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Europe 2024: 160 steps to the top
posted : Monday, December 16, 2024
And so we are finally in Switzerland! The main agenda of the trip. Landed past 10pm, freezing a bit as we walked through the sheltered linkway to the terminal building, cleared immigration and yes both luggages made it haha. Hopped on a train and within 15 minutes we are at Geneva train station, with the hotel just across the train station. Which is a blessing considering we landed late, and have had a couple of days of traveling and the sister didn’t get much sleep the night (day?) before.  Cleared immigration, making our way to the train station  First Swiss train ride  Right across Geneva main station! About the train ride - so most Swiss cities provide a free transport card for tourists, as long as you booked at least one night of accommodation. Usually you can get them from the hotel so I am not sure if AirBnB works, in any case we didn’t book any this trip. The transport card allows you to take different modes of public transport for free, and also discounts to some attractions. Then again, technically you also paid for the card because the hotels will charge a tourist tax payable only upon check in. In this case at Geneva, I wrote in ahead of time asking to process the transport card so that we can take the train from airport to Geneva station and they duly sent over the QR code, but as it turns out Switzerland public transport runs largely on an honor system where you didn’t have to scan or tap your card or something - they assumed you hold a valid ticket and occasionally there would be conductors on board to check. And this also extends to intercity travel too though most likely your ticket/Swiss pass would be checked along the way. And speaking of Swiss Pass - we didn’t get the full fledge one. Did calculations and concluded that we only needed the Half Fare card for the amount of traveling/scenic train rides we are doing, so that’s what we went for. Train travel aren’t cheap though, booked everything beforehand to get discounted prices so our schedules were a bit rigid in the end, but turns out okay. Anyway back to Geneva! Hotel room below.  Hello. Concussed and woke up to a gloomy looking Geneva, which was a bit of a surprise given that weather app calls this “mostly sunny”. It’s our only full day in Geneva, hence it’s the designated sightseeing day - off to grab breakfast first, and as usual let photos tell the story.  Hotel exterior  Down the street towards the lake  Lake Geneva, gloomy edition. Jet d’Eau missing in action, maybe it starts at certain timings?  Crossing Pont du Mont Blanc  Water fountains everywhere in Switzerland are a life saver, keeps me hydrated  Heading to our first stop, for breakfast  Found many recommendations for patisseries and everybody looked good, picked one and tried. Not bad at all  Quite dig the interior too  Award winning yo  On the way to the Old Town  Up stairsss  Swiss flags in full blast  Promenade de la Treille  Reformation Wall  Then the old town proper, at the heart of Place du Bourg-de-Four  Yes totally reminds me of FS  Going downhill and passed by this patisserie which looked good, resolving to come back for lunch  There’s even a raised junction at the end of the street  Got a bit lost along the way but made it to St. Pierre Cathedral  Cavernous insides  Bought a ticket to go up the observatory. 160 steps to the top along this very narrow flight of stairs, thankfully stamina is a lot improved  So narrow that there is a need for traffic lights to regulate  One of the chambers on the way up, there’s probably some historical story but we didn’t bother  View from the top! Skies starting to clear and we are still missing Jet d’Eau. Finally found out why - maintenance period zzzzz  Tapao-ed our lunch, then decided to head to the lake for a bit of picnic? Passed by another landmark, the L'Horloge Fleurie  Lake views. Sun is out, skies are blue!  Shared this sandwich  And this dessert  Water is so clear!  Jardin de Anglais  About the best we can do. Then headed back to the shopping street for a bit if window shopping, and brainstorming dinner ideas  Our pass allows us to take the ferry across the lake too  And we made it during sunset, glorious colours  Our ferry  All the watch brands  It’s actually still quite early but skies are dark, and we are sort of still recovering from jet lag? So headed back to the hotel.  Tapaoed variety of food for dinner including our first supermarket dinner from Coop. And that’s Day 2! |
