Lausanne

On Mom and Dad's last full day, we took another day trip, but this time to Lausanne, Switzerland --- just a 30 minute train ride from Geneva. Here are Mom and Dad with the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Lausanne in the background:

It's getting to be that time of year!

I think that this might be my favorite photo from the whole trip. It came out really well --- even Leah thinks so:

We finally had a beautiful, sunny day to wander around Lausanne's old town, which is pretty hill-y so we definitely got our exercise, especially walking up to the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Lausanne to check out the views from there. Here's the front of the cathedral:

And one of the towers:

More cathedral:

Meanwhile, Dad has decided to quit his day job and become a 17th century street sweeper:

Inside the cathedral:

Then we had a delicious lunch at Cafe Saint Pierre --- I had some amazing veal chops and roasted potatoes. Then we checked out the "revitalized warehouse district" of Lausanne known as Flon:

The whole day was pretty much filled with wandering around and shopping, but it was really lovely weather and a lot of fun even though we didn't actually do too many things. Wonderful day and wonderful trip overall!

On Saturday morning, November 24, I woke up really early to meet Mom and Dad at their apartment and help them navigate the bus system to get the airport (and avoid paying 50CHF for a cab... Geneva is so annoyingly expensive) where we said our goodbyes and I sent them on their merry! It was hard to go back to work this week, but I only have two and half more weeks of work left --- and so much to do between now and then. I don't think that I will be traveling anymore, so this may be the last blog post, but I will certainly update if anything else interesting happens. Otherwise, I return to the US on December 21 (if the world doesn't end) and I look forward to catching up with many of you in person!

Lyon

On Thanksgiving Day, Mom, Dad, and I met at the train station in Geneva and took a 9:29am train to Lyon, France. We went straight from the train station there to Place Bellecour in the center island of Lyon between the Rhone and Saône Rivers. We had a little time to wander around and take a few photos by the Rhone River:

And here by a cool flower sculpture with Place Bellecour in the background:

Then we had a 12:30pm reservation at Le Sud, one of Chef Paul Bocuse's restaurants in Lyon, to have a big meal to celebrate the holiday. It was a great restaurant and a great meal --- it was nice to really take our time and enjoy our food (did the whole appetizer, entree, and dessert shebang), but my favorite was a simple dessert of fresh fruit with homemade whipped cream --- absolutely delicious.

After lunch, we strolled down the Rue de la Republique for some shopping --- I splurged on a camel-colored suede jacket and spent the rest of the day wearing it. Here are some photos with the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière in the background:

  We then crossed over the Saône River:

And we headed to Vieux Lyon (old town Lyon) for more strolling around and shopping, and checked out the Cathedral of Saint John:

Then we took the funicular up to Fourvière above Lyon to see views of the city:

 Then we also checked out the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière itself:

On our way back down to the station, we stopped at a cute little chocolate shop for a little so Mom could load up on chocolates and macaroons. We took a 6:30pm train back to Geneva (it's about 1 hr 45 minutes long, so there was a lot of travel time on this day) so I headed back to my place and Mom and Dad back to theirs once we got home. I suppose instead of Happy Turkey Day, we had more of a bonne journée de la dinde... minus the dinde part. 

Thanksgiving in Geneva

Mom, Dad, and I spent Wednesday, November 21 checking out Geneva. I met them at their apartment near Plainpalais in the morning (I helped Dad find the place on Airbnb --- very cute and a great location) and he cooked us eggs with mushrooms and peppers, which we ate along with some fresh grapes... probably the best breakfast I have had since I have been here.

After breakfast, we walked from their apartment through the Parc des Bastions and then Old Town Geneva. Here's Mom and I in front of some tree in the park:

Apparently, it is officially winter in Geneva, because they set up an ice rink in the park:

Here's Mom and Dad with one of the giant chess boards:

Dad's the king and Mom's the queen... get it?

From the park, we headed up the steps to walk through Old Town:

Dad liked the look of the green shutters and the bird's nest, or something...

Mom didn't get the memo that she was supposed to get the bird's nest, too, but still cute:

Mom and I in front of the flower clock:

In front of Lake Geneva:

Following our tour of Old Town, I took Mom and Dad over to check out the WHO... here's Mom by the African river blindness statue near the main entrance:

And the immunization statue, again:

 Then I took them to meet my supervisor, Raymond. Mom liked him so much that she got Dad to buy him a running shirt from UT (Raymond is a gung-ho runner). I showed them around the main building including going up to the balcony on the 8th floor to check out the view:

 

 Mom and I by the UNAIDS and WHO signs:

Same concept but with Mom and Dad:

Dad taking a picture of Mom taking a picture...

We also went by the giftshop and my very generous parents bought me a WHO jacket as a souvenir of my experience. Then we walked back to my apartment. On the way, we walked by the horses that live near WHO and stopped to snap more photos. First, I couldn't stop laughing at Mom trying to pronounce Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso:

Next try:

Horses + Dad:

Dad's artistic photo of me and Mom walking away from the Geneva sign:

Dad also took a photo of this graffiti:

 At my apartment, Mom and Dad made me take this horrible, goober photo:

Then we rested for a little while, and I also packed up my duffel bag with things for them to take back to Austin with them (and then Dad is shipping the duffel back to me for my flight home).

We had dinner that night at Chez Ma Cousine, aka the chicken restaurant where you can get a 1/2 rotisserie chicken, fries, and a salad for 14.90CHF... amazingly cheap for Geneva. It is also around the corner from my apartment and I love it. Luckily, Mom and Dad loved it, too.

After dinner, I went back to their Plainpalais apartment with them and we watched the new episode of Homeland together on my laptop (yay family bonding over TV shows...) and so Mom could check her work email (brownie points for me)... I was so exhausted by this point that I actually started falling asleep in their bed. It was a long trek back to my place from there (had to take a tram and a bus to get home), but still a wonderful day in Geneva with the 'rents!