GENEVA

Geneva

9/5 to Geneva

drizzly today but another run and abbreviated 10BX (some sore bits), school, shop at Co-op - WHOA - price difference - back up to or more than home!  Much more.

OCD shop workers who unwrap, weigh, re-wrap the cheese in special paper....

Geneva via magnificent roads, loads of cows, fields, dorky farmhouses, thru a busy Geneva centre to a campsite by Lake Geneva on the southern side about 8km from the centre.

Had a lazy pm admiring the lake activity and sunset, met Belgian couple Bjorn and Katleen with young kids in another Rimor, the kids desperate to make friends struggled with the language barrier, 

dinner in the sun with contented chats, rowers on the lake!!

10/5/12 by wil

Wake up, no reading, no lingering, straight into it...

First things first, an energizing breakfast of muesli swimming in milk, followed by our Mathematic Intelligence Examination (MIE for short). This is filled with things like: For wil, estimation problems, long divisions, fraction codes etc. For kel, multiplications, additions, expansions and geometry.

We quickly prepare ourselves for a grueling cycle up a hill. We unlock the bikes, get the parent’s ones ofF the back of the van and we set off. For the start, there is some roadwork, but that is on a downhill stretch. We go shooting down the hill with the wind in our faces, with a feeling of utter freedom. No time for lingering, we are on a tight schedule. 

First stop, Jet D’Eau (pronounced ‘she’Ter (Phlegm)’) which means jet of water. This fantastic fountain can reach 200 m high, going at 200k/h, at any given time there is 7 tons of water in the air. It is the world’s tallest fountain.

WORLD/\'S TALLEST FOUNTAIN

Second stop, Place de Borg, the oldest square in town, where there was a magnificent clock tower. When we were there, all the church bells were clanging like mad. We rode down a street with nothing but watch shops (TAG heuer, rolex, tissot, omega, boss, any fancy watch, you name it and it is there.) 

WORLD'S LONGEST BENCH

WORLD'S LONGEST SECOND HAND

We rode up yet another Grueling Hill, to reach the world’s longest bench (our third stop). 

We stopped here for some snacks and a rest, and went shooting off down the other side of the hill through the stunning botanic gardens towards The Geneva UN office,

were we passed through tight security to enter one of the world’s most important buildings (to me). 

Human Rights meeting room 

UN TOILET DIPLOMACY

We saw a couple of conference rooms, the old assembly hall of the old league of nations sat and the stunning gardens with their majestic peacocks strutting about, squawking awkwardly. We were told about the conferences sat here, their purposes, their people and their rules. After the tour we milled about in a bookstore for a bit, and left for a 2 scoop ice-cream. We had swiss made Mõvenpick icecream, I had caramel and mint chocolate, Kel had mango & cream and... I forgot, Dad had strawberry and caramel and mum had coffee. The best icecream ever! we promptly rode home for a play ( a swim in the FREEZING cold water, I dived off a diving board, and my shoes got stuck to the river bed...oh well...) I quickly jumped out to have a warm shower and dinner (of bread and jam) and started to write this blog entry.

dice roll:

wil: best thing - buying kel an ice cream with the money i won off dad

mum: fav word/phrase - all the german words ending in fahrt

kel: best manmade thing - the jet d’eau - world’s tallest fountain

jeff: best natural wonder - LAKE SUNSET

11/5

Woke up to a big long read, followed by breakfast and getting ready. Some Belgian friends from a tent next door asked if they could come with us up the mountain. We caught the bus to the center of Geneva, where we changed buses to a line which would take us to the foot of Mont Saleve (in France). From there we would take a cable-car to the top. 

At the top, we were greeted by breathtaking views all around, and sweltering hot sun (like summer in Australia). We stopped for some snacks of nuts, dried pineapple and pretzels, while our Belgian friends went off to do their thing. 

We went walking to the top and got lost, we had taken the wrong track. We turned around and headed back towards the cable-car. From there we looked at the map more closely, and were told it takes 25 minutes to get to the top. Dad and I decided we would beat that. We powered up the hill, reaching the top in thirteen minutes, beating the estimated time by twelve minutes (nearly one half!)

Mt Blanc

It was very hot at the top, but that did not stop the breathtaking view of Mont Blanc sweeping us off our feet. We had some more snacks here, but it wasn't shady. We went quickly down to a little grassy knoll with plenty of shade from the trees, where we finished eating, were swept off our feet again by the view and met some Aussie friends, who were both teachers. We spoke with them for ten minutes, and quickly descended the path, to the cable car. Kel and I ran like mountain goats down, passing lots of people. We reached the cable car 10 minutes before it left, there was no rush. Our Belgian friends met us there, as well as our Aussie friends. We all piled into the cable car, and began the fast descent down. The breathtaking panorama swept us of our feet, again. At the bottom, we stepped out of the cable car to more heat, and quickly went to the bus stop. We made our way home, where I bought Kel and I an ice-cream (having made a bet with Dad the day before that I could jump in lake Geneva and submerse my head, thus winning 5 franc). We enjoyed it slowly by the lake. Following that, I put my togs on and went for a swim with our Anaïse and Eliah (our belgian friends) (in the FREEZING cold water). 

Anais, Elia and Kel

I jumped in three times, which was fun but painful, searched for my shoes(without any success) and hopped out to a dinner of fish and salad (mouthwatering, sumptuous, heavily flavoured, spicy… ah, any thing else Mum?) (and a HOT shower.)

We end the day with a movie while Mum and Dad meet some Kiwi friends to ask for some trip advice.

12/5 Geneva to Lausanne

woke to a very different day with drizzle well set in, Jen ran off, Jeff cycled off, the kids read, then a slow pack up over maths + a coffee and away with Eliah and Anais  (and their bulky backpacks) in tow to CERN to see what IT is all about. Once again Schweizeriche hosts a huge international organization - partly because of its tradition of neutrality but also to prevent “brain drain” to USA in this very intellectually proud nation. CERN = Centre of European Research Nuclear. Tis also the birthplace of the  world wide web as they struggled to store,share with other international physicists and control the vast volumes of data produced for analysis (15km of CDs stacked together /day). Mostly known as the home of the Large Hadron Collider, world’s largest machine, 27 km circular magnetically sheathed tube buried 100m underground in both Switzerland and France,where physicists think they’ll discover all the secrets of the universe by accelerating particles and then smashing them together at high speed (simulating conditions of the Big Bang). Some people will say they might destroy the world with “anti-matter,” featured in Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” hence Wil’s incredible interest.

Went through the “Microcosm” which is CERN’s free display that intrigued Wil and Eliah and Jen, left Jeff feeling attracted to the easy way out - religion!   What a head spin? 

Out in the day again where the drizzle has been joined by wind and cold so into Eddie and headed along the “Swiss Riviera” .Stopped for lunch on the road ( 6 people eating around Eddie’s iddy-biddy table had us on ‘farting’ level intimacy in no time ) and sucked our hitcher’s brains clean of info re Belgium - home to French Fries,comic strips,dark chocolate.

Anais and Kel