La Famiglia in Geneva and around...! Part 3: Annecy

Last day of family visit we once again "escaped" Geneva. Took the brilliant decision to head off to Annecy -  centre of tourism! Not the first time here, yet still oh so enjoyable! Last time I was here it was autumn and freezing, this time my feet took a wee dip into the lake! Not as brave as the people who went into the water with their whole bodies...

In Annecy you can visit the tiny tiny island with the old prison, take a boat tour on the lake, or like this time, stroll around the amazing food market (every Sunday) and rent a paddle boat, eat ice cream in the park like 2'000 others...and have a lovely French meal by one of the canals!

The family in front of the prison on that tiny island

On the boat! Paddling away...!

ps. if you want to see the pics better just click on them to enlarge!

La Famiglia in Geneva and around...! Part 2: Jardin des 5 sens

In Yvoire (France) there's a wonderful little thing called The Garden of 5 Senses". They have created a garden with several part, of which five of them are stimulating each human sense: fruits and vegetable for Taste, herbs and smelly plants for Smell, plants with weird textured leaves for Touch, a cage with a fountain and birds singing for Hearing and an explosion of colourful flowers for Vision.

Brussels sprouts! Had no idea they grew like this!

It really smelled like Coca Cola!

Zubrowska vodka anyone?

Bluer than blue...

In the middle of the whole garden the fountain/bird cage.

The castle in the background

La Famiglia in Geneva and around...! Part 1: Yvoire

Spring time is family time!
Last week I was fortunate to host my dear mother and sister in Geneva from Thursday to Monday. And for once I live in an enough big apartment to give them their own room...!
They came like Santa Claus with tons of gifts: Swedish meat soup, split pea soup, dark bread, chai tea powder from Espresso House, like 2kg of lösgodis (biggest bag of candy I've owned!) and of course some Marabou milk chocolate. There is no better milk chocolate in the world! Cadbury's is the closest you get...

Anyhow, I did take on the role of nice and warm welcoming host and took them out in the summer warm night for a Libanese dinner on Thursday, serving the by far tastiest char grilled lemon chicken!

Their Friday was spent getting some heavy pink colour (Sweden had still not seen much of spring...) and then taken out for Italian at the standard place Da Paolo by the lake.

The hot and sunny Saturday started with take-away breakfast from Starbucks in the form of a Mocha Frappuccino! Felt like good ol' school summer hols! And then we headed towards the border. Brilliant really, you're in France in about 15 minutes... 10 more minutes and we reached final destination: Yvoire!

Yvoire

Yvoire is a Medieval village, considered one of the prettiest villages of France (awarded with 4 (!) flowers in the village-prettiness-system-of-France!). It has a castle still owned by, and lived in by the same family, and dating all the way back from 10th century. It is beautifully located by the Lac Leman, and very little has actually changed since Medieval times. Cobbled little streets, old stone houses and full of colourful flowers with the amazing backdrop of the lake, Switzerland and the Alps.

       

The Castle

        

The finishing of the day in typical Swiss tradition back in Geneva: fondue and Swiss wine!

      

I fais Milan in 24h...!

I seem to be in Milan pretty much every month. Again, on Sunday eve I was off with the train to come back 30hrs later. So what thoughts did this spark...?
- I REALLY need to go to Stresa! It doesn't get more idyllic looking than this! Apparently one of the islands even have a casino....!

- It is frankly quite sick how astonishingly beautiful Europe can be. And I am pretty sure people from the Seychelles would agree!

- Milan is hot! Monday it was as hot there as a normal mid-summer day in Sweden, i.e. hottest day of the summer in England.

- The Duomo. Does anyone ever go inside it? Is it pretty? Impressive? Or just simply big and religious...?

- Most of the beauty consultants in La Rinascente were men. Odd. But maybe normal in Italy...

- Even though I only had 1hr of free time before the train I still managed to shop. My excuse is that same clothes are cheaper there than in Geneva (Swiss tax bla bla). Good thing I only go there once a month at most...