Geneva, Switzerland

It’s been a while since our last post, so it may seem odd to see this backdated to mid March.  Bear with us!

Another country!  A quick scramble to remove the dash cam as we came over the border from France and then we arrived at the campsite mid-afternoon.  

For the first time in six months we have another currency to deal with, and another first – neither of us have ever been to Switzerland before!

At the campsite, reception gave us special tourist tickets which mean that the buses, trams, trains and boats are all free – now that is a bloody good idea – takes some of the pain out of public transport for tourists!

The weather was awful so we decided to get some housekeeping done rather than go into town.  We were tempted to go and spend the afternoon at the motor show which happens to be on at the moment, but in the end, we didn’t go – too many people and we will not be in the market for a new car anytime soon!  

The campsite is lovely (and was also the only one that seems to be open at the moment).  We have planned out the next week of travel which is all we need to do at the moment. We also populated the Geneva map with some things that look interesting.

Day two in Geneva and we visited the WTO to check on our Brexit trade deals (grin),  we visited the Russian Orthodox church – it has a wonderful gold roof, We also climbed the spire of St Pierre Cathedral, and viewed (without getting wet!) the amazing Jet D’Eau.  The history of the Jet is cool. It used to be a pressure relief system for the local hydraulic power network. Yes, you read that right, before electricity was common, hydraulics were a great way to distribute power.   The city grew to love the jet and it has survived long after the hydraulic power system was dismantled albeit with a pair of 500kw pumps now! It shoots about 500 litres of water a second up to around 140 meters.

Lunch was a great fish dish at the amazing and renowned La Buvette des Bains.  Next we took in a couple of the cities Chocolatiers, the Botanical gardens and ‘Les Grottes’.  And back to the Mothership.

Our brief but lasting impression of Switzerland, is how clean and organised it is.  It became a competition for us to spot litter, dog mess, general mess during our time their, largely without any success. We are going back to Switzerland as soon as the schedule allows!