Kimmy InAMSTERDAM

The next morning, we got up and headed back into the city centre. We strolled up to the Old Town section that had small, winding streets with tons of green ivy, staircases, small restaurants, and cafes. We checked out an old cathedral and an art/history museum that was impressive in size, but sort of a disappointment inside. From there we headed back towards the Rhone River, I went off and do my own thing for the afternoon. I hiked up to the "international hill" to check out the UN building. I was surprised when I got there to see that there was a gathering of Catalans rallying for their independence from Spain. Everyone was decked out in their flag and colors with signs saying "Catalan: The Next European State." I obviously wasn't able to get into the UN building, but I got some cool pictures of all the flags leading up to the building. I also saw the Red Cross Museum. I thought the museum really well done and focused around the overall humanitarianism of the past, present and future. I made my way back towards the city centre by walking through the botanical gardens and park along the river. Once I got back into the city, I walked along the big "designer" road with all the fancy shops (like Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci - a little out of my window shopping price range) and back into part of Old Town. Geneva was pretty much what I had expected - a nice, picturesque city set against the Swiss and French mountains.

The next morning, we slept in with plans to go to the train station, store our bags and head to Annecy, France for the day. After much confusion on how to by tickets and where to go, we learned that Annecy wasn't an easy place to get to so we ditched that plan and went to an automated machine to buy train tickets to Lyon, France. We had all day because we weren't planning on going to the airport until around midnight. So bought roundtrip tickets for 10 Swiss Francs (around $10) and jumped on the train. After two hours, we reached Lyon without a hitch. We grabbed some lunch at a French version of Panera and headed up to the beautiful Notre Dame de Fourviere cathedral. Rather than hiking up the huge hill, we took the metro. The last leg of the ride was a small metro car that literally scaled the hill. It seriously felt like Matterhorn at Disneyland. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful, inside and out. It might have been my favorite one I've seen in Europe yet simply because the color scheme and adornments were soft, almost pastelle-like. Next to the cathedral was a great lookout that gave 180 degree views of the city. Next, we walked down the paths through the hillside gardens to reach the old town. Again, Lyon's narrow streets gave way to long staircases, small alleys and opened up into squares. It was absolutely beautiful. After walking around a bit, we stopped at an Irish pub and sat outside on the street. Luckily, it was "happy hour" and pints were cheap. We killed some time by hanging out and playing cards. I also called my mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day, she was pretty surprised and it sounds like she had a pretty good day planned with the family. Made me a bit homesick that I couldn't be there with everyone too.

That night, we ran back to the main central station in Lyon to catch the last train back to Geneva. Once upon the train, we realized that we were actually holding metro/tram tickets for Geneva and not actually legitimate train tickets (thank you Geneva station info people for all your help). With some mild evasion from the ticket checkers, we got away with it and made it back to Geneva with an hour to kill before our train to the airport, we hit up a close by bar. There, they had all the bar's own personal beer on tap. We got a free glass of peach beer. Yummy.

We got to the airport around 12:30 for our 6am flight because of both saving money on a hostel room and we wouldn't had made it in time with the metro system. Also, the volcano in Iceland was acting up and flights were being cancelled in Portugal, Spain, parts of Italy and France with threats of affecting Switzerland airports. After a crappy nights rest and watching flights to France and Belgium be cancelled, we got on our flight and got back around 8am. From there, it was straight from the airport back to bed to go back to sleep.

Overall, it was a good weekend. It's starting to get to be crunch time with school here. The Dutch system is set up so they majority of the work is put off until the end of the term with final pages and exams. With all the work ahead of me, looks like I won't be traveling again until Kara and I head to Scandinavia in early June.