We flew with Easy Jet (you can't come to London and NOT experience Easy Jet and Ryan Air, the two budget airlines - Virgin Blue are fantastic compared to them!) to Geneva and the airport was about 10 minutes from the city centre. We left it till late to book accommodation and when we rung around, realised everything was booked out due to some big convention going on in the city. So we had to stay over the Swiss-French border in Annemasse,France at a nice cheap hotel about 800m walk from the border. Here is a picture of the border which we walked to every day and back.
We had a good sleep but on Saturday I woke up with the works of the flu virus. Fever, sore throat, blocked chest, sore ears, muscle aches and pains...everything! So using my high school french, we went to the closest pharmacy to buy all the drugs we could find to limit my symptoms! I thank God for the invention of Nurofen which I was on constantly during our trip...maybe more than I should have taken but it helped me through!!
We had a nice start to the day with a french buffet breakfast in our hotel and then we wandered down to the border and stumbled onto some markets on the way. It was interesting to use a combination of euros and swiss francs on our trip since we were staying in France but sight seeing in Switzerland. Lots of converting to and fro in our heads all the time. Anyway, we always knew it was cheaper than pounds so that helped!! French is the main language spoken in that area of Switzerland so it was fun trying to communicate with the locals. On the way to the main train station in Geneva, a busker got on our tram and started singing! It was a bit strange. But we gave him some money so we could get a photo of him... he didn't look happy!
At the main train station in Geneva, we bought a 48hr ticket that enabled us to go to all the towns around the lake (70 km long) either via ferry or train and also to travel for free in Geneva with their public transport system. It cost us about 78 swiss francs each and it sounds like a lot but it was worth it! We got to visit so many places on the one ticket that would've been so expensive otherwise.
So we started our journey first to Lausanne, one of the most beautiful cities around the lake. It is built on a hill so there was a lot of uphill walking which is great for your bum and thighs!! Lovely cobble stoned paths and cute little shops lining them. We reached the top and found some beautiful old churches, electric buses that run on tram lines, markets everywhere and nice views. We stayed in Lausanne for most of the day till about 3pm then we made our way to Evian by boat(yes it's where the water comes from!!)
The playground in Lausanne was a typical one that we saw around the different towns on the lake. Wouldn't it be so cool if you were a kid again? I was tempted to have a bit of a go but too many little kids and parents watching.
We then caught a boat over to Evian and it was also a lovely little town but one you could probably see in about two hours! We went to the Evian information centre where we were taught about how Evian water was collected and bottled. And how it had cured some guy of his diseases! Interesting... We also went to this cute pub where a small band was playing outside (we think they were Italian) and the lady singer would give everyone at the pub these fake coloured roses. It was so sweet!
After Evian, we caught a boat back to Lausanne then the train back to Geneva where we wandered around for a bit (it's sort of just like another city though) and we had dinner at a place where we had cheese fondue!! (A national dish). They gave us some bread to dip into it and we also had some cured meat with it (sort of like prosciutto). The cheese had a really strong taste though and it was a bit more-ish for me and didn't give me a taste for fondue again...unless it's chocolate!
We had an early night as I was starting to feel really exhausted! The next day we were walking to the border and stopped in a patisserie for breakfast. The shopkeeper was really encouraging me to use my french and loved it when I said 'Pain au chocolat' correctly! She was lovely. We were on our way to some other little towns around the lake roughly 2 hours by train from Geneva. Our breakfast consisted of 3 different types of pastries (yes we gained weight that weekend). Croissant, almond croissaint and pain au chocolat..mmmmm!!
We went to see Montreux which is a beautiful seaside town that's quite touristy. We only spent about an hour there because we were just stopping over to catch our next train to Gstaad, a town in the mountains. Ed drank from a water fountain in Montreux that we weren't sure was used for drinking! But we saw other people do it and there were similar fountains everywhere we went so now we know they are for drinking!
The train trip to Gstaad was just so nice! I am running out of words for nice, lovely, beautiful. Sorry about that. As we got higher and higher into the mountains, we started to see some mountains that were still capped with snow! Gstaad is a ski town and it made Ed really miss skiing. It was our favourite town around Lake Geneva. We will probably come back one day although most of the runs looked like they were 'black runs' so I suppose Ed will just have to come back by himself! Since it took a while to get to Gstaad, we spent most of the day there walking around, drinking from fountains (the water was so pure), and having the most delicious meal that we had in Switzerland! I wasn't feeling well so I had a nice beef goulash soup while Ed had a steak cooked in garlic and herb butter served over heat with some really yummy chips. We finished the day off with some mouth watering pastries at a cute cafe. Then headed back to Geneva and to the airport.
After arriving at the airport early to check in we found out our flight was delayed and instead of leaving at 9:30pm, we left at 10:30 and we didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning! So next time we will be catching the plane much earlier as it was such a nuisance catching a cab home from the city!!
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