Geneva

Geneva is a nice city, but thats about as far as it goes. Nice to live, but lacking in the tourism areas. Of course, it has the traditional Old Town, but since most of the city didn't get going until the 1600's, its not quite as spectactular as other cities. Of note is the famous Protestant wall, a wall 150m long dedicated to Protestant history (Geneva was a safe haven for Protestant reformers while they were being persecuted), the famous waterfountain in the lake, and the mountainous surroundings. It is, however, a town that I would probably be most interested in living in should I ever live in Europe. Modern and efficient, cost of living for non-tourists isn't bad, and VERy international. Seriously, try finding a Swiss restaurant in Geneva. Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Lebanese, Syrian, American, lots of French, German (all operated by someone of that nationality), but not many Swiss restaurants to be found.

Oh, and Swiss chocolate is delicious, but a bit pricey starting at $95/kg (about 2.2lbs). And of course, I got the obligatory genuine Swiss Army knife (even the original Swiss Army model).

1) Public Transportation boat across Lake Geneva

2) Swiss are smart - when they name a road after someone, they put what that person did to get a road named after them on the sign

3) Victoria Concert Hall

4) Protestant Wall

5) Russian Orthodox church, circa late 19th century (Geneva is a very diverse city for religion)

6) St. Pierre Cathedral, served as a Protestant church during the reformation until it was handed back over to the Catholic diocese

7) View of Lake geneva and the new part of the city from St. Pierre's tower

8) Yummy Swiss Chocolate

9) UN Headquarters Europe

10) Swiss vineyard

11) View of Lake Geneva from the Jura Mountains

12) Mountains

13) St Cergue

14) Mountain hiking

Mont St Michel

Quite possibly my new favorite vacation location. Beautiful scenery, awesome castle town, sweet tides, great seafood, lamb, cheese and cider. Also a fierce rivalry between Brittany and Normandy about who the castle belongs to (currently Normandy, as the river that divides the two regions currently runs to the ocean on the west side of the Mont, although it has changed sides many times over the past few hundred years), whats not to love?

1) Storm over Mont St Michel

2) Approaching Mont St Michel, still a few miles out

3) Casting a shadow over the salt flats

4) Downtown

5) Sun setting on the abbey

6) Night view from the draw bridge

7) Castle at night

8) High tide

9) Another night shot

10) Sunset shot of a guard tower

11) Another part of town

12) View from my hotel room

13) Inside the abbey

14) Crypt supporting the church

15) Statue of St Michel on top of the abbey

Oh

If anyone has a desire to see the high resolution pics, just let me know, I realize the quality is getting crappy from how I have to shrink them down to make them fit.

Paris

Paris is a lot less exciting to me, but here are a few pics of my favorite parts of the city. I was basically in town for one day, Easter Sunday, before heading off to Mont St Michel. Pics of Mont St Michel and Geneva are still coming, as are Vienna, Budapest, Cesky Krumlov and the two things worth taking pics of in Bratislava (a cable stay bridge and a pre-Roman fortress)

1) Yummy market

2) View off the top of the Eiffel Tower

3) Looking straight up the Tower: The Tower is built at its base to exert no more pressure per square inch than a 150lb lady in heels.

4) Looking straight down the Tower

5) Notre Dame

6) Easter Mass in Notre Dame (I stopped taking pics as mass started, unlike the idiots that were bugging me all night to move so they could get better pics and using me as a tripod)

7) Arc de Triumph

8) Obelisk, in Concorde Place

9) Goofy thumb statue, no real importance, its just an awesome pic with the reflection off rain covered marble

10) Eiffel Tower at night, once an hour it sparkels wth flashy lights

11) Non-sparking Eiffel Tower for comparison

12) Grande Arche, a modern Arc de Triumph, it houses gov't offices

Normandy WWII Sites

1) Pegasus Bridge, British airborne objective, paratroopers held off armoured divisions
2) Sword Beach, British Commonwealth landings
3) Canadian Memorial, guys look like flying squirrels
4) Center of Canadian landings, memorial
5) Juno Beach, Canadians
6) Gold Beach, British
7) German shore guns at Longues sur Mer
8) German bunker at Longues sur Mer
9) Omaha Beach as seen from the bluffs, US landings
10 & 11) American Cemetary at Omaha Beach
12) Omaha Beach from the waterline at approximately low tide, the same distance a soldier would have had to run encumbered by gear while getting shot at
13) Omaha beach at Vierville sur Mer, some of the heaviest fighting
14) Pointe du Hoc cliffs, Army Rangers scaled these on the morning of the landings
15) Pointe du Hoc is preserved as it was after WWII, with bomb craters and flame thrower scorching still visible
16) German, French and British dead who were not repatriated, usually were just buried in municipal cemetaries. This cemetray had dead from all three countries.
17) Utah Beach, US landings
18) Utah Beach memorial to all lost US troops
19) Airborne memorial near St. Marie Eglise
20) La Fierre bridge, 82nd Airborne obective to take and hold the night before the landings to prevent reinforcements