One of the surprising fun parts of my trip was my twenty-four hours in Geneva. I had been to Zurich for work about four years ago. It was cloudy and damp and uneventful, save for a good client meal where I learned about the Vivino wine app. Geneva was a different story, almost entirely b/c of the perfect weather. Things I learned on this trip included the following: Lake Geneva is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe! It's pretty damn beautiful to look at when the sun is out! And it feeds the Rhone River, which runs all through France and, presumably, nourishes the grapes that make up Cote du Rhone wine, one of my favorite reds to accompany a nice steak!
My day included 24 degree weather (Celsius), abundant sunshine and lots of eventful walking between meetings, as you can see from my fantastic photos. So I got to enjoy great weather, see the town and learn a few things. On one walk, I walked past a curious structure right up against the lake. Turns out it was the tomb of the Duke of Brunswick. And he was kind of a badass. So let's learn!
Charles William Ferdinand was born in 1804 in Brunswick, a part of Saxony in Germany. He was rich as hell, and inherited a duchy at age 11. Not a dutchie, unfortunately. But Charles got squeezed out of power, forced to leave Germany, and his palace was burned. And his brother later returned to Brunswick, took over his duchy and had a mercenary army on call to defend it. Dick move by the brother, right?
So Charles became a wealthy expat across Europe for his whole life and lived it up something fierce. He spent most of his later years in Geneva. After visiting there, I get it. Water and sunshine and seasons and culture. All good stuff. I still think I would opt for Capri or Mallorca or Crete, but not all folks love islands.
Charles died in a hotel in 1873 at the age of 68. When I first saw that he died in 1873 (after being born in 1804), I thought he passed at age 69, which would have been cool. When I found out he passed before his 69th birthday, I thought it would have been cool if he passed 69 days before his 69th. But he died 73 days before his 69th. So, um, bummer. And yeah, I'm kind of a loser.
Here's where things get cool. When Charles died, he had quite a fortune from his duchy. He decided to leave it all to the city of Geneva, under the condition that the city build a special tomb for him that overlooks Lake Geneva. Baller move, right? I'm surprised no US celebrities/magnates/politicians have tried the same with Mount Rushmore, Central Park, the Joshua Tree or any other iconic area. But I digress.
Turns out there was some consternation among the Genevites (Genevians?), but they took the money and ran. They built the Brunswick Monument for Charles and it stands to this day. And it's pretty sweet. May we all have such a theatrical homage to our life across the street from a European lake.
Be sure to turn in next week (or year) for our second lesson, where we learn about how weird Luxembourg is.
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You didn’t visit WIPO?
26 years ago we needed a spot between Florence and Paris and randomly picked Lucerne, Switzerland. One of the best nights abroad I ever spent. Beautiful city in the Alps, alpine horns, yodeling, dancing, fondue, and friendly people.
I have also spent a night in Luxembourg. Curious little place.
Enjoying the summer of Gheorghe: the Travelogue.
The NFL decided not to suspend Tyreek Hill, despite having an audio tape of him threatening his girlfriend with “you need to be terrified of me, too, bitch.” Their stated rationale is "based on the evidence presently available, the NFL cannot conclude that Mr. Hill violated the Personal Conduct Policy."
This is the same organization that suspended Tom Brady for four games because their investigation concluded that it was "more likely than not" that Brady knew the Patriots's staff tampered with the ball.
So to recap, when making disciplinary decisions, the NFL evaluates messing with a football under a "more likely than not standard" while domestic violence appears to be a "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard, although I don't see how there can be much doubt in Hill's case.
My apologies, the standard was not "more likely than not" in Brady's case. The quote is "it is more probable than not that Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls."
That's even mushier than I thought. The standard of review, not the footballs.
ian and i just played some tennis, so hearing about temperate weather is just pissing me off. i don't think i'll stop sweating until october.
Just went for a CT scan for calcium scoring, after a doctor told me I needed it. That’s a “wow, I’m getting old” kinda way to spend the afternoon.
My 9 y/o has travel baseball tonight. Game starts in 20 and every kid and coach is a puddle.
I’m headed to the Outer Banks this evening where we will send off our comrade Bruce, who has lived down there and taught hang gliding for 30 years. His next stop is Colorado, which at least promises to be drastically different topographically. It’s going to be a sweaty one at the Martha Wood tonight.
Day 2 of 3 at Hammock Beach in the books. There’s 17 of us. Ages 7 to 75. We all don’t get together often but when we do it’s pretty damn fun.
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