GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
10th May 2002 to 14th May 2002
Off to find some watches, pocket knives, cheese, chocolate...
Well yoddlelodidoooo to all of you..:)
After our wonderful train adventures that we left you with a week ago, we have finally found ourselves in wonderful Switzerland, Geneva to be exact.
Map of Switzerland Map of Geneva
Now... of all the things we expected to find in Geneva.. summer was not one of them. We have had the best summer days here, to the point of getting sunburnt in fact...hehehe well, Geneva is stunning and we definitely recommend visiting, in fact from all the countries that we'd come to again, Switzerland would be high on our list. For one, there is very little or virtually no criminal element, secondly the city revolves around a stupendously clean lake. Not like our Yarra river (in Melbourne) that you're too scared to look at, lake Geneva is crystal clear and the main attraction is this massive fountain called Jet D`eau Fountain, Geneva and more Jet D'eau Fountain and even more.
Rob in Geneva, Jet D'eau Fountain in the distance
Rob being Rob had to run right into the middle of it just to see if he would get wet or not...typical:)..and guess what?? he got drenched and looked like drowned rat..heeehee.
Rob drenched after testing if he could walk under Jet D'eau Fountain
Geneva is very easy to walk around and walking is recommended as taxis are very expensive, but then again.. we could have just been ripped off because we are tourists and should know better than get into a taxi who's speedometer was not working...duh! (A$30 for 5minutes ride)
Our cosy hotel was situated about a 15 minute walk from the lake, our morning stroll would take us through this wonderful little park which had chess boards at the one end. Parc des bastions in Place Neuve, Geneva.
Rob watching the Chess matches in the Parc de Bastions
During the day we would find all sorts off people challenging each other to games and it was great fun watching. Rob was too chicken to play in public as he was too scared I'd wipe the field with him.. heheheh (don't tell him I said that) Now you might ask me....what the hell does one do in Geneva?.. well, one looks at the flower clock L`Horloge Fleurie (The Flower Clock)
The Flower Clock
One also walk about 20 kms to find the United Nations building and one takes a very mediocre tour. It is a bit daunting though to find oneself in the place that one hears about on the news so often. Unfortunately Kofi Anna was not around, they did have pretty peacocks instead though. Palais des Nations, Geneva
Of course one has to look at the various cuckoo clocks and swiss army knives and then one spends the rest of the time looking at the jewelers shops....myyyyyyyy wooooooooord! now this is the place for watches and jewelry but the PRICES!!! I did see the most amazing humongous canary diamonds though, I don't know why Rob kept on breaking out into this cold sweat though, I think my poor sweet must have caught cold:)
Kat feeding the birds at a little cafe in Geneva. Notice the bird at the bottom right stealing Kat's cake while she is not looking ;)
One also walks around Geneva at night as it is very romantic with all the buildings lit up and totally safe, In fact it is the perfect place to walk around the jewelry shops again and point at things (whilst being in a romantic mood)
What one doesn't do is use the internet a lot.. can you believe that 15 -20 minutes of Internet use costs around CHF5 (A$6 or €3), this would have bought about 3hrs in Spain:) Guess there is a reason this place is run by bankers hey:)?
And that was our time in the beautiful city of Geneva.
On our way to the train to go to Interlaken, I spotted this Sphinx...Kat not too enthused about having a photo ;)
Geneva Info Geneva Photos various
Our next stop was Zurich but we decided to detour via Interlaken which was supposedly absolutely beautiful and shouldn't be missed. Interlaken is an Alpine mountain village situated between two rivers and surrounded by mountains.