Zurich
Thursday June 22, 2017
I guess it's not surprising that Zurich is very much like Geneva. The beautiful blue lake, the crystal clear water of the river, snow capped mountains, even at this time of year, in the background, a very safe, relaxed vibe and a delight to walk around and explore. Of course, instead of everything being French, Zurich has everything in German.
No matter the language difference though, this is still Switzerland and everything is still extremely expensive. 8 pieces of sushi? CHF28. Asian takeaways? CHF25. Burger? CHF20. It definitely makes it harder for tourists, and I couldn't help but think I would have enjoyed myself if I had an infinite amount of money to spend here.
The weather has been very hot, usually hitting 30C each day. In the afternoons, it would be too difficult to walk around, so we'd chill in the park under some shade for a bit. The river and lake looked very inviting for a swim, but I was never equipped. It was great to see so many people out and about taking advantage of the summer weather.
I think we spent the right amount of time here too; there's not actually too much to see here. We covered the national museum, the lake front, the Chinese Gardens, the confluence of the Sihl and Limmat Rivers; we went up the hill to Lindenhof for views of the Grossmunster and Helmhaus; we saw the stained glass windows of the Fraumunster Church. There was chocolate and cheese and various baked goods to save money.
Overall, not bad. It feels like we did Zurich justice. I would have liked to have possibly visited the Lindt chocolate store but as it was 40 minutes and CHF26 away, it didn't feel worth it. It wouldn't be on my list of places to return, unless someone else paid for me.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:37pm on Thursday June 22, 2017 :: 0 comments :: 
Geneva
Thursday May 18, 2017
Geneva has been lovely. It's incredibly picturesque here, much like Queenstown with the main feature being the lake, then the mountains (all French!) surrounding the remainder of the city. The Jet d'Eau is unmistakably the most recognisable landmark, shooting water 140m into the air, but the city has many other wonderful things to see.
The bus from Lyon took a while, but we made it to Gare Geneva just before 8pm, an hour after scheduled arrival. We were held up at the Swiss border by passport control and customs, who took two passengers off board for questioning. I met Jesse for dinner and retired for the night; it had been quite a long day.
On Tuesday, I had a tour at CERN, which I had been looking forward to. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the LHC as it was operating, but we did see CERN's first particle accelerator, the Synchrocyclotron, as well as ATLAS, one of the four detection stations stationed around the massive 27km diameter ring of the Large Hadron Collider. Though we didn't see much, there was a lot of learn about how the machines worked and how they were built, and I found it fascinating and mindboggling how big these machines are. You don't really get an appreciation of their size until you see them up close. After the tour, I met Jesse for lunch at CERN's cafeteria; he also showed me the WWW plaque.
I took the bus to the other side of town and crossed back into France at Veyrier. There's a cable car to Saleve, one of the mountain ridges overlooking Geneva on one side, and the French Alps on the other. The views at the top were stunning, and it was such a beautiful day as well. I walked around the tracks for a good few hours, enjoying panoramas on both sides. I returned to Geneva and had a simple picnic with Jesse and Rachel by Jonction, the confluence of the Rhone and Arve rivers.
Yesterday I had a late start because I've been hit with pretty severe allergies and have been quite tired as a result. I walked to the UN building and over to the botanic gardens, then down to Bains des Paquis. I continued through the city centre to Plainpalais where there was a flea market; really, I was there to find a place called Aux Merveilleux de Fred, a patissier. Nearby was the Cathedral of St Peter and a very good creperie; I continued north past Old Town to Jardin Anglais, Jet d'Eau and Parc de la Grange. We went for dinner at this place in Old Town that did roast chicken, then we got some Movenpick (so quintessentially Swiss) and a few drinks at a rooftop bar near Jardin Anglais. The view from there was awesome, we were overlooking the lake as the sun set. The fountain had been lit up in rainbow colours to celebrate Anti Homophobia Day.
I rushed to Geneva Airport this morning, barely awake. I was a little behind schedule, but thankfully nothing went horribly wrong and I'm now waiting for my flight to my next exciting destination. It's started to cloud over here, a stark contrast to the brilliant blue skies I've had over the past two days.
Posted by Jeremy at 6:35am on Thursday May 18, 2017 :: 0 comments ::