ANNECY & GENEVA ANNECY, FRANCE Our Swiss trip started with a brief (less than 24 hour) detour to Annecy, 30-40 minutes south of Geneva. Actually, it started with me leaving my phone on the seat of the plane, realizing it in baggage claim and spending half an hour on the phone and in the office of Swissport. The very helpful staff assured me that my phone was not lost and by 10am tomorrow they would most likely have it ready for me to pick up. Very optimistic. The rules and organization of the country give me some hope that they will be right. There is an official border crossing between Switzerland and France, but no personnel were evident. We did slow down as we drove through given the barriers we had to weave through. Annecy came up quickly, we found the recommended parking garage and wound our way through the streets to our hotel in the old town of Annecy. We are staying in a fun hotel – Les Lodges. We waited a bit for someone to show up and let us in, as there is no reception only a locked door with a bell and a phone number. After getting a bit settled, we went back down to the square for our welcome champagne (and oysters) at the “petit” restaurant next door. We took an early evening walk along the river through town to the lake, then returned for a fondue and raclette dinner to welcome Max to the Alps part of our adventures. I have never had raclette before. I think I prefer the consistency of fondue but the raclette is very festive. A breakfast basket of French baguette (truly unbeatable), pastries, yogurt, milk and juices arrived at our door the next morning. Steve was well into coffee by then – small as it was the kitchen had everything, including a Nespresso style coffee maker. I had visions of an early morning walk and swim in the lake, but we departed the room at the check-out time! We did a long walk along the lake and through a different section of town, bringing back memories from earlier visits: when Max was 9 months old and again when he was 5 years old. Steve got good news on his phone – Swissport has my phone!
Transcript
ANNECY & GENEVA
ANNECY, FRANCE Our Swiss trip started with a brief (less than 24 hour) detour to Annecy, 30-40 minutes south of Geneva. Actually, it started with me leaving my phone on the seat of the plane, realizing it in baggage claim and spending half an hour on the phone and in the office of Swissport. The very helpful staff assured me that my phone was not lost and by 10am tomorrow they would most likely have it ready for me to pick up. Very optimistic. The rules and organization of the country give me some hope that they will be right. There is an official border crossing between Switzerland and France, but no personnel were evident. We did slow down as we drove through given the barriers we had to weave through. Annecy came up quickly, we found the recommended parking garage and wound our way through the streets to our hotel in the old town of Annecy. We are staying in a fun hotel – Les Lodges. We waited a bit for someone to show up and let us in, as there is no reception only a locked door with a bell and a phone number. After getting a bit settled, we went back down to the square for our welcome champagne (and oysters) at the “petit” restaurant next door. We took an early evening walk along the river through town to the lake, then returned for a fondue and raclette dinner to welcome Max to the Alps part of our adventures. I have never had raclette before. I think I prefer the consistency of fondue but the raclette is very festive.
A breakfast basket of French baguette (truly unbeatable), pastries, yogurt, milk and juices arrived at our door the next morning. Steve was well into coffee by then – small as it was the kitchen had everything, including a Nespresso style coffee maker. I had visions of an early morning walk and swim in the lake, but we departed the room at the check-out time! We did a long walk along the lake and through a different section of town, bringing back memories from earlier visits: when Max was 9 months old and again when he was 5 years old. Steve got good news on his phone – Swissport has my phone!
ANNECY & GENEVA
We also returned to a walk we have done each time we’ve been here – Gorges du Fier. The narrow gorge has raised walkways, which today were high above the water line. As recent as May 2015, however, the water level during a floor crested and destroyed parts of the walkway.
ART ON THE LAKE
ANNECY & GENEVA
We went back into Annecy looking for a quick lunch or one of the delicious baguette sandwiches found throughout France. No such luck. We finally settled for a hunk of cheese, a substandard grocery store baguette, hummus and a few apples and had a car picnic while driving back to Geneva. At the airport we did a complicated dance of Steve returning the rental car, Max staying with the luggage and me retrieving my phone. All with Swiss efficiency! The cab ride was also efficient and soon we arrived at the Swiss home of Steve’s colleague Peter and his wife Heather. Their daughter Erin is also visiting so we had the pleasure of her company. Their apartment is on the 5th floor of a building not far from the World Health Organization where Peter works, and many other United Nations organizations. They have balconies looking out to the French Alps and Mont Blanc, and balconies that look out to Haute Mountains in France. With the heat, the choice of balcony to frequent depends on the time of day. There is no air conditioning, so temperature control is managed by closing the windows and a clever set of shutters that roll down, revealing slats, and when rolled further the slats close. The living room/dining room is huge and they have one of the biggest couches I’ve ever seen. Max, of course, tested it out and gave it high marks.
Heather, Peter and Erin put on a delicious Fourth of July barbeque, inviting another American couple as well, Gabby and Jeff (Gabby used to work at the Gates Foundation and is now at WHO). Heather recruited Max to help make the salad, a first, but to his relief did not try to get him to eat it. We celebrated the 4th by talking about Trump’s celebration and appreciating that we are elsewhere. GENEVA We spent two days exploring Geneva. Heather put together an interesting itinerary and was so helpful in getting us organized with maps, directions and times. Thanks Heather! The first day we did a tour of the UN. It was quite a process to get in: tickets, passport check, long walk to tour starting point. We missed the first English tour so spent 20 minutes in the UN book store, where I came up with an exciting reading list. The tour guide was not very informative, but it was interesting to see the internal workings and, particularly, to see the old, beautiful complex that originally housed the League of Nations. At one point our guide showed us the largest meeting room which he said is used for all types of meetings, including round tables. Does it say something about how the UN works that 2,000+ people can participate in a round table? Not very interactive.
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Right across from the UN is the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. There are four permanent exhibits, all interactive and captivating. We spent many hours learning about the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, how it was started and all of the things it does, many of which I didn’t know anything about. There is also a temporary exhibit on prisons that is excellent. It includes many perspectives, from guards to prisoners to prison doctors, and addressed issues from prison food, to communication with prisoners, to drugs in prison to medical care to women in prison. It was interactive and the exhibits put us behind bars for much of the time.
ANNECY & GENEVA
The WHO is close by and we met Peter there for a tour. We started with the sculptures out front, documented successful campaigns against small pox and river blindness. We saw much of the building and many working spaces, including the “crisis center,” now being used to monitor Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We also got a top floor tour of the balconies.
ANNECY & GENEVA
Someone has done an amazing job with plants in and around the building. We finished with ice cream and a discussion about the Strategic Development Goals, as well as the triple million goals set by WHO.
“Home” is a short walk from WHO. And a hot one. We decided a trip to the pool was in order. Good choice! We were not the only ones there. Lots of residents were enjoying an early evening by the pool. Unfortunately, Max dove too quickly and hurt his ear, so our stay was (relatively) short. Cocktails and dinner at Peter and Heather’s allowed for a relaxed evening of enjoying the views and everyone’s company. On our second day, Peter was our tour guide. We said goodbye to Erin, who is on her way back to Toronto, and left Heather to study for a French test she has coming up. We walked to the bus stop, bought tickets and had three minutes to spare before the bus arrived(!), on time of course. Buses in Geneva are modern and comfortable, and it was nice to see the various neighborhoods we passed through. We got off downtown at the meeting place for a tour of the city. The tour guide was funny, interesting and knowledgeable. She walked us, and 25 other people, past the Reformation Wall, into the oldest part of the city and ended by the waterfront near the Jet d' Eau, a huge jet of water shooting up from the harbor that is famous in Geneva.
VIEW FROM PETER’S OFFICE
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There used to be a similar jet in the city. A factory that used hydro power needed to vent it at night when the machines were turned off, which resulted in a jet of water
BOOKSTORE OPEN ALL HOURS, ON THE HONOR SYSTEM.
REFORMATION WALL
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CLEMENTINE, SYMBOL OF SOLIDARITY FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS, ESPECIALLY PROSTITUTES WHO WORKED IN THIS AREA OF OLD GENEVA.
REPORTEDLY THE LONGEST BENCH IN EUROPE (IT IS STRAIGHT, THE “PANO” PHOTO ADDS THE CURVE)
ANNECY & GENEVA
The thunder started at the end of our tour, with lightning in the very black clouds to the west. We discussed an ice cream respite, but Peter said we were close to a great Italian restaurant, so we went there instead. The home-made fettucine was delicious and the waiter very entertaining. He explained to us the map on the wall – the division of the world between Spain and Portugal. Ice cream (and sorbet) did follow, and then a walk to the train station via part of the Pride Parade route. At the train station we figured out our Swiss train vouchers before heading to the Place des Naciones, a square in front of the UN. The “Place” is full of small fountains, which turn on and off, challenging children (and adults) to either get wet or avoid getting wet. At the top of the Place is the broken chair – a sculpture of a chair with its fourth leg broken, as a reminder of the fragility of humans and of the impacts of violence and war. Under the chair was what Peter identified as a Cameroonian protest against the current Cameroonian president. The group was small, but very vocal. Another bus ride took us to the back of Peter and Heather’s apartment complex. We walked through the grounds, past the pool, and decided another pool evening was imminent.
ANNECY & GENEVA
MUTE GEESE (YELLOW
BILLS) ARE VERY
COMMON IN THE
HARBOR AREA
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For dinner, we headed into France, less than 10 minutes away. We passed another border crossing that was also “sans” border guards. We went to a favorite restaurant of theirs – Indian. Let’s see . . . drive from Switzerland to France to eat Indian food! We had a very fun dinner and all crumped when we got back to the apartment. In the morning we had a relatively relaxed start. Peter dropped us at the train station at the airport to begin our trip in the Alps. Big thanks! It was a better place to start than Geneva proper; we got good seats and storage space for our luggage before the big crowds boarded.
THANKS HEATHER, PETER AND ERIN FOR A WONDERFUL VISIT!
