Third Europe trip part 2 - Geneva
Recap - on a Monday morning, from Orly airport, we started to Geneva.
In Geneva - We reached before 10 a.m. One of the best things I did while planning was to get Swiss pass (strongly recommended by my project manager). This pass will give access to all modes of public transport (we took local trams, inter-city trains and ferry crossing in Geneva lake), free entry to most of the museums (I visited just one) and 50% discount on mt. Titles entry. It comes with different durations, minimum being 3 days which is the type we got. I applied for it online, a week before, giving our details and start & end date of our stay, paid about 162£ pp and the soft copy was delivered through email very next day (for orders received well in advance, they will dispatch the hard copy). The printout of the pass is to be presented along with the original passport (apparently soft copy or photo copy won't be accepted). They almost always checked the ticket while travelling between cities.
One of the mistakes I made was underestimating Swiss transport system. Our plan was to stay at Interlaken and visit titles but later changed the stay to Lucerne due to its proximity to Engleberg and Interlaken. Anyway I thought, the train station would be far away from airport and it will be too exhausting to travel immediately, so booked the an airport hotel and stay at Geneva for the day. However, the train station is literally just outside the airport and the trains are extremely comfortable, it wouldn't have been any trouble travelling to Interlaken or Lucerne.
On the positive side, the hotel we stayed is the best of all we booked in the trip.
As they mostly host delegates attending conferences, the environment is entirely formal and so were the facilities. We got zone pass valid for 2 days on check in, free access to gym and sauna. Also they got few computers we could use and take printouts (we took printouts of our flight tickets from Milan to Brussels as they came to my inbox after we left London).
View from the room and airport shuttle in front of hotel reception:
We had lunch at the hotel restaurant - chicken Milanese and potatoes with mushroom dish which was the only Swiss dish in the menu. We got chocolates with the bill 😄.
Later in the afternoon, we set out for sightseeing.
Our first stop was to parc de bastions. Right after the entrance they are chess boards painted on the ground with huge statues of chess pieces.
There is a famous restaurant which we didn't get to try owing to heavy lunch we had.
However I got an ice-cream from a small shop - I paid in pounds as we forgot francs and euros at the hotel and it is the least economical way to convert currency, as they just consider pounds as euros i.e., if we pay 5£ for 3€ ice-cream, we get 2€ back.
Then there is Reformation wall which got some history I am yet to know 😌.
And walked along the treelines, by the rows of photos and fountains
From there, we went to Lake Geneva (there is supposed to be a fountain which was closed when we visited😥) and crossed the lake in a modest ferry. Its amazing how they could bring out lavish environment with simple things.
The other side got some people strolling around the lawns, also few sculptures are placed by the path.
We continued strolling around the streets of Geneva which seemed very conservative and sophisticated at the same time, if that even make any sense 😌.
Good thing this toy store was closed, it would have definitely reduced weight of my wallet and increased the weight of my luggage if it wasn't😆.
When we got tired of walking (didn't think it would be possible but our limbs reminded us), we stopped by a MacD, got our dinner packed and headed back to the hotel.
Couldn't help but clicking the picture of coming trams and the spider web looking electric wiring - the transport system is one of the well known things of the place 😍.
Even though we expected it to be a relaxed fill in the gap day, it did turn out to be tiring and the fact we woke up early that morning in a different country, caught up with us as soon as we reached the room. After forcing some food in, we gladly turned in.
Next morning, after sauna😊, we packed up and checked out the hotel, took their airport shuttle to get to the train station and got into the train to Lucerne.
More about mishaps in Lucerne, which turned out to our advantage😇, in next post.
In Geneva - We reached before 10 a.m. One of the best things I did while planning was to get Swiss pass (strongly recommended by my project manager). This pass will give access to all modes of public transport (we took local trams, inter-city trains and ferry crossing in Geneva lake), free entry to most of the museums (I visited just one) and 50% discount on mt. Titles entry. It comes with different durations, minimum being 3 days which is the type we got. I applied for it online, a week before, giving our details and start & end date of our stay, paid about 162£ pp and the soft copy was delivered through email very next day (for orders received well in advance, they will dispatch the hard copy). The printout of the pass is to be presented along with the original passport (apparently soft copy or photo copy won't be accepted). They almost always checked the ticket while travelling between cities.
One of the mistakes I made was underestimating Swiss transport system. Our plan was to stay at Interlaken and visit titles but later changed the stay to Lucerne due to its proximity to Engleberg and Interlaken. Anyway I thought, the train station would be far away from airport and it will be too exhausting to travel immediately, so booked the an airport hotel and stay at Geneva for the day. However, the train station is literally just outside the airport and the trains are extremely comfortable, it wouldn't have been any trouble travelling to Interlaken or Lucerne.
On the positive side, the hotel we stayed is the best of all we booked in the trip.
As they mostly host delegates attending conferences, the environment is entirely formal and so were the facilities. We got zone pass valid for 2 days on check in, free access to gym and sauna. Also they got few computers we could use and take printouts (we took printouts of our flight tickets from Milan to Brussels as they came to my inbox after we left London).
View from the room and airport shuttle in front of hotel reception:
We had lunch at the hotel restaurant - chicken Milanese and potatoes with mushroom dish which was the only Swiss dish in the menu. We got chocolates with the bill 😄.
Later in the afternoon, we set out for sightseeing.
Our first stop was to parc de bastions. Right after the entrance they are chess boards painted on the ground with huge statues of chess pieces.
There is a famous restaurant which we didn't get to try owing to heavy lunch we had.
However I got an ice-cream from a small shop - I paid in pounds as we forgot francs and euros at the hotel and it is the least economical way to convert currency, as they just consider pounds as euros i.e., if we pay 5£ for 3€ ice-cream, we get 2€ back.
Then there is Reformation wall which got some history I am yet to know 😌.
And walked along the treelines, by the rows of photos and fountains
From there, we went to Lake Geneva (there is supposed to be a fountain which was closed when we visited😥) and crossed the lake in a modest ferry. Its amazing how they could bring out lavish environment with simple things.
The other side got some people strolling around the lawns, also few sculptures are placed by the path.
We continued strolling around the streets of Geneva which seemed very conservative and sophisticated at the same time, if that even make any sense 😌.
Good thing this toy store was closed, it would have definitely reduced weight of my wallet and increased the weight of my luggage if it wasn't😆.
When we got tired of walking (didn't think it would be possible but our limbs reminded us), we stopped by a MacD, got our dinner packed and headed back to the hotel.
Couldn't help but clicking the picture of coming trams and the spider web looking electric wiring - the transport system is one of the well known things of the place 😍.
Even though we expected it to be a relaxed fill in the gap day, it did turn out to be tiring and the fact we woke up early that morning in a different country, caught up with us as soon as we reached the room. After forcing some food in, we gladly turned in.
Next morning, after sauna😊, we packed up and checked out the hotel, took their airport shuttle to get to the train station and got into the train to Lucerne.
More about mishaps in Lucerne, which turned out to our advantage😇, in next post.
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