Happy Hippie Easter

Friday, April 6th
6:30 am, Quinn and I got on the train heading to Lyon where we would make the transfer to our train to Geneva. We got into Geneva at around 10:30, and the city was DEAD. Nobody was on the streets, none of the stores were open - it was like we had walked into a ghost town. We asked the man at the hotel what the deal was, and he explained that since it was Easter weekend, not much was going to be open - great. 
Fact: Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe, so our most expensive weekend was going to be filled with wandering the streets looking for things to do. 


So. 


We meandered towards Old Town when we got our first glance of Lake Geneva and the Jet d'Eau that Geneva's famous for. 


Here are some fun facts about the Jet d'Eau:

1. 140 meters high
2. 500 litres (132 gallons) of water from Lake Geneva are jetted into the air per second
3. water leaves the nozzle at a speed of 200 km/h (124 mph)
4. at any given moment, there are about 7,000 litres (1,849 gallons) of water in the air

Walking along the water, we stopped at the English Gardens, took a picture with the Flower Clock before heading up into the hills of Old Town.

Meandering aimlessly through the streets of Old Town, Geneva, we stumbled upon St. Pierre's Cathedral. Luckily, right behind the historical St. Pierre's Church, there was a Crêpe Restaurant, so we stopped and had a nice, long lunch before heading into the church.

Fun Fact about St. Pierre's Church:

Back in the 1500's, when the Protestants took over the church, they whitewashed all the walls, removed all the murals and left nothing but the original architecture of the Cathedral and the Stained Glass windows. That's the state that it's currently in today. 

Q and I decided to take in as much of the cathedral as possible and head up to the Towers of the Cathedral where we saw one of the most beautiful views I've seen yet in Europe. Thousands of hundred-year-old building scattered the hills around Lake Geneva and continued right up until the foot of the mountains that enveloped the city. It was breathtaking.

After coming down, we meandered around Old Town - up and down winding cobblestone streets until we fell upon a park where dozens of middle-aged men (cigars in mouths, of course) were playing giant-sized chess. The silence around the chess boards made it obvious how seriously these men took their game.

Staircase in the streets of Old Town, Geneva 

Men getting serious about their Chess and Checkers

After watching for a little while, Q and I found a beautiful Cherry tree and planted ourselves under it for a well-deserved nap in the sun.

When I woke up, covered in Cherry tree blossoms, this is what I saw:

We went back to the lake for a bit and split some ice cream and took a trip out on the very narrow stone pathway to the Jet d'Eau where I saw (yet another) beautiful view of the city.

We headed back to Old Town for dinner: split Fondue, Vegetarian Lasagna and a bottle of Cab.

Then we decided, since everything was closed and we had made a pretty big dent in the list of things to see in Geneva, we would have a girls night at the movie theater – Titanic in 3D :)

Saturday, April 7th

Slept in before going to a Chocolatier for breakfast. Ordered some of the most FANTASTIC Hot Chocolate I've ever had, and we spent a nice relaxing 2 hours or so there (Eat, drink, sit...seeing a pattern yet?)

Then we took the bus up to the United Nations Building and – while trying to find our way in – stumbled upon a Glass and Ceramic Museum (Ariana Museum). We missed the last tour by 10 minutes (too much time in the museum haha), so we stopped and took a picture:

before walking around the Estate to the Botanical Gardens which were absolutely beautiful. They had small gardens dedicated to plants from specific regions of the world (Provence, Africa, South America, etc.), and they were all scattered among little streams and water falls. The entire place smelled AMAZING. They also had a little zoo filled with Peacocks, some sort of Mountain Goat, FLAMINGOS, and the largest variety of duck I've ever seen.

Botanical Gardens

Then we meandered a little more and headed back to Old Town for a couple of coffees to burn the couple of hours before meeting up with one of my friends from high school for more Fondue and wine!

Sunday, April 8

Easter morning! Q and I took a nice stroll along the un-explored side of the lake before going to an Easter Buffet - complete with Drip Coffee and real Champagne (Check “Drink Real Champagne” off the list of things to do before I die!) - where we stayed for 2.5 hours! We got really good at making the most of our expensive meals haha.

Lake Geneva

Breakfast Buffet

Then we took a boat ride across the lake and worked our way back before catching our train back to Aix!

Overall, a very fantastic and relaxing weekend! However, I would suggest to anyone planning on going there, that unless you're very good at doing nothing (or if you have means to go into the countryside), you really don't need more than one or two days to explore and get a good vibe of the place. Especially since everything is so expensive. Prime example that everything is super expensive in Switzerland:

Quinn and I went to McDonald's (because we decided we wanted to try it in every country we visit), and Quinn ordered a Cheeseburger meal with Medium fries, a Medium pop, and a small Magnum McFlurry. It was 16.10 CHF (a Swiss Franc is worth a little bit more than an American Dollar), so Quinn spent almost 20 dollars on a McDonald's meal. Talk about "Ouch".