Surface mail

Actually we don't know what happened to the rest of the ship, but at least the anchor is here.

This is another example of a rather sturdy stand for the mailbox - but since neither the mailbox itself nor the 'anchoring' to the anchor appear unusually robust one might ask what good it does.

Beautification

In Carouge we found this example of how unfortunate the result can be when the facade is renovated on only half of an otherwise identical block of appartments.

And then it was Christmas again

Lisbeth came home again on the 23^rd (known in Denmark as 'little Christmas eve') as planned and there was Christmas in the little home after all - with Christmas duck, red cabbage sauerkraut, Christmas cake, a wide selection of cookies, and surprisingly many gifts.

On Christmas eve we were by ourselves, but on Christmas day we had a couple of Tue's colleagues over for a Danish style Christmas lunch with pickled herring, schnapps, liver pâté, cuts of cold roast ... and more Christmas cake and more cookies.

After the guests went home we spent the rest of Christmas day relaxing on the couch reading.

Now the shops are open again and we are going to venture outside...

Christmas preparations

While Lisbeth was sent to Denmark to fetch our Christmas presents (and run a couple of other errands) it was Tue's job to look after the little apartment and shop for the holiday festivities. Particularly the latter can be time consuming when looking for unusual goods and only speaking a broken French. In an attempt to have at least some Christmas traditions we have decided to repeat last year's Christmas cake. For this we require of course the Italian hazelnut liqueur Frangelico, but that shouldn't be so hard to get here, this close to northern Italy where the drink originates? Wrong! Most places that Tue entered and asked for it, he was greeted by a puzzled "C'est quoi, ça?" ('That is what, that?!'). So in the end it was also Lisbeth's job to parallelly import a bottle purchased at the Italian store Supermarco in Copenhagen.

It went a little better when shopping for various cuts of pork. The butcher at the supermarket Migros did have a funny look on his face when Tue asked if he could buy "graisse du porc" ('fat of pig')? Not to be deterred by such, Tue persevered with "lard sans viande" ('bacon without meat'), after which the butcher concluded that perhaps the product in mind was "bardes" ('broad strips of lard'). Once it was confirmed that they agreed and he was busy weighing out half a pound of it the butcher wanted to know what it was to be used for, so Tue had to try to explain liver pâté. Then he didn't have any more questions. But Tue did: what about a "rôti du porc avec sa peau" ('pork roast with its skin')? For this he could only suggest a pork shoulder - with the shoulder bone still in it, that is. Not optimal for Danish style pork roast. At the butcher in the supermarket Coop things didn't go any better. Only when Tue entered a real butcher store, was he told that he could come pick up the piece of meat he was looking for the next morning.


Thinking of specific tasks to perform, a wish had been expressed for a nail on the door for hanging a Christmas decoration from - actually we have practically no nails, but Tue succeeded in finding a single nail, left over from the assembly of some piece of Ikea furniture earlier in the year.

Likewise, a wish had been expressed for the baking of more cookies, particularly the traditional Danish cookies vanilla wreaths and perhaps also the so-called Jew cookies. Before any baking took place, intelligence arrived that both of these two types of cookies had been donated from Lisbeth's mother, so perhaps it would be preferable to try to bake something else. Tue then chose to make the not particularly Christmassy pistachio shortbreads, and the modern compliment of the Jew cookie, the palestinian cookie, giving a fresh breath of some different spices.

Last but not least, the purchsed lard was of course used to bake the intended batch of liver pâté and when Lisbeth's flight touches the runway tonight the pork roast will probably be in the oven at home...

Mail and Cacti

We have previously broached the subject of how much space a mailbox can take up. And related, how large numbers can be used for writing the street number of the house. To be fair, we have to add that these guys seem to be number in both categories.

The cactus garden one can see a bit of behind the mailbox is, BTW, decidedly one of the more tasteful in that neighbourhood.

Winter weather

Now it's Christmas vacation time in Geneva - and somehow it just is more Christmassy here than in ever was in Santa Barbara. During the Christmas-shopping-frenzy time has been allocated for taking a few pictures.


By now there is at least a little snow on all the mountains we can see from here. Unfortunately we can't always see all that much, but on clear days it's quite pretty.


The low water level in the Arve is also to be noted when going to Jonction.

PostFinance

As previously mentioned, we are by now the two proud owners of Swiss postal accounts. Of course this includes net banking (ehh ... net-post-banking). But before getting started on the latter one has to wait for the post to mail this thingamajig. Which in combination with the smart card is used to generate access codes every time the system entered - this on top of your customer number (in itself a little hard to walk around remembering since it's not used for anything else - and the homepage has been conveniently programmed so as not to allow the browser to remember this field) and personal password.

Multiplet mailboxes

As previously mentioned it isn't uncommon to see clusters of mailboxes along the highways in the US. Interestingly, the phenomenon is also encountered in cities. For example (in the left side of the collage), both the "twin" mailboxes and the fairly Little-Claus-and-Big-Claus like mailboxes are from Santa Barbara. In the right side of the collage you see larger clusters of mailboxes: the most mixed set is typical of the Isla Vista neighbourhood right next to UCSB while the string of identical mailboxes was found, curiously, in Hilo, Hawai'i.

Fondue

We hadn't been in Geneva for long before we actively decided that we definitely weren't going to try eating fondue before it was winter.

While Lisbeth is in Denmark, Tue has attended the End-of-Year event with the research team. This year it was held at Café d'Avusy in the village Avusy. As implied by the board in one of the pictures people in Avusy do not appear to share our opinion of when to enjoy fondue. But now it's the middle of December and even though there isn't much snow here in Geneva, there was a pretty white cover everywhere out in Avusy.


After the party consumed a couple of trays of thinly sliced dried beef the little heaters on the tables were lit. Shortly after the pots with preheated fondue were put on the tables. There wasn't really time for sneaking a peak in the kitchen, but it is said that such a fondue is made from 3 cheeses, white wine (to dilute), and a little starch to prevent the wine and the cheese from separating. Using the small spikes the bread pieces were dipped in the cheese .. and yum. With this drink white wine. And so forth until there is no more fondue or one is completely full - whichever happens first. Although, we did get desserts afterwards...

And what is the verdict then? Tue would do it again - although not too soon!

Post barns

Another recurring theme amongst the US mailboxes is the mailboxes which mostly resemble barns, garages, dog houses, and other miniature outhouses. Executed with varying attention to detail, of course.

The Fish Box II

Yes, it isn't only in Hawai'i one can find a fishy mailbox - such can also be found in Goleta.

It may not be as impressive as the Hawai'ian one, but at least we found it on the corner of Sea Gull St which somehow seems very appropriate.

Approved mailbox

Unlike many other US mailboxes the decoration of this one doesn't appear the least bit home made (and it certainly wasn't unique - we found a couple of it in the neighbourhood we lived in).

One of the most fascinating aspects of this mailbox is the message, part of the cast, that the mailbox is approved by The United States Postmaster General - that is, the head of the US mail service. Which, by the way is an authority which can pride itself of being older than the US constitution as the office was founded already in 1775.

Marmite de l'Escalade

This time of year it is traditional for the Genevans to commemorate the only fight they actually came out of victoriously.

On the night of December 12th 1602 a French army, sent by the duke of Savoy (encouraged by the Pope), marched towards Geneva along the river Arve. The locals largely ascribe the victory to Mrs. Royaume who, for unknown reasons, was busy preparing a large cauldron of soup in the wee hours of December 12th. The Royaume family lived near one of the city gates and when the French soldiers attacked they had Mrs. Royaume's hot soup coming down on their heads. This killed one of the attackers (presumably by being hit by the cauldron itself - otherwise it might not be so flattering for the local culinary reputation), and the rest of the city was woken up so they could defend the city.


Therefore, in the days leading up to December 12th, one finds lots of chocolate cauldrons in different sizes in the shops. On the day itself people gather around such a pot and find the youngest and the oldest person in the group. Together these two will smash the cauldron while yelling in French "Thus perish the enemies of the republic". Afterwards one eats the chocolate and the marzipan vegetables it contained. As it also quite widespread to dress up for this candy feast, there seems to be a few parallels with Halloween...

Patriotic Mail

People sometimes have funny tendency to want to show off their flag - we know it from Denmark (which unfortunately we don't have a good picture of), from Switzerland (the other little huts also had flags on full right next them), from France (notice particularly the trees along Champs-Élysées in the upper left corner of the collage).

As such it shouldn't really come as a great surprise that the phenomenon is also found in the US. But we were still a little amazed to find this mailbox exactly in Ojai, California - hippie-town Ojai is mostly known for all their purveyors of alternative treatments, and for not allowing chain stores within the city limits.

The Mail Train

This little mail train from Goleta has certainly been waiting its turn to get on the blog. Not least considering it is one of the mailboxes that gave us the idea for the mailbox theme in the first place.

But here it is.

Snow on the Juras

During the last 2-3 weeks, the part of the Jura mountains that we can see has been snow-capped. The extent of the snow varies from day to day because so far we have been blessed with mild weather and some lovely sunny days - quite often on Sundays which we obviously don't mind.
We are also grateful that we currently have approximate two more hours of day light than what we were used to from Denmark this time of year.
All this contributes to our not missing the Californian winter weather TOO much...

Scandinavian Christmas and Cookies

Saturday we went to Globus (the Swiss equivalent to Macy's) and noticed that their Christmas theme this year is 'Scandinavian Christmas'.
According to the catalogue this has been interpreted as black and white geometry but in all fairness it should be mentioned that in the store we did also see decorations in green and red as well as plenty of mooses and birch.

The promoted products are the 'usual suspects' such as Georg Jensen, EvaSolo, Iittala, Lego, salmon and Akvavit so nothing new and exciting in this respect.

We must have let the theme inspire us in our Christmas cooking though since we spent Sunday making 'Finnish Bread' and 'Swedish Chocolate Breads' - not unlike last year. Although one would think the current 4 tins of cookies should be sufficient for the two of us (even if it's rather small tins, they are in addition to the tasting samples Tue brought to lab today!), Tue is now contemplating whether it is possible to make 'Vanilla Wreaths' - an infamous Danish christmas cookie - without the special shaping tool ... If he succeds we will surely keep you posted.

Facades in Carouge

In order to avoid only having posts of what we do when we're away from Geneva we'll share with you today a small observation from our own city. On the other side of the river Arve one finds the neighbourhood Carouge, where we go - either by foot or by bikes - every now and again. On one of these little trips we noticed this house:


Seen from the front it is quite impressive - perhaps even pompous. But going a few meters further along the street one quickly realizes it's all in the style of the late Potemkin.

Correios

We hadn't been in Lisbon for long before spotting our first mailbox there (see above) - it wasn't exactly easy to miss it. As it turned out, this model with built in stamp vending wasn't actually the standard. The rest of the weekend we saw a lot more of these somewhat smaller, but still highly recognizable mailboxes (see below).

From Lisbon the world was conquered...

Portugal's past as a proud sea-faring nation is obviously also part of present-day Lisbon and thus we went to Belém - the neighbourhood where all the voyages of discovery in the 15th and 16th century were launched.

In Belém a very beautifully situated monument has been erected which is adorned by Henry the Navigator (the front figure above) and a number of his contemporaries. It also provides the option of going to the top of the monument from where one has a sweeping view of Lisbon, the mouth of the Tejo river and the Atlantic Ocean and not least an overview of the compass mosaic below the monument that dates the years of the Portugeuese discoveries.

And yes, the bridge across the Tejo is inspired by the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

Transportation in Lisbon

By now trams are not so unusual for us - when not riding our bikes we primarily use the trams here in Geneva - but these old wagons in Lisbon were more fun than the modern ones we have here. The very steep and narrow streets they ran up and down were also far more interesting and at times we wondered if the brakes could actually keep the tram from sliding when stopping for a red light.
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Unfortunately we didn't have time to try out Lisbon's furnicular but Lisbon offers a - for us - brand new method to tackle differences in level: an elevator!

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In 1902 they simply built an elevator to make it easy to come from the city centre to the higher laying Bairro Alto neighbourhood. There are wonderful views from the top of the elevator (where there is a café as well) and it is possible to walk via a pedestrian bridge to Bairro Alto without worrying about finding a tram or putting unnecessary wear and tear on one's knees.

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The architect (i.e. Raul Mesnier du Ponsard - for the elevator connaisseurs :-) was a student of Gustave Eiffel, which the construction might bear imprint of. At least, the idea of an elevator in Lisbon is almost as excentric as the idea of a gigantic viewing tower with three elevators in Paris

Ode to Lisbon

Okay, let's admit it: we love Lisbon!

The city is old - in certain places even dilapidated - and modern in a charming blend and there are numerous, quite different neighbourhoods to explore. It is beautifully situated by the Tejo river which is so wide that it seems like an ocean and the climate suits us very well (i.e. sunny in November!). Furthermore, when the cuisine consists primarily of grilled fresh fish and the Portuguese all seem to speak English perfectly, well, then it's hard not to be enthusiastic about the place.

That we also stayed at the absolutely best hostel/hotel we have visited so far only adds to the experience. Lisbon Lounge Hostel is located smack in the middle of the city centre and is very clean and cleverly furnished - and offers great breakfast and very nice employees.

Portugal and Lisbon as well as the Lounge Hostel should all expect to see us again some time in the future.

City of tiles

One of the strong characteristics of Lisbon is the degree of colour and details that marks its' buildings.

The palaces and other public buildings are often plastered and have detailed decorations including e.g. columns, statues and carved stone as we know it from other European cities. But where Lisbon really stands out is in regard to the partiality to cover the façades of apartment buildings with tiles. Painted tiles contain numerous possibilities to differentiate one's house from the neighbour's, and some houses are obviously more tasteful than others, just as some houses and tiles are better preserved than others. But let us share here some examples with you (click on photos for bigger versions).

Segway police officers

On our trip to Lisbon last week we noticed a couple of Segway police officers who were kind enough to slow down for a photo when they noticed we had the camera out. It was the first time we saw this phenomenon, but apparently it's quite common.

Furthermore it was a reminder that we still haven't tried a Segway tour ourselves despite talking about it more than once. For some reason we never did get around to it in Santa Barbara and we haven't seen it offered here in Geneva. Lisbeth has been dreaming of trying it ever since she saw this hilarious episode of Frasier, in which Niles Crane is driving one...

Zürich has one; Locarno and Lugano has one each; Bergamo has one; Lyon has even two...

In this mountainous part of Europe the public transport systems of many cities include one or two short cable lines connecting the higher lying parts of the city with the lower lying parts. These are usually fairly old installations and are known in French as funiculaire (German: Standseilbahn, Italian: funicolare).

Despite numerous visits to Paris, Lisbeth was surprised to find that also there is one - going to the top of Montmartre of course - and then we tried that instead of going up the stairs next to it:

How it is possible for her to vividly remember walking down these same stairs earlier without having noticed the funicular remains mysterious... the Parisian funicular was built in the year 1900!

This weekend the trip goes to...

'nuff said!

125 mL T-Shirt

As mentioned our trip to Paris included shopping in Muji - another store which Tue hadn't been to before and which Lisbeth already knew quite well. The Muji we went to (in Le Marais) is actually no less than 2 stores: one with clothing, and one with their other goods. In the clothes stores Tue couldn't resist the temptation to buy a t-shirt which came in an unusual packaging: pressed into a small cube. As is hopefully visible in the picture, it was pressed so hard it kept the shape just fine after being unwrapped. In fact it took a little time to figure out how to best unfold it. Last but not least, we can tell you it was still rather crinkled after being washed the for the first time... and after being worn for half a week... and probably also being washed again...

Viva las.... Paris

Although we experienced the Las Vegas version of Parisian atmosphere (incl. Eiffel Tower) a couple of years ago, the time had now come to let Tue explore 'the real deal' for the first time! Even though the trip was short we managed to squeeze in a lot: biking along Champs-Élysées, seeing the Eiffel Tower both at dusk and broad daylight (unfortunately the queue to go up was way too long both times), wandering the Marais Quarter and Rue Mouffetard, shopping in MUJI, eating croissant aux amandes, viewing the first and the second and the third triumphal arch, viewing the skyline of Paris from Arc de Triomphe (the second of the arches listed before), being in awe of the size of the Palais de Louvre, going up to Montmartre and being annoyed by all the hustlers up there, eating French onion soup, andouillette and crème brûlée for dinner, wondering about the queue to Centre Pompidou, being delighted with the same building and not least the Tinguely fountain in front of it, walking along the Seine and generally just admiring all the famous buildings (such as Notre Dame, Palais Royal, Grand Palais, Hôtel de Ville, Panthéon, and Musée D'Orsay) and plazas (a.o. Place de la Concorde, Place de la Bastille, Louvre's court yard, Place de la Bastille and Place du Trocadéro) while we were making our way around the city.

The timing of the trip was primarily dictated by Lisbeth's friend, Xiaolei, making a week long stop-over in Paris on her job transfer from the US to Singapore. Regretably we didn't take her photo for the blog here so you'll just have to believe that we had a lovely dinner with her Saturday night.

Autumn in Geneva

Recently the blog might have mainly described the trips we have made away from Geneva but we have also enjoyed the autumn here. The weather has been quite lovely and so far not with too much rain and for a while we had the colours above just outside of our windows. As the leaves are falling we can see more and more of the surrounding mountains again and we are eagerly keeping an eye out for snow every morning.

On one of our walks we collected a heap of chestnuts which are now decorating our living room instead of the Halloween decorations that we could have put up had we lived somewhere else.

On fait du bricolage

The French title means something along the lines of "one is (or we are) performing hobby-like work and/or doing repairs in the home" and is used here to signify that we Tue finally got our his act together and did something about the remaining problems in our apartment.


It is starting to really manifest itself that the year is coming to an end, and we still haven't understood the deeper principles behind the radiators here in our apartment (we leave them on constantly, but they appear only to be warm on the weekend). Therefore we started out by making a third trip to Ikea on a Friday night to pick up a winter comforter and a small rug for the hallway. The latter making it possible to get to the bathroom without stepping on the cold floor tiles. Oh, and we put our map of Europe up on the wall.


Another consequence of the changing seasons is that by now it is dark most of the hours we're both at home. So it was about time we got some light in the hallway: we ended up moving the socket and bare bulb from the kitchen (putting in its place the three-spot lamp we bought for the kitchen many moons ago) to the hallway - making it much easier to actually look at the aforementioned map of Europe. Being already at it, we installed a small lamp for reading by the bed and a wall hanger. All in all the hallway seems a lot more complete now.

Mail painting II

As mentioned Lyon impressed us also with its murals. The picture above was taken in Croix Rousse (the old silk worker neighbourhood) and apart from the portal in the lower left corner it is one, flat wall. We have read that the car in the painting is replaced from time to time to be in accordance with the most recent sponsor agreement. Many of the murals in Lyon have some connection to the surroundings - see, f.ex., this mailman next to a real French mailbox: