Geneva, Switzerland and area
June 1 - 8

Near Geneva, Bob poured beer at the Fete de la Biere in Lussane. That story, and more biere stuff is on another page.

Geneva. Financial capital of Europe. On the main intersection, in the most prestigious location is the Arabian Bank of Geneva. Next door is a Bank Privee - if we have to ask, we can't afford it.

The guide book says you can spend money in Geneva faster than anywhere else in Europe. Probably so if you buy things, but we found free internet for the first time since Florida, a big dinner for 23CHF (Swiss Francs = $.75), and good hotels for 70€.


Downtown is the Jet de Eau. A 1300hp water fountain that kicks a spout
200ft straight up. The spray with even a slight wind the next day after this
picture had the water coming down at 45º and misting the whole section of the city.


This is the street on the far side of the Jet de Eau. Got lucky that one
wasn't full of cars. Navigating in all cities is a madhouse with streets becoming
one-way seemingly at random and street names only on little plaques
on buildings, if any at all.


Entrance to the UN.


Entrance to the U.S. Embassy, just up the block.


Lac Limon (Lake Geneva) has a side-wheeler taxi service that runs the perimeter.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Red Cross museum. It conveys the scope of their mission but is almost jarring because of the straight-forward presentation. These guys hate war, and it shows.


At the entrance is this statuary, The Petrified.


Along the wall is a running history of the activities and relief efforts.
All conflicts of over 10,000 deaths and disasters and epidemics of over
1,000 deaths are included. There are entries in both categories for each year.


One section talks about land mines and has many posters.


A temporary exhibit has photographs of the US - Afghanistan / Iraq war.


This is the head of a statue of Saddam Hussein. Another war souvenir.

From Geneva, we went, as planned, to Turin but really didn't like it. Dirt, downright dangerous drivers, graffiti, a 4-star Best Western that insisted that their 85º air was "conditioned", literally 10s of thousands of people mobbing the streets all night (we never did find out if that was just a typical Saturday).

But to not insult Tony Moleta, we can attest to the excellent Italian food. Up to his standards. We had a Calzone and a Spaghetti Marinara that included prawns, mussels, and more. Even with a bottle of regional wine it was still only 32€.

Oh, by the way, we've decided to see more of Switzerland, Bavaria, and Austria instead of going down to Rome. We're just not tired of the scenery or the weather.

Annecy is just 35km south across the French border from Geneva. It's an old fortified town on a recreational lake. Spent 3 days there sightseeing and looking at Switzerland maps.

We visited a bell foundry near Annecy that's been in business for 7 generations since 1796. They made the clarion bells at Butler University in Indianapolis. A small museum was worth the price of admission (4€) and a guided tour (in French) of the foundry was cool.
 


A set of clarion bells being tuned for somewhere in Minneapolis.
The apparatus in the back is a lathe.

Parasailing is quite popular in the hills surrounding Lake Annecy. There are 4 take-offs mapped and more than a dozen landing areas listed on a map. One pilot had a classic bad landing on the hillside south of town and his canopy cartwheeled down through the trees at least twice. Never did find out if he was OK.


A school.


One take-off point is at the edge of this tree-line. We saw over a dozen
pilots in the air at once on a Monday morning. Many rose to crest the hill and sail
on the other side. It looked like some were actually skirting the low-hanging clouds.


One of the take-off ramps. If you don't rise, it's just trees to fall into. Yike.

Scenery. Much of this is on the way over the Great Saint Bernard Pass. This was the favorite route during Roman times to get to the land of the Franks. A religious order built a hospice in the area in the 11th century and St. Bernard manned that hospice for many years. He may or may not have bred dogs, you'll have to look that up on your own.
 


Italy from Switzerland.


Switzerland from Italy


South of Evian is a gorge (Les Gorges du Pont du Diable) formed by a river's
erosion through a stretch of marble. Through an arch with lots of kettle morains.
Fascinating but hard to photograph.


There are many chrome-dome churches in this region.

Other Stuff

Smart cars are very common. We've seen them parked cross-wise in normal parking places (rarely), two to a parking place (more often), and even driving down the autoroutes (expressways) at speed.

This is a Fortwo. There's also a Forfour and a sports car.
 


Victorinox is the national souvenir of Switzerland.

We came back north from Italy through the Tunnel at Mont Blanc. It's a bit over 11km long and costs 30€ for cars. That same night there was a fire in the next tunnel south in the Alps, Frejus, that killed 20 people. Lucked out again.

They really do say "voila" in France". They also say pique-nique.

After a pique-nique of 2 sausage, cheese, an olive sandwiches and a bottle of wine from the nearby town of Cerdon, Terry drove for the first time in Europe.

This neck of the woods really needs AAA guidebooks. The Michelin, Fromers, etc. just don't compare. We're leaving France after finding a nice hotel chain, Campanile, and don't know if there's another comparable chain in Switzerland. There's Ibis (cheap and very small), Best Western (very expensive), but nothing in the middle that we know of yet. Say "le vie". Oh yes, we have to learn German now, just when we were learning "un jambon cru sandwich por favor".

Jill Hersberger told us why the roofs have spikes and bars across them. It's to keep snow from avalancheing down when you slam the front door - and also to protect the eaves and flower boxes.

Laura Ann Wilber says "Nice was like that when I was there almost 50 years ago - sorry it hasn't changed. After my last trip to Prague, I bought a purse that goes around my waist with a wire trap (inside the cover of the strap) so that it is very difficult to grab or cut off....they love to cut purse straps with a package cutter and run...".

Larry and Elizabeth Robinson from our dining table on the voyage over returned to Toronto via the Queen Mary 2. It was called to assist another ship near Newfoundland and they got a close-up view as it sank.

Things we miss:

The weather channel. Any weather forecast past one day.
Calling Katie to book a room at a Hampton.
Air conditioned hotels with big rooms.
Our waterbed.
Right turn on red.
Euchre, sewing, ping-pong.
The internet.
Ice, Iced tea, American coffee. Butter. Baked potatoes. BBQ.
Glasses of water at the table.
Yats, Popeye's.
The Daily Show. Jeopardy.
Trunk space in the car.
Y'all.

Things we don't miss:

Accident lawyer ads.
Diet Pepsi (it's called Pepsi Cola Max here).
Golf (really - there's not enough time).
Razz wheat beer.
Car keys.

Surprising things:

People immediately switching to English as soon as we say "bon jour".
The crowds in the cities.
We can't find a GPS for the car anywhere. Or even a compass.
Everything closes from noon until 2 (except restaurants - but we knew that).
Restaurants close at 8pm.
Popcorn has a sugar coating.
Chocolate eclairs with bitter chocolate filling.
They take parma / prosciutto ham for granted.
Sweet, sweet, ripe raspberrys.