funny swiss stories.......

We were catching a flight to Copenhagen to visit my in-laws this past weekend. Our flight was really (really) early in the morning. 6:30 to be exact. At the airport, going through security the security man says to me in french...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said non......because usually they ask you do you have any liquids or a laptop. Easy enough - I said 'non'. He looks at me strangely and says (in English this time). "Where are you going?" What, I say (I never heard this question asked of me before, and I guess my non response did not cut it!)?? He says again, where are you going?? Are you going to Copenhagen? Why yes, yes I am, I say and proceeded through the line.
No wonder he looked so confused. Shit, no wonder why I was so confused. You get used to one question and then they pull something totally different out of their hat. I think it is just to test me to see if I know what they are saying when they speak French. Obviously not.

Spain..........

Was wonderful, absolutely fabulous. I mean really, when is it not?? Of course it was sunny (17-20 degrees)with blue skies the whole time.

We stayed a day/night in Alicante. Visited my old haunts, wandering around having a déjà vu every where I went. We even made it up to the castle this time. Last time we tried to walk up it - in the middle of the day, in the summer, not knowing really where we were going. Not the best idea.

After Alicante (and a side trip to Altea) we drove to Valencia and spent two nights there. Valencia was incredible. A nice big city without the tourists. Really, you could walk for hours and not hear any English. It was refreshing. Valencia has a bunch of little areas in their downtown section and we got to enjoy almost all of them. We walked so much I thought that my feet were going to fall off. We made a visit to the Aquarium, which is Europe's largest. We had been wanting to go there for awhile so part of this trip was to visit the Aquarium. Weird, I know.

After Valencia we drove to Barcelona to spend a couple hours walking around before our flight home. Barcelona is huge and crowded, and there were tourists everywhere. I much preferred Valencia although we did have a good time wandering the streets of Barcelona, trying to stay away from La Rambla.

Now I am back in Geneva and the sun has finally come out -if but only for a moment. I miss Spain, the life, the people, the food. The incessant chatter, the liveliness of it all. I miss being able to converse with the people. Upon our return I had to stop at the tailor and it was a mumble jumble of mis-matched french mumblings. Oh well. Back to the 'grind'.

Today it is....................

SNOWING. Yep, snowing. Yesterday it was bright and sunny (although a bit chilly) and I planted some flowers and window boxes for the terrace. This morning I wake up to snow - and it is still snowing. This is the most snow that I have seen this winter. But wait.....it's not winter anymore. I feel badly for the poor little birds (that make so much f'ing noise) that are nesting outside of our bedroom window. Betcha this snow shocked the hell out of them. Maybe they will be quiet while trying to keep warm. ;)

We are pretty much done with the ski season. Two weekends ago I wipe out twice and then last week I fell on the last run and hurt my ankle. It was nasty - lost both skis and poles. To my defense the visibility was quite bad at the time. I guess the faster I go the harder I fall. Next season I am going to buy a helmet.

What else, lets see.....I had a session with a photographer to learn more about my camera. What I did find out though is that I know NOTHING about my camera. It was a 2 hour session and was very informative although I felt like my head was going to explode after we were done. I was also part of setting up a photography club though Geneva online and our first meeting is tonight. I am excited that so many people are interested. There should be about 15 of us and it will be nice to get to meet some new people in this town. I know absolutely no one but will chalk it up to an experience and hope that all goes well.

Some practice shots (Jojje was not amused!)







This Thursday morning we leave for Spain. Gracias a Dios - finally a place where I can speak the bloody language. I am so sick of talking in monosyllables here. My French is still dreadful. Guess I really need to practice if I want to become better. UGH! We fly into Alicante Thursday morning, spend the night there and then drive up the coast to Valencia and spend two nights. The next day we will continue our drive to Barcelona and then leave for Geneva later that evening. I cannot wait to have a cortado. I have stopped drinking coffee about 2 months ago but I think that I will have to give in to the craving this weekend.

I can't stop thinking about it...........
:)

flower - geneve

flower - geneve
Originally uploaded by alicantina709

This picture I took reminds me of SPRING. Of course it was taken last year. That is why it looks so sunny and spring like. Ugh...I need some sun!