GENEVA is the second largest city in Switzerland but I found it was the most international one that we saw. The population is about 180,00 people who have managed to keep their city clean and safe for themselves and visitors.
The city is so close to France that you can see both the Swiss and French Alps. It is on Lake Geneva and also the Rhone River.
I loved the giant fountain that we could see as we were landing. We learned later it is called Jet d'eau and is the Worlds largest fountain. Water is shot into the air and this makes a billowing plume.
We took a taxi to the Epsom Manotle Hotel. We had roll on luggage with us and if I knew it was so close to the lake we could have walked the few blocks. This is a small four star hotel with about 170 rooms.
The lobby was not large and had a few sofas near the check-in desk. The vaults were behind the desk and a News Shop was near it.
Our room was very warm because there was no air conditioning and when we opened the window there was no breeze. The view was a street. Thank goodness we were only going to be staying here two nights.
I don't know how they got the twin beds with night tables on the outer side, that were attached by a blue head board, two night lights, a lamp 3 chars and a small table into that room! I thought we were back in Japan again because we were bumping into each other.
The closet was divided in two, so you could hang your cloths on one side and put your fold up cloths on the other side. It didn't matter because we didn't unpack our suitcase, we just unzipped them and used what we had packed on the top.
The bathroom had a toilet, shower and a sink. Behind the small mirror were two shelves for our toiletries.
Every morning we had a free buffet at the Rive Droite Café.
Hotel Information
18 Rue Richemont, Geneva, Switzerland.
Phone: 1-022-906-5800 or e-mall: info@manotel.com
Everything in Switzerland is so expensive we paid $120.00US for this room.
I don't recomend you stay here.
What We Saw
Seeing Geneva is very easy, you can take a bus, walk, taxi, trolley or a tram. The Rhone cuts the city in half, and you can go to the other side by crossing a bridge or taking a water taxi.
The Palais des Nations was the place where the United Nations began.
I'm sure many of you have heard of the Geneva Convention, that made the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, (but not Mogen Dovid Adom, with the star of David on it). It was the first organization to receive the title of ''Humanitarian Organization''. Well they have a museum here that has a collection showing you how the organization began. You can also see the recent carnage, atrocities and wars than man has committed against other people they don't like. You sit in a theater and watch this happen on a few screens at the same time.
In the central part of the city is the Cathedral de St. Pierre. It is both a Gothic and Romanesque building. We went below the newer building to see an older church.
We took a day tour to see the Swiss Alps and CERN, (the European Organization for Nuclear Research Center), is truly impressive. You are looking at what it created... the world wide web system. Isn't that neat! We were told that the machine inside the building is a 27km circular particle accelerator. Then drove to Mont Saleve to see the mountain and the park. We took a cable car, (my husband hates them and brought a flash filled with Scotch. A few of the people helped him finish drink the Scotch before we arrived at the crest), up the mountain and when we got to the top we could see Geneva and part of Mont Blanc in the French Alps. We had lunch at the café at the top. On our ride we saw green meadows, some dairies and a lot of wildflowers.
On the way back we stopped at Cologny, a suburb of Geneva. We drove past the large homes that were surrounded by walls and the forest between them.
One night we went to see Classical Orchestra preform a jazz concert. I was inside City Hall that has a square in the center of it. Because we bought last minute tickets we sat just below the arches at the back of the room.
Shopping+
We went to the Geneva Arts and Crafts to buy a hand made white pottery creamer that is in the shape of a cow.
At The Bootery I bought a pair of sandals and a pair of clogs.
I bought a print of an oil painting of a cow in a field of edelweiss flowers at the Galerie Mattisse.
Where we ate
Kilwin's Ice Cream is the place to go for candy and home made ice cream.
We only ate one lunch in Geneva and that was at the Riverwatch Deli & Grill. We sat on the patio and watched what was happening on the water while we both had hot corned beef sandwiches on dark rye bread. We each had a small stein of CHF draft beer. It was as cold as a glacier and we could have had more, but we knew we shouldn't drink that much at lunch time.
One night we went to Larkin's On The Lake for dinner. My husband had prime ribs and I had fresh lake trout. We shared a bottle of red Cote Rotie wine. For dessert we share a dish of kugelhopf, (a sweet noodle pudding).
Our last night we went to Joseph's Italian Bistro. My husband had veal and pasta and I had pasta with an Alfredo sauce. The bottle of red Rhone Valley wine was delicious. We both had Gelato for desert. His was blood orange and mine was bananas and cream.
If you want to know more about Geneva the link is:
https://geneva.ch
We flew home the next morning.
What I Thought
I did like Geneva, but it reminded me of most big cities, (Calgary, Alberta or Dallas, Texas). I didn't find the people as friendly here. If you are going to visit Switzerland you might as well spend a few days in Geneva. Of the 3 cities this is the one I didn't enjoy.
Thanks for reading my review.
©LL2005
