Geneva Episode 4: Some extras

After seeing the sights in town, we checked out the Balexert shopping mall when we returned to our hotel.

There was some wood-carving exhibition going on.

These two shoes took 45 hours and 35 hours to make, respectively.

a man painting

a jeep

a...I don't know what car :P

a band!

bicycles

a typewriter, a camera (behind it) and others...don't miss the mobile phone on the ground!

erm...what do you call this?

Herbie! lol

sewing machine, ironing table, the works

more stuff behind the sewing machine

needles, thread, buttons...

there's even a wooden computer!
I guess it's more environmental-friendly... :P

And later on after we got back to the hotel...

we had yummy rösti for dinner in the hotel restaurant

The next day we checked out of the hotel and left for Lucern. On the way we visited Lausanne, which will be for the next Switzerland post.

Geneva Episode 3: The lake and the garden

The lake in Geneva with its water fountain (jet d'eau) is a must-see for all tourists: it is called Lac Léman aka Lake Geneva.

A Swiss friend once told me: never call the lake Lake Geneva in Lausanne! I guess it makes sense...the lake isn't in Geneva alone; there is no reason for it to be called Lake Geneva! (except that Geneva's famous. lol)

see how windy it was? (and how cloudy...)

We saw a swan...

my father checking out the fountain (okay, not really...we didn't put in any money)

and my mother had a photo opportunity with the mini-train as it passed by (we didn't take the mini-train this time, I took it during my first trip to Geneva)

Check out the trees behind the train...when we first arrived in France (in Angoulême), we found those trees highly special :P

Then we walked through the English Garden.

the carved sequoia

The tree is 120 years old, and the carving was done in 1992.

And the three following photos are from my first visit to Geneva. (because the sky was cloudy and there wasn't any water at the fountain during this last visit...)

the 4 seasons fountain

the national monument (against the sunlight, unfortunately)

the statue of "la Brise"
This was further away from the garden, along the lakeside. (though maybe that is also considered the garden...)

and no trip to Geneva would be complete without seeing the flower clock!

A few close-ups:

5 and 6...the 5's a little far away to be seen clearly.

That's all for tourism in Geneva. But in the shopping mall opposite our hotel, there was something interesting as well...so I'll write about it next!

Geneva Episode 2: The old town

[Missed the introduction to our Switzerland trip? It's here.]

Since we could take public transport for free, we took the bus quite a lot in Geneva. We saw that a public bus makes a tour of the old town, so we decided to take that as a "hop-on, hop-off" tour instead of taking the touristic mini-train. (The "bus" turned out to be a mini-van :P )

Here's Place Neuve. (a square)

the conservatory of music

the Grand-Théâtre (even the touristic guide wrote this in English without translating it :P )

the Musée Rath (same here) with the General Dufour statue in front of it (blocking it, actually :P )

a park off the square

some people playing open-air chess in the park

the tiny street where the town hall is

the town hall

the old arsenal

the St Pierre cathedral, which was in a tiny square (that's why I don't have a picture of it whole; my old camera had very "narrow-angle" lenses (as opposed to "wide-angle" lol) )

that's part of the cathedral too, beside the main entrance

inside (wow, the rings of light are bright!)

Now here are a few extra photos, taken during a day trip to Geneva with my father in 2007. We didn't walk this way this time.

going through the park (the entrance was on Place Neuve)

le Mur des Réformateurs (Reformation Wall, if you like), further inside the park
See the four réformateurs?

le Palais Eynard, at the other end of the park

That's all for the old town...the next episode will be about the lake and the English Garden (the must-sees in Geneva).

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 ;) )