Pâques: Geneva

The Swiss francs!

The answer to our clock on the hill - A flower clock !- Not really all that exciting.

Saturday morning we were up and ready to pick the car up at 8:00. After programming the G.P.S.(A kind friend has lent us his Navigation system till we leave) we left at about 8:30 and headed to the Swiss border. It took us about 1 hour to reach it – I had packed our passports just in case we needed them but the man just stopped us, (I had been taking a photo of the border) and said not to take any more as it is ‘interdit’ –forbidden to take photos of the border. I did think this was slightly strange as I took only photos anyone can see easily anyway.
We headed to Lausanne, had a quick look around and saw the first glimpse of Lac Leman. We then followed the road up the side of the lake onto Genève (Geneva). The scenery was beautiful, snow capped alps surrounding the lake and lush green grass with lovely little villages on hillsides.
We arrived in Genève at about 10:45 – what a fantastic thing the navigation system is, punched in the address before we left and taken straight to the door.
We had booked into an Auberge de Jeunesse, youth hostel – not that they are only for youths nowadays. There were all sorts of people, families, older couples, large groups, singles and groups of youths! We had a room for just the 4 of us with our own little balcony, had to share bathroom facilities but it was immaculately clean. Better than the facilities at Glendhu!!!
We then left our car and wandered off to the lake – 1 block down, the Auberge was well situated. We strolled along the promenade and headed for the Office de Tourism. This is always our first stop - armed with a map and some information we were off to the Veille Vieux – the old town.
We stopped for lunch as we were pretty hungry, everyone (well it seemed like everyone) was eating outdoors on the terraces and big plazas. We found a little restaurant “The Spaghetti Factory” – very Swiss! Actually everywhere in France and even in Genève there is a huge Italian influence – without fail you can always find a pizzeria. Anyway Seph is always constantly eating when we travel – we have learnt to pack the backpack full of food before we leave. Her favourite phrase “I’m hungry” even though it was 15 minutes since she last had something!
The food is incredibly expensive - not just food – everything is incredibly expensive in Switzerland so to find bargains was a non event.
Being Easter we were keeping an eye out for the infamous Swiss chocolatier so we could sample the delicacy that it is renowned for – after many tries we couldn’t find any open!! Buggar!!! We could have made do with Toblerone but it is not the same.
The day was beautiful and we wandered around the lake out to the famous Jet d’Eau! People were out and enjoying all the sunshine. We had seen ‘everybody’ eating ice creams so I gave in and got the girls one – 2.50€ for one tiny (baby size) scoop. That is $6:50 each!
We found an outside bar on the lakefront and many people lying on picnic rugs, playing cards and having fun. It very much reminded me of New Year’s Eves in Wanaka on the grass outside Barrow’s and the THC!!! Those were the days!
For tea we found a Pizzeria near our hotel but the pizzas were very disappointing and unmemorable.
Genève is a very international city with many foreign dignitaries and forums being held here. I heard so much English – it was quite reassuring, also conversations between different nationalities but using English as their common language. We are very lucky that we speak this as our native tongue as it really is the universal language.

This video is a bit grainy and really doesn't do the place justice but you get the idea. The girls are playing in the background!