Fountains, Calvin, and Lots of Flags - Our Day in Geneva

After our bountiful breakfast, we set out on a journey into downtown Geneva via the light rail and busses.  About 2 blocks from our hotel is the light rail station that takes you straight into the old city.  Add to that our hotel giving us free transit passes and we were set!

Old Town Geneva was a bit disappointing to be honest.  Awesome architecture but nothing but major fashion label stores up and down every major road.  I understand that large cities are going to have their fashion district featuring Prada, Gucci, Ferragamo, Dior, etc.  But I was hoping the old city was more boutique shops, cafés, street markets, and plenty of little chocolatiers.  It was none of that.  It did feature two Michelin starred restaurants (that I saw) but otherwise I thought it lacked charm.

    Funny!

    The flower market

Where old Town lacked charm, the waterfront for Lake Geneva made up for it with ample "wow" factor.  Swans afloat, alpine peaks on the horizon, and the mother of all water fountains.

Lake Geneva's Jet d'Eau shoots 130 gallons of water per second about 460 feet in the air!  It is an impressive site!

    Jet d'Eau on Lake Geneva

Alyssa took over navigation duties after we saw the fountain.   She was darn effective in getting us around!

Eventually we made our way up a steep hill and many steps to St. Pierre's Cathedral.   Originally a Catholic Cathedral, this is where John Calvin started his reformation actions aligned with the protestant movement.  Ornate decor was ousted, stained glass windows survived, and we're left with a shell of an impressive Gothic Cathedral.  Still impressive but a place to see in-situ art it is not.

     St. Pierre Cathedral exterior 

     And interior 

    Calvin sat here, you can't 

A few hundred years after Calvin, a very beautiful side chapel was build and art was allowed to exist.

    Chapel of the Maccabees - amazing what a little art will do for you

After walking past a few more cool old buildings such as...

    And...

..we decided to leave the 1500s behind and head to the 1940s.

The United Nations is headquartered in Geneva so we decided to take a bus to see it.   We saw it.  It looks like this...

   Maria, Alyssa, Julé and an ugly gate in.      front of the UN

It was cool to see it to be honest but not much else out that way.  We did find our way to a cool cafeteria style place for lunch.

After that we were starting to get a bit tired.  None of us are fully adjusted to the time zone yet.  We did stop at a mall on the way back to the motel.   Maria was interested.   Now we're back resting before we figure out dinner.

Other sites today

Bigass Broken Chair (unsafe)

Julé and I with water shooting out of my head

Le Bucks

Time for a nap!