Ferney-Voltaire Saturday Market

So these pics are from the last Ferney-Voltaire Saturday market we went to. It is a great way to spend a morning, people watching, free samples, and great wine, cheese, bread and food.

Here is our little flower boy, at the Ferney playground. He like to count and pick flowers. Mattew was not in the last two posts, and we know why you all come here, to see him.



I couldn't resist this pic, hee hee. He has obviously just worken up.
Following is our favorite booths, the ones we would each trip:

The dried fruit

Tammie's Birthday

Hello, this is Mike again. Here are some pics from Tammie's birthday dinner. We went to an Etheopian restaurant in downtown Geneva. We did get a baby sitter so that we could both be at the table the whole time.

Here is the dinner we got. A combo plate[or combo bread plate to be exact, the food is served on flat bread which you tear off and use to pick up the food. The one dinner without matthew and we pick someplace you eat with your hands :-) ] of five different vegitarian dishes. They were all wonderful.
We had to get one picture of us in. The restaurant was decorated like african huts, it was a very fun place.
And the most important part of a birthday, the cake. From the local bakery, it was yummy.

More entries soon, you can look forward to the Ferney Saturday Market, and our Trip to London.

Best,
Mike

The CMS detector

So here it is, the reason, other than the cheese, that we came to Genava. The CMS detector. The shiny ring in the center is the part I am working on. The detector is about 6 stories tall, and you can see people in the last picture for scale. This is only about one third of the detector, the rest is still above ground waiting to be lowered. I will post more interesting, mostly Matthew, pics soon.

Mike

Duomo Roof II and Old Town Geneva

So here is a picture most Mom's wouldn't want to see, Their son on a Church roof. Tim took this pic from the Highest part of the roof.This is "the boys" in front of one of the stained glass windows that you can see way up at the top of the pic of the inside of the church in the previous post. That will show you how high up we were.
After safely making our way down, we celebrated with one of our new favorite foods, Gelato. Matthew seemed to be a fan also.
The next two pics are of old town Geneva, a very cute part of Down town, with winding streets, and very old buildings.


And we had to include this pic of Matthew enjoying his dessert at the Buffalo Grill, an American steakhouse. Which he had to try since Tim is in the biz. Matthew seems to like the ice cream, don't you think?
We will be posting more shortly, the pics are loaded up, and we just have to make comments.
Bye

Roof of the Duomo or "Tammie let Matthew go where?"

One more interior shot before we head up, and I do mean UP!!




At this point I feel the need to bring you all up to speed on the fact that I (Tammie) am not a fan of heights and (irrational though it may be) also prefer to keep my small, active and fearless child close to the ground when possible. Both of these preferences were thoroughly disregarded in the shots that follow....


Yep, there is only one way to get this photo. You got it folks...we were on the roof of the Duomo. Were it not a church I may describe it more colorfully, but that might be sacreligious (especially on Easter Sunday)....

[Mike here again, while Tim and I took the stairs up, Tammie, just because she had Matthew and the stroller to carry took the elevator, how lazy :-)]


It is not obvious from this shot, but that is Matthew (safely strapped into his stroller, thankfully) and Mike standing on the top of the church. Matthew did get out and climb on the further roof behind him...of course! Heaven forbid we were just up a 100 feet without also turning the roof into a play structure! :-)




[Mike: I took this b/c I wanted there to be photographic proof of Tammie on the roof, in case people did not believe me]



Here is the money shot! This is where you all appreciate the insanity of this location...and admittedly, the beauty of the vantage point. Milan was lovely, and the view was mighty impressive. Okay, so in the end it was a great call to go stand on the roof of a church!

[It was beautiful, and the carvings were amazing. In true Gothic tradition, if you could add some decorative carving to somthing, they did. It was also neat that since we were up there during a service you could hear the organ music drifting up throught the windows]

Happy Easter!

Milan Part I

Just a sample of the gorgeous view of Mount Blanc on the drive from Ferney-Voltaire to Milan...nice way to spend a weekend!



Mike is in charge of captioning this one...I think it is something about all the castles-turned-asylums in Italy...

[Hi, this is Mike, since Tammie did the first round of comments I get to comment on her comments. After crossing the border we went through the Aoste Valley, which had lots of cute little towns going up into the mountains, and since it was a narrow valley lots of old castles for defense, all of which looked like modern psych facilities. We kept threating matthew if he wasn't good on the drive we would drop him off and get him on the way back.]


Straight-forward one for a change. Just proof that Tim and Tammie (and Mike and Matthew) made it to the Duomo. However, there is plenty of proof of that to come...


The arcade across from the Duomo. Is it just me or do they just not make arcades like this in the states?
[Mike again, inside the arcade were some nice restaurants, and next to each other were Prada, Louis Vittan, and McDonald's. sigh]


"The Boys" on the train from Milan to the hotel...Matthew, of course, is having a blast...dad, uncle Tim and a train...what a day!


And a picture of Matthew's favorite thing about Milan...trains, trains and more trains (especially when they all have to line up and wait because there is a foot race taking place). We finally got off after 30 minutes of waiting, and found it much faster to travel on foot.

[Mike: Our hotel room overlooked a trolley track and every time one went by, Matthew would run to the window to watch.]


Part of our path to Milan took us through an enormous castle that was being used as the starting point for the foot race. It was a sight to see! This one does not even do the scale justice, but what would?! And they started building it in the 1400's...no Caterpillars or Mac trucks to help out!

[Mike again, Sforza's castle to be exact.]



The first shot of the Duomo...again, everything is on a pretty huge, and impressive, scale. Hard to convey the sheer size and impressive nature of the place. Also mighty interesting to show up there on Palm Sunday. We were ushered to the back of the church so they could start services. Rather than merely go to the back of the church the boys convinced us we should go to the TOP...you can imagine the pictures that follow...or check out the next post to save yourself the trouble...

[Mike with more random information. The Duomo is the second largest church in italy, and has the largest collection of stone statues]