Switzerland

About a month ago, a group of friends and I who live in Blekerslaan decided that we all wanted to take a trip together.  Without any immediate ideas for destinations, we decided on a two-fold approach to decide on a location.  Since three of the people I was going with were from Europe, this already narrowed down our choices.  Perhaps even more significantly, we weren’t too keen on spending a ton of money to get somewhere.  Our strategy, therefore, was to find a destination that (a) none of us had been to and (b) somewhere that Ryanair went to for a relatively cheap price.  Come to find out, this place was Geneva, Switzerland.  Not knowing a ton about Switzerland, our mutual anticipations included mountains, clocks, chocolate, and Swiss army knives.  

Not until the day before arriving in Geneva did we find out that it was a special weekend for the city.  Come to find out, Geneva was having a “Cave Ouvertes” that weekend where the local wineries in areas surrounding the city open up their doors to the public.  This provided us with a unique opportunity to take advantage of to get out into the countryside and see a new side of the local culture.  To get there, we had to take a train to a station about a half an hour away and where there were free shuttle buses taking visitors between wineries.  This taste of culture was a lot of fun to share with my friends and we all enjoyed touring the various wineries.  This was definitely something my mom would love, so I figured I had to check it out or she’d never forgive me.

One of the things we heard about Geneva, and that we really noticed when we got there was how international the city was.  Everywhere we turned, we heard people speaking different languages.  It wasn’t just on the tour, because I understand that there are tourists around, but the city itself seemed to have permanent residents from all over the world.  A lot of the people we talked to who said they lived in the city, weren’t originally from Switzerland.

Still not venturing into the city, we decided to hop on the train the next day and to check out some of the other towns around the magnificent Lake Geneva.  While the city of Geneva straddles the border between Switzerland and France, the gargantuan Lake Geneva expands vastly into the middle of Switzerland and its mountains.  We first took the train to Montreux  along the lake. Other than it being inhabited, or perhaps because it was inhabited, with these creatures....

...it was really beautiful.  We walked alongside the lake for about 45 minutes until we saw my new home.  

The Château of Chillon is a castle that nestles right up to the waters of Lake Geneva.  With plenty of bedrooms and excellent ventilation, it is to be my next real estate purchase.  It looks like it might be a bit drafty in the winter, but the view of the snow-capped mountains is to die for and it's conducive to the most amazing parties and festivities.  Plus, if you think about it, it's a rather sound investment, because any visitors I have to the region are more than welcome to stay in my castle.  I should be able to find an extra bedroom for them. 

My castle is pretty old.  Through the tour we could see many facets of its history, with the earliest known part of it being created in the 2nd century.  Chillon was made popular by Lord Byron when he wrote the poem The Prisoner of Chillon in 1816.  I'm not honestly familiar with that particular piece of work, but, oddly enough, I just read a piece by Henry James today called Daisy Miller, from 1878.  The story began with an American who was living in Geneva and went to tour Chillon with a lady.  He described walking along the path that we had just taken around the lake and what the castle was like.  "Pretty neat," I thought, "I'm buying a pretty popular piece of history." Here's my first picture on the dock of my new estate...

On our train back to Geneva, we stopped at Lausanne, a big university city also situated along the lake.  Nobody warned me that it being situated in the Alps meant that the roads would be fairly steep to climb, but the view from the top made it well worth it.  It was a really beautiful and sunny day.  Finally it seemed enough to soak in some rays, but, at the same time, we could still feel the slightly crisp mountain breeze blowing.  Quick Jeopardy fact: Lausanne also houses the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee.

We were spending our last day to actually explore the city of Geneva.  A pretty city, but pretty low-key, many of the locals didn't seem to think it should be a hot tourist destination, claiming that it was rather boring.  However, Geneva is a really nice town, situated in an even nicer region. The majority of the population speaks French in the city, because, as I said, it's right on the boarder with France.  Switzerland also has three other national languages, that vary on the region: German, Italian, and Romansh. We wandered around the town a bit, taking in the cathedral, the international monument of reformation, a giant chess set in the park, found a strange statue to climb on in front of the museum, and checked out the massive fountain on the lake.  All in all, it made for nice day and a wonderful trip.  If you're ever in the neighborhood, call me up because you're more than welcome to stay at my new humble abode.