Flowers, free grace, french fries, fast trains, and fruhstuck (breakfast :)

Wow! Hard to believe it, but we're back in Berlin. Actually, what is hardest to believe is that it's only been two weeks since we were last here! Time has flown and we've packed a lot in!

It was an approximately 14 hour train trip from Geneva to Berlin!! We took the night train which left Basel about 9:30 last night and pulled in to Berlin at about 8:30 this morning. We actually both slept pretty well. The only other night train I've ever taken was in China, and at least this bed was a little over 6 feet long, more than could be said for the Chinese one! Kristen met us at the station and now we're happily fed, showered and doing laundry! We're pretty excited about the laundry thing, but I'm sure that's less thrilling for you at home :). I'm proud to say that I think I packed well...I've worn every article of clothing I've brought along and most have been laundered several times and reworn. I am looking forward to some variety in the wardrobe department though.

So going back to Geneva.... We had a lovely Sunday in Geneva. We had breakfast at our hotel and then walked down to the waterfront and enjoyed the views and the Sunday-morning crowd. We saw lots of dads taking their little ones for walks or to play in the park...we think Sunday morning is mom's day off in Geneva. :) We found Parc de la Grange, a beautiful park that contains the Villa where the Geneva Convention occured. The villa's under renovation, but the park was beautiful, especially the rose gardens! There's supposedly a rose bush for every square meter in that park...that means 12,000 rose bushes. And most were in full bloom. So we stopped to smell the roses. Actually, that's something I've really appreciated about this trip...we've fit a lot in, but we've also managed to stop and just take things in on a regular basis, too.

Church started at 11:00 so we headed back up the hill toward St. Pierre's cathedral. We attended the Presbyterian Church of Scotland service that met in the little Auditoire de Calvin next door to the cathedral. We really enjoyed worshipping in our own language again today. The church was quite full and what an international community...Americans, English, Scottish, Sri Lankan, French, Swiss, Nigerian, Korean and more! It was a cool experience for both of us because the church traditions/denominations that we were both raised in and that we attend now had their roots in that city and even in that auditorium! But more than that, it felt like the church universal meeting in that one room. How cool is that! Their pastor was Scottish (and fortunately talked very clearly and slowly...probably because English was the second language of most people there). They had a guest preacher yesterday, too, a Dr. of Theology from Sri Lanka who's a member of the church, but currently teaching at a university in New Jersey. His grandson was being baptized that day. He spoke about Jesus' compassion on the people he came into contact with and how "Freely you have received. Freely give."

After church, we set out in search of a French restaurant since we were in French Switzerland. We found a restaurant that looked good, and when we asked for a menu she said, "We only offer the one 'plate du jour'." So we said, "That sounds good!" even though we couldn't read the French :). Turns out it was really good! Salad and all-you-can-eat steak and french fries. Literal "french" fries. :) I think we each ate about a steak and a half, plus two servings of fries!

After all that food, we hauled ourselves back up the hill to the International Museum of the Reformation. The museum was pretty good. It was less about the religious reformation and more about the social, economic and political consequences of the reformation, especially Calvin's contributions to it. By the time we were done with that, it was time to think about heading back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head to the train station for our night train. We walked back by way of the original "Calvin College," a secondary school in Geneva started by Calvin. We had to climb up on a wall to see the school because it was under so much renovation, but Amy had to see the original :).

So that was our whirlwind tour of Geneva. It's a very pretty city with a very different atmosphere than any of the other cities we've seen this trip. We enjoyed it, but we're honestly glad to be headed back to German-speaking lands...not that we really speak German, but we've been here long enough that we at least know how things work...kind of...a little bit...well, at least restaurants and trains and public transport :).