Taking in the scenery at Furka Pass

Furka Pass, Switzerland – There’s nothing like having friends visit to inspire the exploring spirit.

Last weekend, with a friend in town from London, we packed the car with water and food supplies and headed out on the open road.

With Geneva in the rear view mirror, I felt my bones settle into the cocoon of the firm driver’s seat and my mind plotted the secondary roads we would discover haphazardly as we made our way towards the Valais.

I had been traveling through the Furka Pass in my mind, ever since I tried to drive out of the Valais one afternoon in April four years ago, only to find the pass still closed for the season.

Get your benedictions and stock up on food, at the divergence of Furka and Grimsel pass routes.

On that occasion, we ended up following a Poste Bus to a rail head, where we put the car on a flatbed and rode in it through the mountain to Andermatt.

This time my eyes were peeled from the first pass status sign postings outside Martigny, green, green, green, go!

Two hours later we were having lunch at a cafe by the chicken foot divide where the the Grimsel Pass and Furka Pass routes diverge.

The weather on Sunday was sweet, and we rolled down the windows as we rode up the pass, all the better to take in the glistening snow banks and white capped peaks surrounding us.

Two-wheeled tourists taking a break.

Bikers were out in force, and while the motor whine of a few road racers sullied the cool serenity, I couldn’t help but envy the bikers leaning into the hair pin turns; note to self, return on two wheels.

We rolled down the Eastern slope of the pass lazily soaking up the 360 degree vista and dreaming of our next adventure; Gothard Pass and the Ticino. Bring a picnic and enjoy the view at one of the scenic pull outs along the Pass route. For a great weekend tour of Central Switzerland, continue on from Andermatt, on the East side of the Pass, to Luzerne, and then head back to Geneva via Interlaken.

Road testing & inspecting before driving

Geneva, Switzerland – You just purchased your first Geneva car and now what? If you closed your deal with a private seller, you may be facing a list of seemingly daunting Swiss regulations regarding the inspection, or so called “expertise“ of your vehicle, prior to registration.

My experience buying a “non-expertised” motorcycle shortly after arriving to Switzerland illustrates how costly this process can be if you are not careful.

When I road tested my bike it drove and stopped well, but was not expertised at the time of purchase.

Two years later, when looking for a family vehicle, I swore to my wife and to myself that I would not consider a car without a valid expertise.

The formula for the canton of Geneva is as follows: if the vehicle is more than ten years old, it must have been inspected/expertised within the last 12 months; for vehicles less than ten years old, the previous expertise must still be in effect.

Don’t forget, an anti-pollution or emissions control is obligatory for all cars every two years as well, which must be done by a certified garage (a good bet is the TCS service in Meyrin).

Why do you want to buy a vehicle with a valid inspection?

Inspection guidelines are tough in Geneva

Geneva has very stringent inspection guidelines, for example a car must have something like 70% life left on the brake pads and discs to pass inspection (and they do measure with calipers). This is the bad news financially if you are re-expertising a car, and why you will see many cars in seemingly good overall condition being sold “for export.”

The good news is however, that if you buy even an older car with high miles, a recent inspection will ensure that the car is in relatively good working order.

Anarchists on the Rhône - Photo Jared Bloch

Geneva, Switzerland – The dog days of summer have seemed longer than ever with temperatures regularly tipping 34 degrees in mid-August.

I’ve been escaping more than ever this year to the shores of Lake Geneva, and more recently, to the shady banks of the Rhône below our neighborhood. Apparently, Geneva Anarchists are doing the same.

Yesterday, 22 August, afternoon I came across what appeared to be organized anarchy on the Rhône; 100 or so would be river men, women, and not a few river babies, launching their homemade rafts and inflatable dingys along the Quai du Seujet.

While a DJ spun music for the crowd, people put finishing touches on their garbage bag flotation devices, pumped up their floating fortresses and restocked their coolers.

Lacking a camera, I raced home, half-thinking of grabbing a friend’s inflatable kayak to properly document the splish-splash.

As it turned out, I just had time to get my camera and ride down the parc du promeneur solitaire to photograph the boaters from the train tressle.

This year, my family has been enjoying the Rhône River below the St. Jean Cliffs more than ever, with its dog friendly bathing areas and perfect perches for reading.

This week, the river has been almost warm, drawing a crowd of swimmers on the Pont de Sous-Terre and along the Sentier des Saules.

Raft party on the Rhône - Photo Jared Bloch

Swimming on the Rhône - Photo Jared Bloch

Rue de St. Jean Celebration

The last time my parents visited Geneva, my father was reminiscing about his ski bum days in Northern Vermont 40+ years ago, and the fact that a number of the instructors at that time were from Switzerland. I am often stricken by the similarities between my home state of Vermont, USA and its inhabitants, and many parts of Switzerland.

This weekend of course marks the end to another year of celebrating the Genevoise counterattack against the Savoyards in 1602, to defend the city of Geneva from the interlopers.  In addition to the still awe inspiring historical reenactment of the battle and its Swiss protagonists, I am especially partial to the neighborhood street parades that unfold in the urban villages that make up Geneva, and which remind me of the Bread and Puppet street theatre I grew up with.

In St. Jean, as in other neighborhoods I imagine, the ocassion is celebrated by children (as well as some adults) in full costume, street musicians, and theatrical players.  The crowd typically convenes at the local school, and gathers force as it travels through the neighborhood picking up converts.  This year, my daughter’s school joined forces with two neighboring schools and the entourage took over the streets from Planet Charmille, to the St. Jean Primary School.

Snow Leopard of St. Jean

The parade terminated, and the party began, at the Maison de Quartier, where volunteers served soup from the marmite, and hot wine.  This year, the organizers magnanimously added sausage to the party menu.  Meanwhile, a New Orleans style Dixie land ensemble kept the crowd entertained as we warmed our stomachs.  The musicians were spectacular, both in their enthusiasm, as well as their skill; getting your groove on in sub-zero weather while pleasing a crowd of onlookers is no mean feat, but again I thought of how icy hands and feet are part and parcel of having fun in cold weather climates.

Saxophone and Slide Trombone à l'Escalade

Menu for all tastes in St. Gallen

I have to say on balance, that I think of this more and more as a healthy phenomenon in and of itself. But there are days meant for eating soul food, I call those days weekends, when really I am concerned less with eating well, than with the notion of burying myself in a pile of shaved lamb meat.

In fact, donner kebabs would be the closest approximation that I can think of in Geneva, to a true Chinese buffet. Whenever my family is having a soul food attack, my wife sends me to the Turkish kebab house nearest to our apartment and I order three sandwiches with everything on them and two sides of french fries. This particular cafe puts so much meat in the sandwich, that we pull half of it out and save it for lunch the next day. Having said all that, there is only so much kebab meat one can eat in a month, and even next month, I will be only mildly interested in the lamb bonanza, having had my fix.

Which explains my euphoria at finding the Rama Indian and Greek food restaurant recently, while searching for dinner in St. Gallen.

Usually, a multi-ethnic menu offering is the first sign of bad things to come. However, with a van full of hungry passengers ready to mutiny, I decided we would  take our  chances.

What we found was a very friendly (if monolingual Swiss German speaking) wait staff, and a Mediterranean cum Latin American, cum South Asian, cum Swiss German menu with something for everyone in our entourage.

My nephew was the first to order, and he pantomimed “big, very big” to the waitress; we needn’t have worried.

In addition to boasting more variety than a Jersey diner, the size of the chicken Byriani, macarroni al forno, gyro, lamb korma and calamar plates was verging on unseemly.

The table was silent as my family devoured the bounty of food in front of us, amazed that the quality and seasoning of the dishes was as impressive as the sheer volume.

Check out this gem of a restaurant on your next visit to St. Gallen – and pack an appetite and a German phrasebook!

View of Geneva from the Lake

Geneva, Switzerland – When I first came to Geneva, I arrived with three suitcases and a passport. My first weeks were spent walking from a rented room to my office, in typically cold and wet January weather.

While I lamented not having a car during those first ear tingling winter days, I soon found that Geneva was small enough to accommodate a carless existence. And by my second month, I began questioning the need for a vehicle altogether.

As I made plans for my family to join me I began to wonder, “was it really necessary for a family of three to have a vehicle in Geneva?” I began to explore the City, buying all day passes on public transport and taking various buses to the end of the respective routes, to see what I could see.

At the end of three months, I felt I had fairly well plumbed the limits of Geneva proper and was familiar with many of the outlying towns, where I would share the bus with more business minded commuters intent on getting home before the local Migros closed for the weekend; my stupid grin advertising my out of town status and the fact that I was “riding for fun.”

Riding to Hermance

Still, I was elated when I got a bicycle and was able to “escape” the city on a whim, and to explore those same towns on dreary Spring days without fear of missing the last bus back to Geneva.

I rode around Gex in the snow , found a homely café in Chancy, and followed an old logging road outside of Saint Julien, that led me to the foothill communities around Collonges-sous-Saleve, France. It was a nostalgic time, reminding me of how life was, not more simple, but more in focus on two wheels.

Two years later, I have learned to navigate nearly all aspects of life in Geneva without a car. I still dream of carefree road trips and getting lost on dirt tracks, miles from home, but I have also come to appreciate having one less inanimate object in my life taking up space on my list of things to fix, organize etc., (and I haven’t had a parking ticket in two years).

Note: for more information on Geneva’s bike trails, check out La Carte Vélo de Genève.