The moment of crossing the border into Switzerland from France was very anticlimactic, but I took a photo all the same as it was the first time I have actually crossed a border and not been in the air at the time. It was very weird to think about actually, especially in terms of customs and passport control (or lack thereof).
We arrived to a lovely sunny day in Geneva, and spent the day wandering around exploring the town.
My favourite part of Geneva was its iconic massive 'jet d'eau' or water jet that is fed by the lake and can be seen from all around the city.
It looked beautiful in the early evening moonlight with the Swiss architecture in the background, it's amazing how such a simple design can turn into a city icon. I think I took far too many pictures of this particular feature though!
I'm not one to take a picture of every little thing I see, but I couldn't help but secretly take a picture of this group of policemen/women as they stood together, I wish I could have seen them in action!!
We stayed in a youth hostel for both of the nights, and although it was quite pricey for a youth hostel (39 Euro for a non-member) we got a lovely room, an all day travel card, and a big continental breakfast each morning, which we took full advantage of! My bed was the top bunk, there were 8 beds in that room.
The one thing that I absolutely wanted to experience when I went to Switzerland was the chocolate, and I was not at all disappointed! There are many many options of chocolate, and believe it or not, all of us went away from Switzerland swearing off chocolate for at least the next few days! The Swiss put a lot of effort into the presentation of everything in their country, including the beautiful chocolates, which were picturesque in every shop.
Another must in Geneva was to see two internationally recognised places- CERN laboratory and the United Nations building. They were both incredibly easy to get to, and CERN was an amazing tourist orientated place that really catered to both the informed and uninformed tourists, in a completely unique way.
It was a very exciting place, even for the non-science initiated like me! And it used both English and French in all of its language which was a great help.
The main machine is 27km in circumference, and spans across both France and Switzerland, moving particles at an incredible speed to induce collisions and find out about what happened during the first few moments after the 'big bang'.
After CERN, we headed to the UN, but it was locked and gated to the general public, I'm sure security is very tight there. It was still a good view from the outside!
As you can see it was a somewhat colder day the second day that we were there, luckily we did all of our exploring the day before!
Switzerland is big on presentation as I have previously mentioned, and I really noticed this when we went out in the evening and many random things such as water features, statues, and plants were all lit up beautifully.
And in the morning, when we went to the market, all of the food was so beautifully presented that I wished I could've bought some to take back to France! The French markets are a bit more thrown together, I feel as though the Swiss take a lot of pride in what they do.
On the Sunday, we decided to go to a tiny Swiss town on the outskirts of Geneva to see some semi-rural Swiss life. The pictures don't do it justice, perhaps because it was still raining, but it was such a sweet little town and I really felt as though I had really experienced an aspect of Swiss life, because in the city it is much like any other city, and also very French!
We stopped at a small cafe for a hot chocolate, and were served hot milk with a small packet of chocolate powder on the side! That was new, but I expect they probably don't have to serve hot chocolates very often, and are more likely to serve the mini espressos you have to be careful that you don't accidentally order when you ask for a 'cafe' (coffee), and not a 'cafe au lait' (milk coffee, or normal coffee in NZ).
Every region/town/city in Switzerland seems to have their own flag, and this town has incorporated their own flag with the flag of both Geneva and Switzerland for this flag trio decoration.
I really loved Switzerland, and just how easy it was to get there! I am already planning my next international trip, and I can't wait!
No comments:
Post a Comment