Geneva Episode 1: Awed by the hotel room

Ages ago (really, it was ages ago, wasn't it?) I blogged about my visit to Brussels. That was during my parents' visit to France. That wasn't the only place I visited with them...so I'm going to start writing about the others now. (this is about seven months after the actual visit, sorry about the delay)

We made a four-day trip to Switzerland, using the Swiss Pass to travel to a few Swiss towns. With the pass, we could take the train whenever we wanted (it wasn't valid on certain "special" trains). It also includes free use of public transport in several major towns (every town we went to) and entry to some museums.

The pass was either slightly cheaper or slightly more expensive than buying "normal" tickets (I made rough calculations before deciding to buy it), but it was worth it because it saved us queueing up for tickets each time we had to take the train.

First of all we went to Geneva, since it was the closest to Lyon and my mother hadn't been there before (I had already brought my father there when he came to France a few years earlier). I just realized that I haven't written a single travel post about Switzerland...my first trip there was before I started blogging, and my second was only to Geneva. So these will kinda make up for that. :P

We spent a night in Geneva's Etap Hotel (the kind of budget hotel with a double bed and a bunk bed above it). It was awfully spacious! We were rather disappointed that we were spending only a night there...the next two nights we spent in Lucern's Etap, and the room was a lot smaller.

Geneva's Etap hotel (don't ask me about the statue, I have no idea)

Here are a few photos of the hotel room to show you that I am NOT kidding (we were so impressed with the room that we took photos! :P )

The bed is just like the ones in France (Etap is a hotel chain)

and a huge space! (look through the window; Balexert is the shopping mall across the road...really, there's everything you need!)

not forgetting the bathroom

It's really big, a mattress could fit inside!

You can even sit down while you shower..they thought of everything!

The hotel is near the airport, so it's not really close to town, but there is a bus stop right in front of it, and there are buses going to town or to the airport. When we checked in, they gave us each a Geneva public transport card, valid for our whole stay (from check-in to check-out date). So if you are planning to stay in this hotel, don't go buying any public transport card just yet...go to the hotel first! ;P (the public transport card is also valid for 2nd-class train rides, which you can use to travel between the town and the airport) But we already had the Swiss Pass which was valid for all train and public transport, so we didn't really need the card.

all you want to know about the card

I'm really into posting about hotel rooms these days, aren't I? :P Sightseeing will have to wait till the next post! (check back tomorrow ;) )