Geneva

Friday Geneva

Up in the dark. Breakfast in our room, then outside to the bus stop. Caught the local bus to the S-bahn station, then the metro to Mannheim Station. All the connections were much quicker than expected so we had three quarters of an hour to wait for our luxury ICE train to Basal, and a quick change of platforms to get the connecting Swiss train to Geneva. Walked 10 minutes to the hostel. Another swish youth hostel, with kitchens on each floor. Each room gets a lockable pantry and a lockable part of the fridge to store their food! Free Wi-Fi, internet terminals, laundry with washers and dryers, rec room with toddlers play area. Unisex facilities. Found our closest supermarket, got some Swiss francs out of the wall, and went walking south around the lake. Saw the big water jet, lots of boats. Walked up the hill to the old walled part of the city and saw some of the archaeological excavations. Went inside Calvin's old church where John Knox was minister before going back to Scotland and founding the Presbyterian Church. Bought tea things at the supermarket and tried a new treat -- vegetables. Bit of washing after tea. Everything is genuinely expensive. Big Mac meal is $12 versus seven dollars at home.

Saturday Geneva

Slept in as its one of our last easy days. Didn't get up till 9:30am. Found we could get a free travel card for the duration of our stay, so used it to go to the United Nations building hoping for a tour. Didn't count on the fact that it was a Saturday and no public servants would dream of working. However, the heroes across the road at the Red Cross headquarters were working so we did the tour, complete with films, slide shows and sample disaster relief packages. Found that Australians give the fourth most in disaster donations to the Red Cross, and the second highest per capita. Took a bus to the flea market, and played spot the most useless object. I awarded it to the working replica of the 1930 Moulix steam engine. Gave up there and went to Espace Rousseau and looked at the big Reformation Wall dedicated to Calvin, Knox, Cromwell and others. Saw numbers of large chess games being played. Maccas for lunch (not much choice really). Ashley left us to wander, and we went off for a lovely stroll around the lake in the sunshine. Saw several sauna and skinny dippers. They must have been freezing. White Swans and lots of ducks. Mandy loved the sun on the distant snow-covered Alps. After tea Mandy wanted to go and see the lights on the waterspout, but after donning our coats and walking all the way down, it had been turned off.