Under the Mango Tree - Jaren and Steve in Benin: Chrilaudias in Geneva -- March 29

Next up on the guest train - Chris Price and Claudia Fuentes of New York City! Come on Down!

4 days with our good friends from New York, particularly interesting because of the prominent role food plays in all of our lives -- odd parts of unusual animals prepared in unorthodox ways.

the pair came in Thursday, and after a quick moment to get cleaned up, we headed out to explore the city. Regular readers of this blog will know the sights we saw -- Reformation Wall, Old Town, The Cannons, the Commercial district -- and luckily the day was sunny and bright. After stopping for a wine in the Bourg du Four square, the crowd was hungry and ready for a feast.

Having perfected the recipe, Jaren was eager to lay out the fondue spread. With both cheese and meat fondue queued up, we chowed down .

The original plan for Friday (long way around Lake Neuchatel to Bern) got scrapped in favor of something far more relaxing. Having rented a car for the weekend, we decided to drive up to the Alpine spa town of Lukerbad in the Valais region.

Taking the long way and local roads, we took every opportunity to stop and look at something cool.

Vineyards in Vevey:

Once in Valais, the drive up the mountain was everything one would expect in a switchback road. We white-knuckled up one face and crossed a single lane bridge onto another (freaking out the entire time, I promise) until we finally reached the secluded town of Lukerbad.

And man was it worth it. The Alpentherme complex had a series of mineral pools at varying temperatures, the highlight of which was the outdoor pool looking out onto a horseshoe shaped ring of mountains:

Dinner followed the 4 hour swim, and then a long drive back in the dark. We made it home, so in the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I've got to say about that."

Saturday was another day where best intentions met reality. Originally planning a ski day, we unfortunately were a little to relaxed after spa night and overslept. In realizing we weren't going to make it to the mountain in time to enjoy any bit of the day, we decided to have lunch in Carouge and work our way back via the Plainpallais market.

Well, after enjoying a delicious lunch that included Lake Perch and Fois Gras Penne, we made our way to the market for some historical Swiss trinkets (including Claudia's pair of St. Bernard coasters). Of course, we had to grab a bite of something funny looking, which in this case was a form of grilled sausage.

And sausage makes people thirsty, so we went for a beer. Well, that just led to more, and we ended up drinking and eating our way back across Geneva. Dinner was Charbonnade and, well, we'll let the pics tell the rest of the story...

For a nightcap, we hit up The Grand Duke Pub, the English-style pub a few steps from our apartment for darts. Apparently none of us are very good, because our one game ended up taking so long we closed the place down. Oops.