Eurocup 2008

If there’s one thing Europeans (and just about all the world outside America) love, it’s football (soccer). Unfortunately, I arrived a few months too late in 2006 to experience the excitement of that year’s World Cup. However, this summer has almost made up with the 2008 Eurocup being hosted in Switzerland and Austria. For my fellow Americans, the Eurocup is basically the same as the World Cup but on a smaller (read: European-only) scale. And the Europeans take it just as seriously. Play kicked off on June 7th and concludes on the 29th.

Geneva is one of Switzerland’s host cities (along with Basel, Bern and Zurich) and hosted three games in the first round. Thus, there has been no end of football fervor over the past few months. Several of Geneva’s key monuments have been refitted for the occasion and our town is home to the country’s largest “Fanzone” (basically an off-site viewing center for the games that includes giant screens and sound plus plenty of food and beer).

Thus far, I’ve experienced the tournament in a variety of ways. Traveling through Basel on the day of the first Swiss match, witnessing hordes of orange-clad Dutchmen descending upon Bern while changing trains there, seeing Spain triumph over Sweden at a bar in Barcelona, watching Germany conquer Portugal at the Fanzone, and of course plenty of other matches from the comfort of my own apartment. It’s been an exciting time thus far, even if England didn’t make the tournament and Switzerland didn’t make it through Round 1.

Some photos of the madness:

Swiss fans gather in Basel’s train station on the day of Switzerland’s first match





Giant viewing screen in Basel’s town center


Geneva’s Jet d’Eau (or “big old geyser,” according to Emily Verba) gets outfitted with a giant 200,000+CHF football for the occasion. As if that weren’t enough, the thing popped a few weeks back and they actually returned it to the UK for an 80,000 pound repair…


Geneva’s Flower Clock gets an equally exciting treatment


The host city icon for Geneva


Geneva’s Fanzone at Planpalais


Germany and Portugal duke it out on the big screen


Portion of the massive crowd. There are an inordinate amount of Portuguese people in Geneva (and Switzerland in general) so their fanbase is pretty big here.

Who’ll win the whole thing? It’s been pretty unpredictable so far, but I think undefeated Spain could be a nice surprise champion. Time will tell.

Florence, Italy

The train ride from Pisa to Florence is only about an hour so we had a full day upon our arrival. After finding Andy and Julie’s hotel, we headed off for the Accademia which is home to Michelangelo’s David. We had booked tickets online a few months prior but had a slight mishap when we got to the ticket counter. Seems that our reservations were for the Accademia in Venice. Oops. Even so, the ticket guy let us re-buy admission without having to wait in the really long non-reservation line so despite paying a little extra we didn’t lose any time.

Turns out the only really notable thing in the gallery is David. Even so, it was worth the price of admission. Out of all the famous buildings and pieces of art I’ve seen since I’ve been in Europe, the David is the most impressive/least disappointing. The larger-than-life size certainly helps, but the shear artistry of the thing is phenomenal.

Following that, we headed to the Duomo and then grabbed lunch at a little place our good pal Rick Steves recommended. Good choice, Rick. The afternoon took us to the Uffizi Gallery which includes Botticelli’s Birth of Venus among others. It was alright, but I’m starting to think that I might not really care for Renaissance art that much after all. At least they had some really nice Caravaggios (including the Sacrifice of Isaac).

We also took time to wander across the Ponte Vecchio, eat more gelatto, and climb the steep hill to the Piazzale Michelangelo which offers a magnificent view of the city. Before too long, it was time to grab dinner and jump on the airport bus so I could return to Geneva. The Daubenmires would continue on to Rome, but my midweek journey had to end here.


Duomo


front of the church


nice candelabras


the interior of the dome


crowd in front of the baptistry


close-up of one of the bronze door reliefs (replicas of the originals, apparently)


Alessi creates the greatest knife-holder ever


Replica David




Perseus slaying Medusa


UC has two little lion statues at McMicken Hall which are kind of unofficial school mascots. They are based on this guy. Here, I display a bit of UC pride.


the Ponte Vecchio


maybe the most dramatic statue ever. The dying guy’s hand is amazing




Beautiful view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo


the Daubenmires on the hill


another David replica which caps the whole thing off

Pisa, Italy

Once again, I find myself way behind on entries. I have plenty to share about the Eurocup, my parents’ visit to Switzerland and our trip to Barcelona last week. However, given my desire to keep things as chronological as possible, I must first share about Italy.

Last month, Andy and Julie came to Europe for their summer vacation, and though they didn’t have time for Switzerland, I was able to join them in Pisa and Florence, Italy, places I’ve wanted to visit for awhile but hadn’t yet had the opportunity. So it was that early on the morning of Tuesday May 20th I boarded a train for an 8-hour journey south. I connected in Milan and Florence before making it into Pisa mid-afternoon, just after the Daubenmires flew in from England.

They met me at the train station and we dropped by the hotel (my first in a very long time) before heading to see the tower. It was great to see them for the first time in a few years and fun to reminisce about a few high school band trips (even if we had trouble remembering some of the details) as well as catching up on our current lives.

Anyway, if you talk to anyone who’s been to Pisa they are likely to complain that all there is to do there is see the tower. In a sense, that’s true. I suppose if Pisa was your destination and you planned to spend a few days there you’d quickly become bored. However, if you only plan on spending an afternoon there, it’s certainly worth a visit. First off, the tower (which is of course leaning) is quite a marvel – it’s the oldest standing tower in the world. (It also seems a rip-off to pay something like 16 Euro to go to the top which we opted not to do, but friends have told me is actually worth it.) But beyond that, it gives a nice sense of a smaller Italian city. We explored at a leisurely place, found a great place for dinner (with amazing gnocchi, even though we passed it by two or three times because it looked completely empty from the outside) and had some terrific gelato to boot.

All in all not a bad pace to pass the time before our trip to Florence the following morning.


Yes, it really leans


as do Andy and I… a little too much


foundation


the accompanying basilica


another little Pisa church, this one by the river


The Daubenmire double-camera assault


exciting Iron Man-themed graffiti


the tower by night

Days of Wine and Beer

I give Geneva a pretty hard time, but it is a nice place to live. Once in awhile, everything comes together and you have what can only be described as a “perfect day.” I had one of those a weekend ago. On Saturday May 24th, Geneva had its Caves Ouvertes or open cellars at vineyards across the region. Basically, all the wineries open their doors and offer free tastings to the public. Some of my friends from the Hash were planning on attending, so I joined in on the fun. There are several outlying regions of the city which make wine (Swiss are known for their whites, though the reds are nothing) and the least touristy/busy of the bunch are also where the estates are quite spread out. Wanting to avoid the heavier traffic, we headed to the countryside by bike. All told, some twenty-two people were in our posse, and the weather ended up being perfect. It started out overcast with a bit of drizzle, but that quickly passed and we had cool but clear weather.

Having spent my previous weekend at another regional wine-tasting in Mont-sur-Rolle (a bit before Lausanne on the train), I assumed Geneva’s event would be similar: pay a few Swiss francs for a glass and then travel around to various places and sample their wares. At that location, the vineyards are much closer together and the public transport is amazing: they literally drive you to whichever vintner you wish to visit and will come pick you up whenever you want. Some of the places have baked goods to munch on while tasting, but nothing fancy.

Geneva, however, far exceeded my expectations. Despite the lack of an easy way to get around (bikes and cars excepted), all else was wonderful. There was no paying for a glass: everything was completely and utterly free. And while most places had some simple cheese and bread available, they also had much more. Our first stop offered grilled sausages (3 varieties!). Another offered free raclette (a Swiss dish that is basically melted cheese over potatoes). Another allowed you to take and empty bottle; place it on an assembly line; and watch as it was filled, capped, and labeled before you collected it and kept it. For free!

So by the end of the day, we’d been to about 6 or 7 different wineries, had full stomachs and had paid absolutely nothing (excepting any bottles of wine bought along the way). This is probably just about the best “deal” I’ve ever found in Geneva. I only wish I’d been able to go last year as well.


Of course, the previous weekend also had its own charm. The Mont-sur-Rolle tasting (with a small group of Hashers as well) was a lot of fun, and that came on the heels of a beer festival.

A few friends from YAGs and I took a one-and-a-half hour trainride to Martigny to experience the Fête de la Bière. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we found a 70s-style community/convention center type of building filled with beers from around the world and the least pretentious crowd I’ve ever come across in Switzerland. My kind of people.
We each paid a few francs for a glass and then bought tokens (in the form of bottle caps) to exchange for tastings of different beers. There were stations set up all around the perimeter of the building according to regions of the world. My find of the night was a Belgian brown that’s an 11 percenter! Amazing.
They also had live bands playing from a pair of stages in the center of the floor.

All in all, it was a fun evening a great way to spend time with friends (especially church friends).

Here are a couple of Rob’s pics:

Kate’s well-planned train journey with raspberries and sparkling wine...


Cheers!

Mmmm… beer.