Tuesday 5th February
Our journey starts at 3am when we leave the B&B, walk half an hour to the bus on the other side of the city, and arrive at Edinburgh airport at 4:30am ready to check in for our flight to Geneva!
We arrive in Geneva and are greeted at the airport by our amazing home owner, whom we are house/pet sitting for. She was so lovely and had even brought us the most amazing chocolate croissants!!
Today was such a special day, I still can't really believe it. I can't believe we're actually in Geneva. To begin with we thought there was no way we would be able to go to Switzerland, then it turned into maybe we could do a day trip over from France, and now we're here for a week!
Our home owner took us back to the apartment to show us around and meet the bunnies we are looking after, and wowwww it was stunning! The bunnies were so cute, and the apartment was a penthouse with incredible views over Lake Geneva, the Alps, Mont Blanc, and the Euro Mountain range! As if that wasn't enough, from the other balcony we could see France!
The bunnies were so adorable and much larger than I imagined bunnies being! There was the coupled pair Timmy and Clover, and little Munchkin whom I fell deeply in love with.
Timmy and Clover have their own room in the house, and Munchkin has her own. As munchkin is not bonded she required lots of cuddles which we had no problem providing!
The home owners are diplomats at the UN, so while she went back to work for a bit we nipped out to find some lunch and get ready for the afternoon as she very kindly offered to take us on a private tour of the UN!!!!
The UN was amazing!! We went through security and got our passes to enter as guests of the country our home owners represent!
The Palais des Nations building itself is beautiful and we found out, although this is the main building, pretty much that whole area of the city is full of UN buildings and compounds. We got to see the new and old Assembly Hall, as well as the Council Chambers, and many other rooms where debates and negotiations are held.
In one of the rooms we found Australia's seat!
The building is huge, and like a maze inside! We were making our way up to the top floor to see the view when we somehow took a wrong elevator and ended up at the kitchens! A very behind the scenes tour! We found the top level and the view was gorgeous! The grounds of the palace were beautiful and had peacocks roaming around, and then you look out further to the city and then beyond that to the mountain ranges.
Of course on the way out we had to stop by and see the flags of the member nations.
We also saw the large "Broken Chair" sculpture that is found outside of the UN grounds, but visible through the rows of flags.
It was such a surreal and special experience. It honestly was breathtaking. The whole place had a feel of importance and peace as we walked through the grand rooms, and past people in meetings and making deals. A truly truly special day.
After the amazing and unexpected start to our time in Geneva we went for a walk down by Lake Geneva and through the city. It is such a clean city, and very much feels like a cut above the rest. All the stores that we passed were very high end, and I couldn't tell you how many Rolex buildings, not just stores, but entire buildings we passed.
We did find a grocery store and stopped in and bought some chocolate to try. The verdict; scrumptious, the Swiss know how to do chocolate right.
Walking around the lake at that time in the afternoon just before sunset was beautiful, and the water was amazingly clear!
Once we could no longer stand the cold, our home owners kindly picked us up and they took us out for an amazing dinner at a little French-Swiss restaurant where I had the most amazing mushroom and saffron risotto .
We had such a lovely time! They are such amazing people, so kind, and just great fun.
Wednesday 6th & Thursday 7th February
The next couple of days were spent playing and cuddling with the bunnies and enjoying being in such an amazing place.
We had fun exploring Swiss grocery stores and found one called "Migros" which is defs our fave and had an excellent budget brand, although if you're looking for garlic bread "Denner" is the place to go. We discovered that the exchange rate here is much better than the UK and even the Euro, and as long as you don't buy meat, or eat out, it is priced pretty much the same, if not slightly cheaper than home!!
We had lots of fun cooking and we discovered an amazing food called "rosti", it's essentially like a potato pancake and mmmmm it's good. We paired it with pesto eggs and fresh tomato for brekkie and I felt like we were living as royals.
There's also this treat that I honestly don't know what it is, but its so good and unlike anything I've had before. It's kind of like a marshmallow but not, actually sort of more like the meringue on lemon meringue pie, coated in a thin covering of chocolate and a thin wafer on the bottom. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but its delish.
Friday 8th February
The morning started with our new ritual of rosti and eggs.
We set out for the day to visit CERN!
It was so cool to actually get to visit CERN and be where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is! We learnt all about the LHC and actually got a better understanding about it as well as anti matter and the universe. The centre was fantastic for explaining what the LHC is and how it works.
Basically, the LHC is a particle accelerator that sits in a 27km long ring shaped tunnel, 100m underground at CERN, right on the border of the Franco-Swiss border. The LHC pushes protons or ions nearly to the speed of light by using a ring of superconducting magnets and accelerating structures that boost the energy particles. The particles are shot through the ring tunnel at these immense speeds and made to collide at four points around the machine. The findings from the LHC have been successful in supporting many theories in particle physics, and in answering many questions about the universe.
CERN has also played a major role in technology advancements. The World Wide Web was invented at CERN, which I had no idea about, and it was fascinating to see the interactive displays on it. The particle accelerators and detectors originally invented as research tools also have wide applications in everyday life, ranging from use in medical diagnosis and therapy to computer chip manufacturing.
From CERN we casually strolled into France, and then back across to Switzerland (I still find it amazing that you can do that)!
We then ducked back to the apartment for lunch and an interview for our next house sit.
The rest of the afternoon was spent using the boat taxi service that was included in our all day travel passes, to go on Lake Geneva (Lac Léman)! We ferried from bank to bank along the lake enjoying being on the water. It was stunning and so surreal. An absolute dream to be in Geneva, let alone on the lake. Being here and doing these travels are what I had been dreaming about for years, and here we are living it as our reality.
We hopped off the boat further down the lake and walked back along beside it all the way into Geneva, taking in the view and loving every moment.
Saturday 9th February
We had heard about a cable car that takes you up Mont Salève where there are amazing views, hiking trails, and cross country skiing! So we set out and crossed into France on the other side of Geneva today to go up this mountain.
However, once we got there we found that in the space of time that it took for us to get there they had closed it due to bad weather (not that the weather seemed to be bad where we were). Bummer. So after hanging around for a while we headed back to the apartment via the grocery store (because tomorrow is Sunday and nothing is open on Sundays).
We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the apartment and cuddling with the bunnies!
Sunday 10th February
Sunday. The day of rest in Switzerland. We fully embraced it! We cooked up a nice brunch and spent the day cozied up on the couch as we watched a massive storm roll in around us. The sky was completely black, with crazy winds blowing the outdoor furniture all over the place, and pelting rain.
We also decided where we would go next, drum roll please.....Northern Italy!!! So the majority of the day was spent excitedly planning where we would go and booking accommodation.
It was such a relaxed and exciting day, and the evening was spent cuddling with Munchkin (whom I've grown very attached to).
Monday 11th February
Today was our last day so we tidied and packed ourselves up ready for the early start tomorrow.
We spent some time walking around the local park and soaking up being in Geneva.
Our home owners arrived home, and we decided to welcome them home with a hot meal on the table. We went for Italian cuisine and presented them with spinach and ricotta ravioli, with a pesto sauce, fresh tomatoes and a side of garlic bread.
We had another fun evening with them, before turning in for our last night in Geneva.
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