Before travelling to Geneva, I was beginning to fear how much the trip would cost – especially considering I was not due to get paid until midway through our trip, in Turin. But as soon as our airplane passed over the alps I knew I’d love it. The snow capped alps made me envision a cold city, however that was far from the case. It was 23°C when we touched down. We made our way through the airport and the mounted clocks on the wall were Rolex branded – I thought I’d be begging for the rest of my time in Geneva. We made our way from the airport and checked our route to our hotel. When we reached the tram, we couldn’t figure out how to pay, but didn’t want to wait around and find out, we just hopped on.
We eagerly awaited our stop in case somebody attempted to inspect our tickets but after checking into our hotel we were pleasantly surprised with free travel passes within Geneva for bus and tram – covered for tourists by their tourist tax added onto their accommodation bills.
As our room wasn’t ready, we decided to take off exploring. We just started wondering from our hotel and ended up in the expensive shopping area of Geneva. Every car parked was a Porsche, Lamborghini or a super Audi. People were walking out of Prada stores with bags full, and there were watches for sale in the windows of some of the shops that would take 15 years of me saving every penny of my current salary to afford.
When we found our way out of rich Narnia, we arrived at a lovely park right on the lakefront. The water was crystal clear in the lake, something I’ve never seen before – I’ve seen the murky waters of the Danube, the Seine and the Rhine – but the river through Geneva was so clear that I’d have felt safe drinking it. The park at the lakefront had a clock made out of flowers (the Swiss take their timekeeping seriously).
https://whichicao.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/img_4705.movFirst to the Cathedral (as you know by now, I have a thing for Cathedrals. This cathedral is a Calvinist Cathedral, or should I say thee Calvinist Cathedral. The one John Calvin himself preached in. And it was like none of the ornate Catholic cathedrals I’d been in before.
We took in the area around the Cathedral for a bit, as it was an immense hike to get up the hill to it in the first place (massive exaggeration – it was a hill, we’re just unfit).
Next up was the Reformation wall, which has statues to Calvin, Knox, Beza and a host of other influential reformationists, including that pesky scoundrel Oliver Cromwell. The park surrounding the wall was a very relaxing experience. We had sat and listened to people chat in French, wondering what they were saying – as if it wasn’t just everyday conversation. Then in the distance we’d noticed a marching jazz band play, so we walked over and watched them for a bit before embarking onwards to the Russian Orthodox Church.
It was unusual seeing something so… unorthodox in the most ordinary surroundings, but it was a striking building. Sadly we could not enter as there was some sort of service on inside.
After all the religious sights, we decided to check out the Patek Philippe museum (they are watches). I don’t wear a watch and know very little about them, but I’ve heard a few rappers mention Patek watches and have since found out they’re some of the most expensive in the world (more so than Rolex). The museum was very interesting – the top floor depicted the history of the company and how Adrien Philippe and Antoni Patek met, and subsequently went into business together.
The middle floor was an exquisite collection of some of the first ornate watches, and their history – many of which were gifts to various European Royal families.
And the ground floor was the entrance, lobby and an open viewing area where you could watch one of the modern Patek Philippe craftsmen making a watch – sadly they didn’t allow cameras inside, so a pic of the building will have to suffice. I was not eagerly invested in watches, but found the museum thoroughly enjoyable!
After the museum we had got most of our to-do list checked off.
We did some more exploring, grabbed food and checked out some of the affordable shops (the grocery store). I was shocked to find out giant Toblerone bars exist IRL.
After this we relaxed in the gorgeous aforementioned lakefront park before calling it a day.
The Sunday next day was pretty quiet. A lot of European cities come to a standstill on Sundays, and Geneva followed this tradition, and thus we had a very relaxed day. We had one more thing left on our to-do list and took a trip out to the United Nations Palace.
After seeing the iconic UN HQ, we walked around the extravagant Botanic Gardens and embraced the sunshine.
We eventually made our way back into the city centre of Geneva and embraced a few of the pubs before spending some more time at the lakefront taking in as much of the sites as we could.
Geneva is famous for watchmaking and for hosting some of the godfathers of Protestantism, but it is such a beautiful city with so much more to offer. You could spend the day watching the millionaire shoppers, looking up at the snow capped Jura mountains, and just chilling in the seafront park. The free public transport is an exceptional extra perk for travelling to the city, and the people are lovely and make an effort to converse if you make an effort with them. It is a major business hub, but it’s a shame it’s not a more visited city in terms of tourism.
The next morning we embarked on a gruelling bus journey through the Alps to Turin.
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