Vacation 2012 Part 1

Hi Folks:

It's been a while since the last post and a lot has happened. As you can probably guess from the title I have not been home! Gigi and I went to visit family in Switzerland and also spent some time visiting Budapest, Berlin, and London. I will tell you about some of the sights and sounds.

We left Montreal in September and flew on Air Canada to Geneva. From the airport we crossed directly to the train station without really having to go outside. No stairs, no traffic, no bus, no fuss! What a treat. We just pulled our suitcases along behind us and bought our demi-tarif and then our tickets to Schupfen, Bern. A stop at the Migros before boarding the train provided sustenance for the journey. We spent the first few nights with Gigi's sister, Jacqueline, and also Skyped with Philip in Africa and James and Marc in England. Vivian and family came over for a visit. We missed church on Sunday because we slept in. All part of jet-lag and adjusting to the 6 hour time difference. On Sunday afternoon we went to the Gurten and enjoyed a view of the Alps.
Monday we started off with Francoise and her husband for a week at Zinal. What a gorgeous place that is in the Val d'Anniviers. We visited the Moiry dam, did a couple of telepherique rides and of course did plenty of walking - mostly down! It was a great week and we really enjoyed getting to know Marc-Arthur.

After a week in the mountains it was a quick Easy-Jet ride to Budapest for 3 days.What a fascinating city we found. Our first experience was finding a restaurant for supper. We found a great little pizza place and sat under the stars for our first night in Budapest. The next morning we hopped on a Hop-on-Hop-off bus and had a great tour of the city. After lunch we managed the second part of the tour before taking a cruise on the "Blue" Danube! Probably the most picturesque sight was the Parliament buildings right beside the river. The following day we did some walking to visit some of the sights of the bus tour. Distances were much longer than we realized and so we very quickly learned to use the subway system. With our 24 hour ticket we could hop on and hop off whenever we decided. It is a great way to see lots of sights and not get too tired from walking. the city is clean and all the major tourists attractions are easily visited. While visiting one of the churches we bought tickets to a concert in St. Stephen's basilica which has a capacity of 8000. The concert was wonderful with organ, violin, trumpet, and vocalists.
All too quickly our time in Budapest came to an end and we moved on to Berlin. See Part 2.