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!