Proverbs 16:9

"The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps."

-I feel like this is a good verse for our trip :) (and in life too, it's probably one of my favorites)

Sunday:
Not only did we come to Geneva during a music festival, but the Glass'church had planned a retreat for this day! John William drove us to Crechet, which is about an hour and a half away, to a small town at the base of the Alps. We walked up to an old stone building surrounded by green hills and beautiful views. The church service was just about to start so we grabbed a few seats in the back. After worshipping in French, Stephen and I slipped out the back because we weren't going to understand any of the service. I really wanted to walk around and explore, but the weather was cold and we were both exhausted so we ended up laying down in the warm car and taking naps. About an hour and half later we woke up in time for lunch. I sat next to two families. The first family was originally from London and moved to France a year ago for work. The other family had just come back from a year long trip!!! The dad is a nurse and the mom a music teacher with three sons, 18, 16, and 11. They decided to take a year off work and school to travel the world. Because they were living out of their backpacks, they stayed in warm parts of the world (Australia, New Zealand, California, Tahiti, etc...) and survived by finding work (volunteering at different places for lodging and food). I was fascinated by their adventure!
After lunch, John William drove us another 30 minutes to a town called Montreux. The Glass family lives on one side of Lake Leman, and after driving about two hours, you arrive at the other side of the lake at Montreux. It is a quaint, rich town with a boardwalk that runs beside the lake. We walked along this path to reach the Chillon Castle where we toured its courtyard, cellars, prison, weapons room, "bathrooms", and towers. The views from the top overlooked the Lake with the Alps towering behind. It was fun to explore the different rooms, especially with Stephen and John William. :) We finished our stay by eating dinner at a Kebab shop (one of the only restaurants open on Sunday), then drove back to the Glass'. We began to watch a movie, but stopped it half way and everyone went to bed except for me. That's the night I blogged an entire update and lost it all...oh well.

Chillon Castle

They didn't like Stephen so much...

One of the views from the top tower

Monday:
Monday morning we were planning to take a trip up to Chamonix. It's at the top of the Alps and has amazing views, including several glaciers! The day was supposed to be sunny and clear, therefore the perfect day to go. It was hard to wake up since I hadn't slept much the last two nights, but I made a big cup of coffee and was ready to leave by 8. John William dropped us off at the train station at about 8:15 but the ticket booth was closed. We found a ticket machine but all its instructions were in French. We tried figuring it out and a lady behind us was nice enough to help. We figured out how to get the tickets, but when we tried to pay, it wouldn't take our credit cards! We needed to have a special chip in order to pay and there was no slot for money, so we decided to try paying the conductor after we got on the train (hoping they would understand and not fine us for not having tickets...). We had heard that the train would come on the other side of the tracks so thats where we waited for the train. At around 8:35 (about the time our train was supposed to arrive) a train came...but on the other side of the tracks. I assumed another train would come our way soon. But 15 minutes later, we came to the conclusion that we were supposed to be on the other train and had missed it. (what is it with us and trains?! lol) The ticket office opened precisely at this moment, so we inquired about the next train to Chamonix. The lady told us that the next train wasn't until 10:30 (confirming our suspicions of having missed the train) but wouldn't arrive in Chamonix until 4:40pm! (due to train changes). We didn't want to pay money to go for a loooong train ride only to return as soon as we got up there so we declined and walked away.
The Glass' thought we'd be gone the whole day so our next job was to find a phone booth so as to call them. There was a phone right outside the station, but because we were in France, the phone booths were different and wouldn't accept money or my swiss phone card. So....we needed to find a store that sold phone cards. The only problem was that we were in a very small town and had no idea where a store would be so we started walking. I actually enjoyed this hunt because when we'd enter a store, the people didn't speak English so we had to figure out how to communicate with the little French we know and with hand motions (kind of like Charades in real life). Eventually we found a store with calling cards and we were able to call the Glass'. Mr. Glass picked us up and took us into Geneva so we could tour the city for the day. He was very helpful in procuring a map, passes, and showing us where some great sites would be. So with our new agenda, we set off.
Our first stop was Starbucks, where we got energy, and then to Lake Geneva. Our passes included boat rides along the Lake. In the middle of the Lake is a "fountain"that actually looks more like a geyser. It shoots up super high and is quite fascinating to watch. The water in the lake is also beautiful because it's such a clear blue and looks so clean and refreshing! The boats we road zigzagged across the river and dropped us off at the Botanical Gardens. It was around noon, and I thought it so interesting to see several people running along the trails in the gardens. I wonder if its common to take a run on your lunch break in Geneva? If so, they had a beautiful place to do so.

Fountain

In the Botanical Gardens

Stephen and I started looking for food and wound up buying lunch at a grocery store to eat at some tables down the street. Our next walk took us to the United Nations! You could only enter by a tour so we were content to enjoy the building from the outside. Across the street was another interesting structure: a HUGE (39 foot) chair with a broken leg. We later found out that it symbolizes opposition to land mines and cluster bombs. 

At this point in the day, I was completely exhausted. I hadn't gotten much sleep lately and every day is filled with walking and the stimulation of new sights and sounds. These combined to leave me with no energy and feeling slightly sick. Being the caring brother he is, Stephen suggested we go back to the botanical gardens to rest for awhile. The gardens are mostly grass and trees with paths and benches running along the lake. Stephen sat on a bench overlooking the Lake and read his Kindle while I found a shady piece of grass to sleep on. An hour later, I felt much better and regained enough energy to keep going. We took the boats back down the lake and walked through the old town of Geneva to meet up with Kimberly at the Conservatory.
She took us on a quick tour, showing us the Reformation Wall and Calvin's church, before taking us back to her house. The weather was so nice and warm so we all ate dinner on their back porch. From their yard, we spotted several people paragliding from the nearby mountains and laughed about all the different ways to fly through the air.

Reformation Wall

Calvin's Church

After dinner, we took a ride with Kimberly driving a stick! She's driven in the states, but in an automatic car and some of the street rules are different here so it was quite the adventure! She did great and didn't crash or stall, so we claimed it a success. We finished the movie from last night, I blogged, had a great chat with Kimberly, then happily went to bed. :)