Switzerland

Geneva, Bern, Basel, Lucerne, Interlaken, Zermatt

Good Day Sunshine

Yup, it’s 7am and the day breaks bright, and fresh, and clear, and DRY.

From my room, the Matterhorn is behind me.

Let’s GO!

There are a few ways to get to Matterhorn view points and the highest was closed due to wind. I took the route recommend at the ticket counter as an alternative and it was plenty high for me.

Up Up Up.

This is the station where I got off.

The clouds come and go so quickly I’m just as glad not to be in a gondola hurling side to side over 1,000s of feet deep chasms.

And ta DA this was the view.

Having a stroll. There are plenty of other views from other sides but I am Happy happy Joy joy.

Looking around. All these lifts are for skiers in the winter even up to the 12,000 foot mark.

Oh my goodness.

Everything was closed until the skiers are back.

The gondola station.

Heading down.

Wow, lucky dog me. I’m all packed up to get to Geneva in time for dinner with Heidi, then a quick sleep, up at 5am for a very long day getting home. Home Sweet Home.

ps – I had an empty middle seat on the 11 hour leg home. Oh YEAH!

SO Much Rain

At one point the rain seemed to quiet down a little and I rushed out to the known viewing spots to try to catch a glimpse of the Matterhorn, in case tomorrow was even worse. So here are several glimpses and you can see how quickly the cloud cover comes and goes.

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And here are a few more pictures from around town. I clearly didn’t do anything but have an occasional wander.

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The view from my hotel window.

An alternative taxi.

Rain does shine the streets..

..and bring some color to the night.

And now I’m going to go to sleep and dream of a sunny day, bright blue skies, vista views, for a nice ride up to The Matterhorn! I’ve got a 50-50 chance and I’m getting up early to increase those chances. I have to leave by 2 to get to Geneva in time to meet Heidi for dinner. Wouldn’t it be just WONDERFUL if my last day was bright, and fresh, and clear, and DRY?!

From Interlaken On To Zermatt

A view from the train station in Interlaken, notice these Interlaken buildings that tell a good story about the difference between Interlaken and Zermatt. They are both ski resorts about the same size but Interlaken is more citified and Zermatt is more alpine country. I loved them both.

On to Zermatt, more clouds and rain with the occasional and most welcome beams of light to color the scene. These pictures are out the train window. You’re probably used to the window-glare by now. I stopped trying to get rid of it because I just made a bigger mess than letting it be.

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Cows, scattered everywhere.

hmmm.

Zermatt, a very alpine looking totally car-free town. You can arrive only by train and once here you can walk anywhere or get around with the small local buses or use the electric taxis that look like large golf carts. I liked it!

Zermatt, like Interlaken, is primarily a ski resort with shops of active wear, restaurants for groups of outdoor adventurers, souvenirs, and chocolate. LOTS of chocolate.

I never did find out what this is. And I don’t remember what I did for dinner this night. Sigh. Oh wait! I do remember! I got a sausage off the street and it was delish.

If The Train Is Late Your Watch Is Wrong

I have so much I want to remember about my 9-10 hours on the trains – make maps, show the different kinds of trains and tell their stories, what happened at the various stops, passing through Italy, my great variety of seat mates, and more! I wonder if I’ll get to it? Right now here are a few pictures and the names of the places I changed trains.

Interlaken-Spiez-Brig-Domodossola-Locarno-Bellinzona-Lucerne-Interlaken.

What To Do Today

It was raining, but it wasn’t pouring, so I decided to have a little walk. The hotel has umbrellas to borrow which made it more comfortable than my little telescoping travel umbrella. And since I need a destination I picked a brewery a little out of town. They brew beer, whisky, and gin. I thought they were a tourist attraction with windows onto the brewing process (why did I think that?) but no, all you could visit was their very extensive store.

I ran across this playground and it was a real treat. You can’t see how totally cool it is – an obstacle course of challenge and delight. This is just one outer edge, the course goes deep into the forest.

The beer place.

Heading back.

Here come..

..some cows. The bells make a lovely sound.

Alpine sports and cultural symbols.

This was the road and beautiful it was.

In all this time and all this rain this is my first view of a rainbow, if this even is a rainbow.

At some point I got to thinking about what I would do tomorrow and I thought Trains, let me see where I could go to get out of this rain. So I went to my beloved SBB Visitor Information Center and asked my helper what she thought about a plan I had to leave around 11 and be back by 3. She said my plan was fine but instead, she said, what about leaving at 7:38 and getting back around 5:42? She then mapped out an itinerary that took me in a giant circle riding 6 different trains, up some mountains and into Italian speaking Switzerland for lunch. Ok Ok! Tomorrow!

But today I have more time and earlier I had made an appointment for a massage. It was a Thai place and the massage was absolutely as perfect as a massage needs to be. She did this release with the big joints, shoulder and hip mostly, and I will now be in constant search of someone at home who can do this.

Interlaken And Harder Kulm

This is a picture from the webcam at Jungfrau, “The Top of Europe”. There’s not going to be any Jungfrau for me, or any of the other high mountains for that matter. The forecast is for this cloud cover to continue throughout my stay. BUT on arrival the hotel told me to hurry hurry and I might be able to get some town views by taking the funicular up to Harder Kulm.

But first the train ride from Lucerne to Interlaken.

Cows, I need more cows!

Look what loomed into view.

Nice, coming into town.

I was walking from the hotel to the funicular and passed by this. ALL the tourists were gaping and gasping and making selfies in front of this view. Look Look Look everyone cried out. Of course, this was their first view of Jungfrau in days, and on my walk back it was gone again.

I got the front seat which was a treat.

The viewing platform..

Looking one way..
..and another!

The clouds move fast and the pictures are misaligned but start from the town. This plaque was in front of the view with all the mountains (that you can’t see) named.

A reflection in the restaurant window.

Back in town, there’s plenty of shopping here. All the outdoor chains are represented. My hotel has a decent restaurant and an excellent breakfast buffet.

Cruising Around Lake Lucerne

Feels good!

A cruise around Lake Lucerne is Included in my Swiss Travel Pass, so I decided sure why not and anyway all the mountain activities are socked in clouds and rain.

It’s a paddle wheeler with the wheels enclosed on the sides

And we’re off.

You’ll see the colors change as we get an occasional hole in the clouds.

We would hug the shore when a stop was coming up, and there were many stops.

Here’s a nice one.

Check out that tunnel/bridge. I think people were walking on the top.

Captain on the fly bridge.

The turn-around. Oh the blue. We only get it where there’s light.

Really gorgeous, and surprising!

I think this might be a close up of the village above?

It was a lovely day, probably a little of what river cruising is like. The round trip took 5.5 hours and I was never bored although I did nod off a time or two. There was a busy restaurant on board and I had quite a satisfying lunch of meat loaf, mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, and a very tasty sauce over the whole thing. I can’t remember what I did after the cruise because I’m writing this 3 days later and I don’t have any more pictures!

City Walls And City Scenes

Good Morning!

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Oh! the gold one finds in the Church of St. Leodegar (St. Leodegar im Hof or Hofkirche St. Leodegar)..

..and the view from the front steps of the church. I see those flags, I think Red Cross. Here’s something I copied from the internet:
“The design of the Red Cross originated from the First Geneva Convention in 1864. The symbol represents an inverted Swiss flag as a tribute to Henry Dunant, the Swiss founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross.”

Musegg Wall and its nine towers. I did the climb! It was a cool, sunless day and the challenge not so great, not like those citadels in Corsica!

A view from the walk up to the city walls.

Just another lovely view.

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Pictured below is a top-ranked attraction in Lucerne, the Bourbaki Panorama set up in the building on the right, a circular painting depicting a military scene from the Franco-Prussian war. It’s a horrors-and-heroics-of-war story that you can read about at length. I spent more time than I expected shuffling along around the work and was totally absorbed.

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Another equally beloved site is the Lion Memorial (Löwendenkmal). It’s a war memorial too.

The picture above, entrance to the Lion Memorial, is symbolic for me. The bike represents getting around without cars. The WC is a public toilet, clean and free. The trash can, yes, in the tourist areas you’ll find one every block and the streets and sidewalks are as tidy as you’d expect. The trees are nice too. I’ve got this long story about the dad and the raisin box..too long to tell but I hope I remember it.

The lion is huge and best loved for his anguished expression.

The setting was lovely.

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You see a lot of this..

..and this in the Lucerne Old Town.

See that loaf of bread, SO delicious. I tear off chunks and dip it in morning coffee. Ahhh. Those savory pastries are good too. The best source of quick, tasty, and (relatively speaking) not killer expensive food is the big SBB train stations. Yes. There are sandwiches I like, a nice selection of salads, pizza by the slice, all sorts of baked goods, even branded grocery stores for fresh fruit and veg (and plain yogurt!) all available at the train station and ready to go.

My review: I opened the box, had a small hassle getting them on, but once on, they were Perfect, and within a few days they had loosened up so that I could get them on easily enough. It’s a few weeks now with many miles on these shoes, and I couldn’t be happier. I should get another pair!

I’ve been traveling, through hot days (no problem keeping cool), wet days (dried amazingly fast and No Slipping!), cold days (I wore thin wool socks). Wonderful!

I usually wear a 7 in full sizes so I got the 7.5. The heel/ankle strap stays on, the toe box is nice and wide, and the shoe feels snug and safe. Thumbs up KEEN Whisper.

World Band Festival

I saw these banners on the first day and thought I should check it out. But I didn’t. And then as I was heading out for the day I ran across this – A Band Festival. Outside there were concert bands and brass bands and ensemble bands. There was also a competition inside for which paid tickets were required. Lucerne btw flies the blue and white flags.

From inside the festival meet-and-greet looking out on one of the stages.

Me in a tympani. It hasn’t been cold but it has been wet and my raincoat and an umbrella has been working well.

There were three stages and they all took turns playing and it was AWEsome. These three would play for an hour or so and then another three bands would take their place.

It was awesome, it was also raining. The crowd did its best to snuggle up under the canopy.

These two were playing soprano trumpets in the brass band. They were so good, the conductor was adorable, and they chose excellent pieces for the venue. Three cheers from me!

It hasn’t run since I got here.

The gate from the original train station, the train station that has now been built three times.

It was fun to run across these pillars of flowers around town.

And the lovely folks at the excellent Visitors’ Information Center.

Another interesting museum full of a ton of some of my favorite things. “Experience some unforgettable encounters with wonderful works of art. Enjoy works by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and another 23 artists from the age of Impressionism and Classic Modernism.”

Arrival Lucerne And Mt. Pilatus

Heading home from the train station this is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) and the Jesuit Church (Jesuitenkirche) on the right.

I got off from Basel early enough, dropped my bag at the hotel, scurried back to Tourist Information at the train station to arrange my quick-like-a-bunny journey up to Mt. Pilatus. And good thing too considering the weather forecast which was for endless thick clouds and rain.

It’s fun, and you can go in either direction. I went city tram, small gondola, large gondola, the world’s steepest cogwheel railway, and then the city train back to Lucerne. You can also ride a boat for the last leg as pictured above.

On the way up, I could see below me that there were dozens of hiking trails most populated by a hearty few. The trails varied in levels of grooming, some super-steep and some more switchbacks. There were a few resting spots along the way such as this place.

From the gondola.

At the top (but not the tippy-top), from the restaurant window.

Lake Lucerne

This is one ascent, and there was one even longer and steeper to get even higher.

That’s the cogwheel train, the steepest cogwheel in the world with a maximum gradient of 48%, average 35%, and starts at 6,800 feet.

Here we are where the cogwheel train, the SBB train, and the boats all meet.

One of the many such stands around the Railway Station and the Old Town.

See those iron-railed balconies above the green awning? One of those is mine. My room is the size and shape of a hallway but I’ve got an awesome balcony overlooking the river Reuss that half a block away feeds directly into Lake Lucerne!

This is one of the views when I step out on my balcony.

Gotta get a fountain in on the first day.

City Tour In Basel

King Frog guarding the gates.

On this tour we walked to many of the places I had visited yesterday so I skipped the repeats. I had failed to get a ticket ‘before’ and by last night they were sold out. I decided to go to the meeting place in case someone didn’t show up. And sure enough, TIM didn’t show up so I bought his ticket from his father-in-law. Too bad I didn’t take our picture, it would have been cute.

Except the Cathedral. I had to take another picture here.

The Tinguely Fountain where everything moves. “In 1977 Jean Tinguel created sculptural machines in a shallow fountain where the stage of the old city theatre company once stood, and in the process gifted Basel a famous new landmark.”

Basel is particularly known as the art center of Switzerland including the yearly Art Basel fair and more museums than you can shake a stick at, some represented by all those red dots.

I guess these sculpture fountains will be in all the towns.

Notice the symbol on the base of the sculpture. I’ve been seeing this everywhere, much like Bern’s bears. Copied: “The Basel emblem, symbolizing a bishop’s crozier, dates back to 999 when Basel began being ruled by prince-bishops. The emblem also represents a support or guide (the shepherd’s crook that saves straying sheep) and an emblem of authority and administration.”

My dining treat in Basel was to find a highly regarded Rosti place and go for the classic. The place was on this street. I looked up what makes a Rosti classic – different from hash browns or latkes. There seems to be a consensus. Use Yukon Golds, par-boil the potatoes, chill them, then peel and grate, then fry those babies up with salt and pepper in plenty of butter.

Another view of the Tinguely Fountain and in the background, the 1800s Church of St. Elizabeth.

On the map you can see how Basel borders both France and Germany. I visited with a young man from Ventura CA who had married a woman from Germany and they were both now living in Switzerland. He told me the local saying is for economy: Live in France, Shop in Germany, Work in Switzerland.

I looked up the weather in my next destination – rain! Tomorrow should be just cloudy and then three days of rain, so if I want to do any mountain assents I should get up early tomorrow to make the journey to Lucerne to arrive in enough time to give Pilatus a go.

Basel Landmarks

First, The Cathedral, Basler Münster, “built between the years 1019 and 1500 in the Romantic and Gothic styles.” That’s a lot of time to be building a church. Everybody read The Pillars of the Earth? I never looked at a cathedral in the same way again.

BTW, they say BAzel, like BAz Luhrmann.

Cool windows in the gorgeous arcade (or colonnade or loggia or…).

These plaques are commemorating the people buried under the floor.

The front plaza is so graciously sized I could actually get far enough back to take a picture! The website basel.com has good pictures of all the sites. Let’s see if I end up using some.

This is from the large back patio of the cathedral where musicians were playing music, kids were playing ball, and everyone was enjoying the lovely day. Basel is definitely bigger than Bern. You can feel it in the views and on the busy streets. And anyway, wikipedia told me so.

Many of the streets were torn up – there’s probably a big public works job happening (yes, I heard the tram tracks are being refreshed as is the sewer system).
To My Shopping Friends! You do want to visit Basel. There are plenty of chain stores, Plenty, but on smaller side streets and alleys, so many independent shops of highly curated goods.

This was a high profile exhibit at the Kunstmuseum Basel. The museum itself is housed in three very distinct buildings but it seems none of the buildings called my name since I don’t have a picture. The exhibit was very cool..

Pictures copied from their website, the pictures were arranged side by side for comparison, the audio guide came with the ticket, and the commentary was excellent.

The picture that blew me away at the Frick Madison last year was here now, Saint Jerome. At the Frick it had a wall all to itself and wowzer. Goes to show how much context in a museum plays into one’s experience. I just now looked it up – the Frick website tells us that “El Greco and his workshop produced this popular composition at least four times.” So maybe it’s a different version?.

Another landmark building, the 500 year old Basel Town Hall.

A think it’s a school. The entire fence was draped too.

In one of the small alleys, looking up..

To get an idea because this is about 1/4 of the composition, down the middle, halfway.

..reflected in the windows of the shop across the alley, it’s all an effective effort to make you look.

Morning in Bern Afternoon in Basel

Before leaving Bern I decided to take a quick buzz up the hill (by tram thank you) to have a look at the Paul Klee Center (Zentrum Paul Klee) a Renzo Piano building. I’m very glad I decided to go.

They have bee hives and a sunflower forest. The inset is an internet aerial.

The only photo I took on the train ride from Bern to Basel because most of the time we were racing through long tunnels which was messing with my ears big time. The folks at the Paul Klee museum invited me to an opening event on Friday of their Noguchi show and I was considering doing the quick ride back, but now I’m thinking not.

My new street. My new accommodation has a small kitchen so I went to the market and bought so many vegetables and then I stir-fried them and ate a big big pile.

MORE Walking Around Bern

She and her husband run the hotel with such charm and goodwill. KUDOS guys! And so efficiently, like a Swiss clock, not to forget that!

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BärenPark

Absolutely every soul I talked to in Bern, at a museum, in a cafe, on the tram, every soul wanted to know if I’d been to the Bear Park yet. It’s right across the street from my tram stop (which is up the hill from my hotel). Oh my it’s a popular place.

The Bernese are very attached to their bears. It’s on their flag, license plates, souvenirs, etc. Three bears live inside that oval. For so many years (wiki says the first reference is the 1440s) they kept the bears in pits making them easy to see but not so great for the bears.

Now it’s not so easy to see them but very exciting when one lumbers into view.

Love those walking tours. The topic of this tour was the UNESCO Historic Center. We learned mostly about the expansion of the city built as it was in a bend of the river Aare.

This is a pretty good example of the character of the historic old town. We’ve got a clock and a water fountain, the trams, the arcaded sidewalk and shops, the car-free street, the mid-rise buildings.

SB Nancy saw these chairs in one of my pictures from Corsica and sent me a picture of her exact same chairs. So now I see these chairs everywhere and I think I might need me some. These are located in 1) the plaza of the Cathedral, 2) the train station, and 3) the art museum. Stylish and sturdy, the Fermob Luxembourg line. Of course they’re expensive!

This place is called Zytglogge, “an elaborate medieval astronomical clock tower with moving puppets.” It’s a real crowd-pleaser.

Remember yesterday’s story about the “mountain”.

Halfway up the hill from my hotel we find the highly regarded Klösterli Weincafe. I had dinner here, my one big meal splurge.

I don’t have pictures of this splurge because sadly all my pictures of food do not look appetizing. There was an amuse bouche of tomato soup with pepperoni. Pizza soup? I don’t know what they did with the pepperoni since it was just the flavor of pepperoni and pretty dang tasty. Next I had made-in-house sausage with mashed potatoes and ratatouille. Yummm. And I got one of the fancy cheese mousse-honey appetizers for last course. Nice! And a good Swiss red as recommended by the mother of the two girls from yesterday.

One reason I haven’t eaten out so much is because of the very delicious breakfast at my hotel. We get plain yogurt just the way I like it, a very good granola and other cereals I didn’t try, fresh fruit, all kinds of bread, rolls, and super-good croissant, yummy home-made jams, and Delicious cheese. Oh yes, juice, milk, and very good espresso etc. and my favorite, flat white.

This isn’t my picture. I can’t get this view because the trees are leafed out. My hotel, Landhaus, is the smaller blue-ish building behind the white-ish building in the middle of the photo.

They do the breakfast in the morning and then have lunch and early dinner here too.

I called this place a Labor of Love. The details are a constant surprise. For example you are welcome to borrow these readers and sit around all you like.

A last view, tomorrow I leave for Basel.

Walking Around Bern

It’s my first day in Bern. I had plans. But then..

..I ran across this, and who can resist this?

Resist this? Certainly not me. So I asked if I could take their picture and follow them to the performance. Sure!

It’s Sunday here, nothing is open in the Old Town and the streets are quiet. They are headed to The Cathedral of Bern (Berner Münster) but they had to turn off into a hotel for a snack and a final tidy-up because they had come from a distance on the train..

..so they sent me off with this fine woman and we communicated for the next 30 minutes using google translate. I think she had never seen such a thing before based on her astonished expression. We had fun! She went in to the church early to get a good seat and I walked a little out of the Old Town for something to eat. I did find a place where I got to enjoy a $22 not-very-good small bowl of soup.

The Cathedral built in Gothic style, begun in 1421 and not completed until 1893 when the bell tower went up with the largest bell in Switzerland. In 1528 during the early days of the Protestant Reformation the council in Bern ordered “all masses should be stopped and all icons should be cast out.” Boo on this whole set of pictures, they should be cast out. Maybe I was rushing to get in? Excuses!

“Over the main portal is one of the most complete Late Gothic sculpture collections in Europe.”

“This collection represents the Christian belief in a Last Judgment where the wicked will be separated from the righteous. This sculpture shows the wicked naked on the right, while the righteous stand clothed in white on the left. In the center is Justice, with Saints and the wise and foolish virgins around her. In the center stands Michael the Archangel with a raised sword.”

The stained glass is quite spectacular and very precious to the city but I couldn’t get any closer because of the service. (I entered late and stayed in the back so I didn’t have to be there for two hours.) Someone told me that during the Reformation the Protestants decided no one was really praying at these windows as one would to icons so it was ok to keep them.

I was heading to this museum, the Kunst Museum Bern, before I got distracted by the singers. This was one of the more splendid museum visits ever for me. I loved the people working there. I wanted to take them home. The museum has done a major historical project detecting the provenance of a huge bequest called “The Gurlitt Collection” that you can read about on their website. All the museum tags are in German and if there is a second language it is French and the provenance is there too which is very interesting. You can often find this information on a museum’s website but I’ve never seen it posted before.

Circled is the Old Town where you will find 99% of the tourists and for good reason.

Behind this canopy is the train station and in front is the big tram-central to take you anywhere in the city. T

At the station the sign says “best before date” and those are refrigerators and grocery lists.

Wandering around the Old Town you will be treated to Clocks and Water Fountains. There’s so much to say about Clocks and Water Fountains in Bern. One thing I heard off the wall was that these fountains began to appear after the Reformation because all the artists of religious iconography had no more work so they turned their talents to these fountains that distribute potable water throughout the Old Town.

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I took the tram to the place where you can catch the funicular to go to Gurten, the “mountain” of Bern. Everyone puts “mountain” in air-quotes because it’s basically a hill in a country of real mountains.

While looking for the tram I ran into this sweet family also looking for the tram and we went up together. Then they went to ride the toboggan. They were visiting from French speaking Switzerland and the mom told me when they visit the German speaking parts of Switzerland they speak English because there are so many Swiss-German dialects they just default to English, which they speak perfectly btw.

Last story: the toilet at the train station. You have to pay 2 franks or 2 euros which is about 2 dollars to use the toilet and when I came out I said “wow, nice, but a lot of money”. There’s a cleaner stationed there who goes into every toilet as someone leaves to clean up and then turns on the Available light. Men and women use the same room of stalls, no difference, just help yourself. But if you want to use only a urinal you can, for 1 frank/eruo/dollar. I’m conflicted that it should cost so much, but then again, it was nice.

Leaving Corsica Arriving In Bern

Part of my crazy room in the eclectic and delightful Hotel Landhaus.

I had spent many days in Geneva earlier in the trip and heard mostly French. When I got on the train in Geneva to ride to Bern, French. I changed trains and bam, like that, all entirely German with, according to my sources…so many dialects.

Geneva-Montreux-Chillon Castle

Chillon Castle (Château de Chillon), according to wikipedia, the first written record of the castle was in 1005.

A scenic train ride to Chillon Castle. You can see how that little finger of Switzerland pokes into France.

We (Heidi and I) had a lovely day-trip taking the train to the end of Lake Geneva to visit Chillon Castle. I’ll talk about the various Swiss Travel Passes later, and the glory that is Swiss train travel.

Leaving the station.

Views along the way.

More.

Arriving in Montreux we took a bus on to the castle.

An example of the buildings in Montreux.

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Not My Pictures!

I didn’t get this view but I wanted to share one aspect of this gorgeous area.

A repeat of the first shot.

Some set-ups inside the buildings.

We climbed to the top of the tallest tower. Those mountains from the internet pictures should have been visible, but no.

These lower, closer mountains were visible though, and beautiful.

Surf’s up on Lake Geneva.

I ended my day with a truly delicious treat – a Swiss Potato Rosti. The next morning I was off early to catch the train to catch the plane to meet up with The Gang in Corsica.

A Stroll Around Geneva

That’s my hotel, Hotel Cristal Design, and the statue is called “L’Immigré”, The Emigrant, and reflects the ever evolving nature of this neighborhood. Within one block of here I have noticed a United Nations of restaurants. And Starbucks.

I spent the day with Heidi. We tromped around plenty and then took a little drive to enjoy a bit of the lake.

First stop for me is (almost) always the cathedral. In Geneva the largest and most important church is St. Pierre Cathedral, originally built as a Roman Catholic cathedral but during the Reformation it transformed itself into a Protestant church.

We climbed to the top of one of the towers!

Here’s one of the views from the tower including the The Jet d’Eau fountain out in the lake, installed in 1886, moved slightly in 1891 and adored through the city. There’s a walkway out there and the slightest change in the wind can drench all the spectators.

Heidi in the Bell Tower.

A view while crossing one of the many bridges.

Snack Time!

Then we decided to stroll through the Art Museum, which was in a gorgeous building…

..and clocks of course. Three rooms of Swiss clocks.

Another view out one of the many beautiful windows. That’s a Henry Moore sculpture out there.

And a view of the golden domes of the Russian Orthodox Church from the entry to the Art Museum.

I couldn’t stop looking!

Then Heidi got her car and we drove to the French border and enjoyed yet another snack time at the lake.

Lake Geneva!

Heidi Met Me At The Plane

Heidi is Robert’s sister (Robert of Robert and Joanna). Heidi lives in Geneva and Robert set it up for us to meet. Thank you Heidi, Thank you Robert!

This and the above are details from Heidi’s apartment.

And this is her street.

I got settled in my hotel and then we enjoyed a lovely wine and snack at a bistro across the street from the hotel.

Across from us at the bistro, I asked them of course if I could take a picture of their beer delivery system. Never have I ever seen a thing like this! The lovely women were from Thailand, working here at the embassy.
After a couple hours of rest, me in my hotel and Heidi at her house, we had dinner in one of Heidi’s favorite places (that’s her in the middle and the women who run the café on either side)…
Here it is, a lovely café on the corner between my hotel and Heidi’s house.

After dinner I went home, tried to look at pictures but fell asleep inmediatamente and woke up 11 hours later.

And I’m Off

What I’m going to write about when a get a chance tonight, I hope – The giant new terminal at LAX, my fabulous upgrade, the best seat mate of all time, a one hour delay that was no bother to me.

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