Manhattan!!

It was a long-time dream come true to go to Manhattan during Christmas time! And the afternoon we arrived it started snowing ... the picture above is close to Time Square.

Beautiful, beautiful Central Park covered in white.

Manhattan life ... and publicity for the popular Christmas Spectacular in Radio City Hall.

Impressive skyscrapers wherever you look...

I also need to mention two cafés/coffeeshops we especially liked: the French Roast Café in Greenwich Village which has the most tasty Cappuccino and New York Cheesecake you can find ... and Oxford Café which has such a great quality food - sandwiches, soups, cakes ... both are higly recommended!!

And certainly the wonderful Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center!!

It was an absolute unforgettable vacation for us and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

NY is such an exciting place!

Long Island!

We spent a wonderful week on Long Island in December! As you see above, we saw marvellous beaches...

We've met Mary at "A night in Betlehem" - a "hands-on holy land experience" with the Bethlehem marketplace - beautifully set up by the Lutheran Church of the Ressurection, Garden City.

We enjoyed a nice time at our much loved Cheesecake Factory...

and shopped at the impressively large Roosevelt Field Mall, Garden City!

Long Island is such a beautiful place - and this combined with the Christmas atmosphere was just an awesome experience!

Believe!

We just returned from a wonderful trip to New York (Long Island and Manhattan). It was very Christmassy over there, especially because snow fell on Sat 19th Dec (there wasn't any other news on TV anymore ... only the "snowstorm").

I especially liked Macy's Christmas campaign, going back to the wonderful movie "The miracle on 34th street" ... BELIEVE!!!

And it's true, the Christmas miracle is all about believing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

Thanksgiving in Geneva

My husband and I love to join the annual Thanksgiving celebration at the American International Women's Club. It's always a very warm, welcoming and cosy atmosphere with lovely decorations, homemade food and nice fellowship.

Yesterday we even learnt from a speech that was hold how very connected Geneva and the American Thanksgiving really are ...Geneva, the city of Calvin ... and the godly calvinist immigrants who invented Thanksgiving!!

So Geneva is one of THE places to celebrate Thanksgiving ... and it's a great opportunity to be thankful for all the good things we receive - each year, each day.

Modern Gospel Concert 15th Nov 09!!

I'm so happy to announce this Modern Gospel concert...

It's a charity concert in favor of an orphanage in Madurai/India!

Modern Gospel is an amazing mix between Gospel and Pop!

Tombola with really nice prizes!

Pls find all information on zoe events!

Testify to love!

This is one of the songs that will be performed at our Modern Gospel Concert on 15th Nov 09!
Pls check over at zoe events!

Listen and enjoy!

Summer Summary!

This is perhaps the perfect day for a summer review. Today, on October 7th, we had 27 degrees (Celcius!!) here in Geneva! Summer showed up again in early autumn. But the whole year was amazing what weather concerns. A beautiful spring, a really hot summer, and an incredible warm start into autumn - with many many cloudless, sunny days. What a blessing!


We started into the summer in June with our holiday in Camargue/France. It was a perfect time as it was already hot, but the crowds hadn’t yet shown up. A very special region with wine grown on sand (vin du sable), rice and wild horses!
Then, in mid July we headed to my hometown in Southern Germany to celebrate our little nephew’s/cousin’s baptism. It was a very nice family celebration. In this church, I was baptised as well, had my confirmation - and we celebrated our wedding there - ten years ago!

At the beginning of August we had the pleasure to spend a weekend at one of our favourite Swiss spots: Lake of Thun. It’s Switzerland at its best, postcards coming true, so to say…

Then, end of August, we spent one night at Lac de Joux, where friends had rented a beautiful chalet and we were invited to join in. We even swam in this rather cold, but very refreshing Lake. There are a number of well known watchmakers located in Vallée de Joux (which is in the middle of nowhere).

And finally, we had a nice holiday in Austria, in “Kleinwalsertal”, which is very close to the German border and the German ski village Oberstdorf.

Despite all those beautiful trips, we’ve spent most of July and August here in hot Geneva, especially enjoying Parc Bertrand!

Modern Gospel Singing Workshop!!

I'm overjoyed to present this Modern Gospel Singing Workshop (bilingual, French/English) which will soon start - on Thursday evenings in the Oratoire, rue Tabazan 7, old town Geneva!

It will lead to a charity concert in favor of an orphanage in India. They'll hopefully be able to build an own building for the orphanage with the money that we will raise...!

We have already a really nice choir together, but you can still register!!

Check our website: zoe events

All info on the flyers above! It promises to be loads of fun!

Urban summer night scenes

What an amazing spring and summer 2009!! So many warm and sunny days! One of the great summer pleasures is surely to be able to sit outside on the balcony or in the garden even late in the night!

It's never really completely dark in the city. There are many lights on in countless apartments, streetlights, carlights....

In some apartments, there are perhaps real "genevois" people - they were born and raised here. Other apartments are the home of expats - singles or families who are here just for a short period of time. Perhaps for an internship in one of the many charitable organizations. Or a short term assignment in one of the big companies.

I hope they all enjoyed this marvellous summer and felt at home in the "City of peace".

Geneva's closed in summer!!

Don't worry, it's not so bad. We have temperature's over 30 degrees (Celcius!) almost every day, we have the Geneva Lake to refresh, we have wading pools for children in some of our parks, we have still possibilities to shop (as Coop, Migros, Manor, Globus don't close!! YEAH!). We can even go for a lunch or dinner outside of our home!!

It's just, you know... you have to know that some of your favorite shops (Thai food take-away, vegetable store, tearoom or hairdresser) might be closed for some weeks. Typically from end of July to end of August. Sometimes their announcements are quite creative, as you see...

So, yes, as today is already Aug 20th, we approaching the end of this "we're on vacation" season.

Swiss (brunch) Day in paradise!

Switzerland's National Day is 1st August. There's a lovely tradition: to brunch at one of the many farms that offer a special National Day's Brunch! It's easy to locate them as there's a special National Day's Brunch website! This particular brunch was celebrated for the 17th time in 2009. 430 farmer families welcomed around 200.000 guests!

We decided to brunch at Ferme de Merlinge, a farm that has regular brunchs on Saturday mornings throughout the year. This farm was able to accomodate 800 people on 1st August and it was fully booked!

They have a spacious beautiful garden with lots of trees. So we found a lovely place in the shadow and enjoyed various homemade bread, homemade jam, fruit from their fields like strawberries and apricots, ham and all sorts of cheese, tomatoes, salad, homemade apple juice and certainly, one of my favourite Swiss dishes: Bircher!

The weather couldn't have been better - we had over 30 degrees.

We already look forward to the next Swiss National Day's Brunch - a great idea!!

Big wheel in town: "Roue de Genève"

There's a new summer attraction in town this year: The "Roue de Genève". It's there until end of August, in the Quartier des Tranchées, just behind the Eglise russe, on Place Sturm!

It's a good idea for a family activity as you can combine the ride with a hotdog or crêpe afterwards! We were very pleased about the fantastic views we got - in all directions: to the old town, on the lake, to the Salève mountain ...

Now, for the Fêtes de Genève, we have another big wheel just at the lake. But it's smaller and the location is not as good for a real overview. But I'm sure it's fun too! Nevertheless I recommand Place Sturm's "Roue de Genève"!!

Montreux Jazz Festival

It's again this time of the year! Montreux Jazz Festival:
3 years ago we went to David Sanborn and Al Jarreau ... Al Jarreau created a wonderful swinging dancing atmosphere ... listen to him below...

4th July celebration!

No, we are still living in Switzerland... but let's say in a special part of Switzerland - in international Geneva! So we joined in the American 4th July Celebration last Saturday.

It was organised by the American Club and supported by the American International Women's Club, the American Mission and others. We looked forward to the whole all American atmosphere, Hamburgers and Hot Dogs - and we were not at all dissapointed!

We even sang the national anthem and were thankful for the lyrics that were distributed in advance! So I learned that the anthem is called the "Star-Spangled Banner"!

The bakery of the Women's Club was not only yummy, but also a delight to look at, especially for sure the cupcake flag!!

Now we are already looking forward to next year's 4th July!!

Politeness in Geneva

Car drivers are perhaps not the politest persons you can find in Geneva. But I found other situations where Geneva politeness impressed me. When you’ve put your groceries on the band at the checkout of Coop or Migros and you place one of those items which separate your groceries from the following client, you receive a polite « Merci » from the genevois.

And probably not only from the real genevois people, but also from many expats. I personally learned to thank for this gesture as well while living here (never thought of thanking for that in Germany!! I can’t remember loads of thank yous for this gesture!!).
Additionally, I made the following experience: When I – certainly by accident bump into someone with my stroller (let’s say at Coop) I always say PARDON. The interesting thing to me as that they always answer with PARDON in such cases as well! As if they hitted me and not the other way round. Now I do fortunately not bump into someone all the time! But there are enough situations where you have to apologize in daily life. It makes you feel nice when you get a PARDON back for a thing that you have done wrong.

More fountains!!

Here are two more pics of Geneva fountains: You can find the first and very bloomy one somewhere in the old town (pls write a comment if you know the street of this fountain, I can't remember at the moment...) and the second one at Place Chevelu (where Starbucks Quai des Bergues is located) .

City of Fountains

One thing I love about Geneva are the many fountains - you can find them in all "quartiers" and on many small and big squares. Often the water can be drunken without worries. Each fountain has a sign: "Eau potable" means that you can drink from this fountain.

Around Easter I took some pictures of Geneva fountains:

One fountain I'm particularly fond of is the fountain on Place du Bourg-de-Four (last pic above)

I also took pictures of the one on Place Molard, certainly from Jet d'Eau, the one in front of Temple Fusterie and Place Molard .Place Chevelu (where Starbucks Quai des Bergues is located), certainly from Jet d'Eau (order of their appearance above).

I think the fountains are a great picture of fresh water that is in the city ... where you can wash your hands or those of your children, where you can drink and refresh yourself or just soak in the beauty of flowers, water and stone art.