Sarah and
I arrived in Geneva at 3pm. Yes this is the second Chocolate
producing European city I’ve been to, out of two. The city
surrounds a lake and the river Rhone, with Mount Blanc on the
horizon. Its most striking feature was a huge water fountain.
You can see that Sarah and I had a bit of fun with this.
Looking
around the area brought an immediate feeling of home. It looked
a lot like Lake Taupo or the Auckland Harbour with all the yachts
moored at the marina. French is the official language of Geneva.
Italian and German are spoken in other areas of Switzerland.
Interestingly only one road out of Geneva leads to the rest
of Switzerland. All other roads lead to France. Looking at the
map Geneva should be in France. Only 180 000 people live here
and we really noticed compared to London the lack of people
around. It is Switzerland’s third largest city.
We came
across this monument but there were no clues as to its importance.
We later found out it was the Brunswick monument and contains
the tomb of Charles the II, Duke of Brunswick who left his fortune
to Geneva.
Friday was
to be a big tourist day. We began by touring around the United
Nations. It was very interesting, as I did not know a lot of
the work they were involved in. The building itself was a united
nation in that many fixtures and fittings came from all around
the world. Switzerland is not a member of the United Nations.
We thought this was a bit strange but perhaps it was because
they are a neutral country. Unfortunately for us the tour went
longer than we were expecting and so we had to get a taxi back
to the city centre. I’m very sure we were swindled because
of course the taxi driver didn’t speak English and it was
£8 for a 10-minute trip??
Anyway we
were back and looking forward to a city sights bus tour, which
continued into the countryside. Geneva is divided into three
areas, the commercial centre, the old town and the international
community. At New Square we got onto a mini train and were driven
up the impossibly narrow streets to the old town. There we took
to our feet to see St Peters Cathedral, which was begun in 1000’s.
We saw mosaics on the Town Hall, which were made from coloured
stones from Spain. We walked back down to the square.
On the way
we saw and sat on the longest park bench in the world. It was
120metres long.
I was particularly
impressed with the Reformation wall. The wall was built in 1917.
Calvin, one of the reformers preached a lot in Geneva and it
was one of the first areas to accept the new religion around
1536. From Left to right the reformers were: Farel, Calvin,
Beze and Knox.
The park
was also home to Geneva’s university. The specialist subject
was language predictably enough.
We got back
on the bus and continued to see the international part of the
city. So many of the world’s organisations have headquarters
here, as do many countries. The Red Cross was founded in Geneva
also.
We continued
on out into the countryside passing many unattended French boarders.
The surrounding farmland is all vineyards and we were lucky
enough to sample wine from the local vineyard of Laconnex. We
had this drinks break in the small neighbouring village of Aire
de ville. We stopped to go into the Choully chapel where Calvin
spent many a Sunday preaching. We also saw the International
European centre for Nuclear research, which was, where the worldwide
web was developed. As we headed back to the city we passed the
Chateau De Compresieres. Fifteenth century religious order Knights
lived there and went to protect pilgrims on their religious
journeys. It was a really good tour.
Our last
day was reserved for a foot trek around things we wanted to
see again more closely.
Here's a
novel idea, a floral clock. The flowers are changed regularly.
We then
went to one of my highlights. The beautiful rose gardens. You
can tell how wonderful it was from the photos. Closer inspection
of St Peters was calling. Underneath the church is a series
of excavations, which have unearthed roman remains. We didn’t
go in but instead went up the North Tower. This is similar to
St Paul’s of London in that it gave great views of the
city. It was a bit like a rabbit warren as we crossed over the
bells and went to the other side of the tower.
We continued
on to New Square where using the oversized chess pieces Sarah
managed to thrash me in a game of checkers. On our amble home
we came across a flea market so wandered around that. Our feet
were protesting so we took them home and had a quiet sit down
by the lake. It was so peaceful and beautiful.
We had a
great dinner at the hostel after two nights of takeaways, and
then went into the Rec room. Two Oxford university guys came
to talk to us and before long we were part of a larger group
all discussing our travels. It was a lot of fun. As we had to
get up at 5am we sadly left around 11.30 and went to bed. The
alarm didn’t fail and we sleepily made it to our plane
and home. While there, time went slowly but looking back it
had been very quick. Back to bleak London, but planning our
next trip.
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