chicken weathervane they have chillin in the corner. A nice touch, I think.

This is one of the passageways through the Hofburg Palace, with four statues depicting Hercules bashing some impish thugs at the base, the beautiful pillars leading up to the decorative angels and heavenly scene on top, and the massive green dome hovering above.

Much of the palace (the gardens and several other buildings) was actually closed due to the EuroCup, which was being celebrated daily in the center area of Vienna. Austria and Switzerland were the host countries of the EuroCup soccer championship this year, and so they have these gigantic FanZones set-up in main areas of different cities. In Vienna the FanZones covered the historical center, making it impossible to gain entrance into several of the monumental buildings.
Oh well; we went and watched a game that night.

And talk about your street food! Austrian sausages! You better believe it. Wurstelstands... or Sausage stands: they're cheap! they're amazing! they're everywhere! We are missing them in the US and we don't even know it. I remember that mine on the left is Currywurst, a bratwurst with a ketchup and curry powder all over it. Three letters for you... OMG.

The EuroCup FanZone! Right in the middle of historic Vienna. That's the National Opera House behind me, with a monstrous big screen showing the match between Italy and France and also supporting the weight of a larger than life inflatable soccer ball I'm sure more than a few of the Fanatics would have liked to have a kick at.

We're still in the FanZone here, sippin on some Austrian beers, chowin on some Indian samosas, and watchin Italy kick butt in their quarterfinal match, all with the astoundingly beautiful Rathaus (townhall) towering over us. It was quite a night, and then it poured rain on us, and we all ran away. The end of our lone day in Vienna.

Budapest, Hungary

Heeeeey, Eastern Europe! How ya doin, buddy? Fourteen hours in train from Venice, Budapest is definitely worth the trip. Wow. I was totally blown away by the outstanding architecture and the beautiful old buildings in the Hungarian capital. It definitely left me hungary for more.

You liked that Hungary joke, didn't you? Read more, and I'll try to throw another one your way. I know you're hungary too.

I have to comment before we start that we met the coolest hostel owner ever while we were here. His name was Jim, and he was from "the Jungle," as he put it (yes, that's Chicago). So we had this cool Chicago guy explain to us the ins and outs of this incredible Eastern European capital, a city with an intense history of wars, occupations, and name-changes.

Hero's Square. These are the guys who fought the old Soviet Union to take independence. There was actually an old building on the main street leading to this square that today is known as the Horror House. This house (I don't think I have a picture) was a Soviet structure where they used to torture and kill suspects for years during their occupancy.

Today the people there seem quite subdued. Gosh... I wonder why?
(This point of view was substantiated by Jim, who told us a little about what he'd learned in his time there)

The old castle in the Pest part of town. Budapest used to be two different cities. Buda, the most ancient and important part, is located up on a hill on one side of the Danube River. Buda was very important in the old days because of the strategical positioning of its great castle and palace. Many great dynasties fought over Buda, and when it eventually came to be under Hungarian control, the authorities merged it together with the growing city of Pest across the river. The combination became the great metropolis of Budapest, ancient and modern industrial.

Ab with the lagoon and the castle. Sorry, this is not the castle in Buda that I was talking about. This is a different one.

Here is the Danube River. We climbed up a big hill in Citadel Park for this fantastic view over the city.

Here is the same view at night. In the center is the Chain Bridge, the most famous and oldest bridge connected Buda (on the left) and Pest (on the right). The left side of the photo shows the hill with the castle and palace. It's not a Walt Disney World looking castle; no, it's of a big castle grounds: an area of ancient ruins, a great cathedral, a grand palace, markets, shops, and tall castle walls surrounding it all.

I am standing in front of St. Steven's Basilica. Inside the basilica is actually the relic of St. Steve's right hand. Thank goodness they got the right and not the left.

Now I'm standing on top of St. Steven's Basilica. The hills of Hungary are behind me and the city in the background. We didn't see too much of Hungary on the train (seeing as how Budapest is in the western half of the country), but we did see several large lakes, a lot of farmland, no mountains, but a lot of hills around the Budapest area.

Sausages are big there. I was glad to see that. They're big everywhere in Germany and Eastern Europe, I think. We've got a couple different flavors of brats here; mine is slopped with a pond of Dijon mustard, and I also added a red pepper filled with sauerkraut.

Here's a wide view of the great Market Hall of Budapest. It's a massive structure for food markets, craft markets, and whatever else. They had all the freshest food, all the best sausages, meats, and lunches, and all the most typical handmade souvenirs and handicrafts.

Ab is standing with a big bag of cherries and another big bag o raspberries. We probably ate at least a kilo of fruit that afternoon...

Another example of some of the fantastic classical architecture. There are a lot of faces on the buildings. Jim explained to us how you could tell what kind of building it used to be by looking at the expressions on the faces. If the face is gargoylish, and snarling, angry, scary, whatever, it means that the building was a residence... beeecause the faces were supposed to scare away bad spirits. If the face was angelic, smooth, smiling, or generally pleasant looking, it was probably a building for the arts. Some of the grander statues and designs, like the one in my photo, were most likely reserved for government buildings.

Speaking of government buildings, here is Parliament. The stretch of the city along the Danube River has got to be one of the most beautiful areas of any city I've ever seen.

A statue of an ancient king on a horse is displayed here in the midst of an area in the hilltop castle district called the Fisherman's Wharf. These cool spiral topped buildings and nice lookout castle walls made this section of castle a unique attraction.

The church in the castle district is incredibly old also, and the decor is different from other churches I've been in. All of the walls and ceilings are painted in bright patterns of blues, reds, yellows and greens. My pictures of churches are always so dark, but I thought this one of the stairs turned out nice. You get an idea of the kind of painting I'm talking about.

Here Abby and found someone to take our picture again. That is the Chain Bridge behind us (we're on top of the hill in the castle district) and you can see St. Steven's Basilica beyond the bridge.

I am on the Chain Bridge here, and you're looking at the Danube River with Parliament on its eastern shore.

Again, the Chain Bridge; this time looking the other direction toward the castle, which you can see in the top left corner.

Jim had us visit a old church that was built inside a cave on a hill near the river. It was dark inside, so my photos weren't the best, though it was definitely worth our time to see it. If I were ever to attend a service in Budapest, this would be the place.