Sweet Geneva

Geneva Switzerland

July 19th


After our adventurous cab ride from Bryan and Julie’s home to JFK we boarded our plane for Geneva. We somehow got lucky and they gave us emergency row exit seats for no additional cost so we took full advantage. You would have thought we had set up shop with all our stuff strewn across the aisle. We decided to purchase smaller backpacks while we were in DC. This way we could carry them on and not have to hassle with baggage or lost luggage. After takeoff we removed our shoes and kicked back with a movie and dinner. A perfect Sunday evening. A quick cat nap and we arrived in Geneva. The flight to Geneva was actually faster than getting from Kauai to Phoenix.

The real adventure was just about to begin. Watching Roby and me in a foreign country without knowing a lick of French and having no knowledge of where we were going was like watching a reality show. We headed straight to the information desk and the lady spoke enough English to show us where to pick up our free pass on the tram to get to the train station which would take us to our hotel. It is really great in Geneva, all public transportation is free to tourists. Once we got to the train station we had this predicament as to which train to take because we had to make a connection. No one at this station spoke any English so we were on our own. We figured it out and even found our connection without any troubles. The walk from the tram station to our hotel was pleasant even with our backpacks. We were experts now. Since we arrived before check-in we dropped off our bags and took to the city on foot. Although we had a free metro card Geneva is a very walkable city. Roby with his trusty map skills led us to some of the city’s most beautiful narrow cobblestone streets lined with old stone buildings and flower boxes in all the windows. We hiked up the steep hills to the Cathedral de St. Pierre. The city is everything you would imagine for a European city. It is bright, clean, and has the most perfect view of the lake from all sides, and oh yea-expensive. We walked down the famous Grand Rue where we found a cute little café for lunch. We figured eating out is going to be an experience for the next two weeks since we have limited ability in reading the menu. Thankfully enough of the words have similarity to Spanish and Italian that I can decipher the majority of the words. The only problem is the pronunciation. Spanish is so much easier. Everything is “silent” in French but we made due. Lots of finger pointing along with Roby attempting French with his best Texas twang accent followed by blank stairs from the waiters .

After lunch we headed toward the park at the Lake. Jet Lag was weighing in and I just wanted to veg for awhile. We found the perfect spot with Mont Blanc in the background, the sun glistening off the Lake and the grassy park just calling our names. We set up camp in the shade and basically passed out for about 1 hour.(ah-BLISS). Just what the doctor ordered. Once the bugs started coming out we packed up and wandered through the park landing at a bistro up on the hill near a museum. We had a beer and enjoyed sunset. Only having one night in the city, we wanted to check out the nightlife. After a quick shower we headed toward the center of town where they were having a festival and live music. The band was from Australia and played some great 70’s music. Knowing we were going to be back at the end of our trip and still feeling the effects of the plane ride we called it an evening around midnight.




Viva la France.