The Rundown

At this point, I don't think it is practical for me to give the blow-by-blow, day-by-day account of my visits with my sister, then my parents, then Leah and Janice.  Although that is almost what I would prefer to do-- it seems to lend itself better to the telling of those funny moment and random findings.  But there simple isn't the time to do it.  Two weeks from now I will be home!  And my life will be quite different.  And as much as I enjoy blogging, I do not want to spend the rest of my time here at the computer writing. 
 
So here's what we're going to do.
 
Today, I will give you the run-down of what I saw and did with each my visitors (hooray for lists!).  After that, we will revisit these attractions in a more categorical manner, and I can try to explain what they were like and how I felt about them.
 
Hold onto your hats! Here we go.
 

Kelly

 

CERN

And now... the moment you've all been waiting for!  Our visit to CERN!

 

CERN is an acronym for the  European Council for Nuclear Research.  Well... the French version of that name.  Basically, CERN is a nuclear research facility.  Founded during the Cold War, it is an international project to use nuclear science for peaceful proposes.  The really big deal about it is its Large Hadron Collider (LHC).  Note that that is Large with a capital L. The collider is at 27 km (yes, kilometer) ring that makes atomic particles go really, really, really fast so that they can run into each other and break apart.  It's this breaking apart that the scientists like to study.

 

 

Around the LHC are four detectors that show the scientists what happens when the particles collide.  We were here to see the Atlas detector.

 

Artistic representation of the Atlas detector

 

Gruyeres: Cheese, Castle, Chocolate

Sunday in Switzerland we went on a day excursion up to the town of Gruyères. Our aims were threefold (and delicious):

 

1) Visit the Gruyère cheese factory

2) Visit the Castle at Gruyères

3) Visit the Cailler chocolate factory

 

We all piled into David and Callie's car and got on our way.  Besides Friday (when they picked us up at the airport) I hadn't been in a car for a long time!  It was kind of nice.

 

I also experienced something else that I hadn't seen in awhile.

 

 

Snow.

 

 

I can't say I've really missed it.  All in one day, we experienced sun, rain, snow, sleet and hail.  Just like home!  Except I was in Switzerland.

 

No worries, though!  We still had a good time.

 

 

Stop 1: La Maison du Gruyère

 

 

First, I would like to point out that the name of the town/region, Gruyères, ends with an "s." The name of the cheese, Gruyère,  does not.  They are pronounced the same way, and the cheese is named after the town (or region), but I still am not sure about the reason behind the spelling discrepancy.

 

 

 

Geveva

Let's step back a second and review, shall we?  Before Kelly came to see me, she had been in South Carolina for work for a couple weeks for work.  She flew from SC to Chicago to spend St. Patrick's Day weekend in Chicago with friends.  She flew out of Chicago on St. Paddy's day, and arrived at Heathrow early in the morning on March 18th.  I then tried to keep her moving all day so she wouldn't fall asleep.  However, we tried to get to bed early that night, because we had to get up at 3 to catch our flight.  We got up Wednesday, took a bus, then a taxi, then a train to the airport (we flew out of Stansted, all the way on the other side of the city).  Then we had our direct flight to Dortmund, Germany.  Ariel met us there, and we took a shuttle bus to the train station, then took 2 (or what it 3?  I lost track... haha... get it?) trains to Ariel's town, then took another bus to get to her neighborhood.  The next day, Thursday, we took 2 trains to Cologne, and 2 trains back. Friday we took 2 buses then a train to the airport, then flew to Geneva.  In Geneva, Callie and David picked us up in their car.

 

So Kelly had been on an airplane 4 of the last 8 days.

 

I'm not terribly prone to motion sickness, and neither is Kelly.

 

Unless she's tired.

 

She was tired. I can't imagine why!

 

There was no barfing, and Kelly really is such a trooper, but Girlfriend needed a break!

 

All of this is to say, we decided that Saturday in Geneva would involve no other transport besides the two-footed kind.  After sleeping in a bit, and having a fantastic crepe brunch (thanks Callie, it was delicious!), we explored the lovely city of Geneva.

 

(This is the part where I have a conversation with you again.  The italics are the things that you say.  But then... you should know that because you said it.)

 

So where exactly is Geneva, Steph?  I think I've hear of it, but I don't know where it is.  And (more importantly) what's the big deal about it?  Why have I heard of it?

 

 Great questions!

 

Geneva is in the Western trippy-tip of Switzerland, right across the border from France.  It is right along the Jira mountains, and right on Lake Geneva (coincidence? I think not!).  It also has this famous fountain.

 

 

Germany to Geneva

 

It's time we returned to Kelly and Steph's European Adventures.  We left off at our day in Cologne, Germany. 

 

Happiness

Hey Kids!  I'm still alive, in case you were worried. Obviously, I've been a little absent lately, but I have good reasons. 

In other news, over the past couple of years, I've been trying to make a list of 1000 things I'm thankful for.  Not surprisingly, I got the idea from the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  I started reading it, but never really finished it.

So, I'm going to give you my "excuses" for not blogging while adding to my list.  (Note: you can view bits and pieces of the list if you click on the "1000 gifts" tag over to the right, or click here.  Random numbering throughout posts indicate items on the list.)
 
156) Kelly, my big sister.
 

 

The Cologne Cathedral

While Kelly and I were in Germany, Jan and Ariel took us on a day trip to the city of Köln (spelled "Cologne" in English).

 

Immediately upon entering the city, it is apparent that the Cologne Cathedral is the city's distinguishing feature and landmark.  When emerging from the main train station, you are greeted with this impressive sight.

 

Pictures do no do it justice!  It is so hard to capture the scale of this enormous and beautiful building, but just trust me when I say that it is awe-inspiring.