Geneva, Switzerland

This weekend, we went to Geneva, Switzerland. We left early Saturday morning and caught a train to Lyon. We were originally going to spend the day in Lyon and leave later that day because we could not find any trains earlier. However, while at the Lyon train station I had to buy tickets to London, for when my mom and sister come up. While I was doing that, the other girls in our group were trying to purchase tickets to Geneva and found an earlier train. So we took that and we got to Geneva by 12:30 in the afternoon.

Giant Broken Chair

We spent our first half a day in Geneva by shopping and exploring the old town streets. We went in the very well known department store called Manor. This store had six floors and had everything you could possible want. It even had a supermarket on the bottom floor and a restaurant all the way at the top, which we ate at for lunch. This restaurant was more of a self serve buffet a la carte style restaurant. It was pretty good. We also went in many stores that Switzerland is known for, like swatches, and the Swiss knives.

Later that night, we adventures off to find our hotel. We booked our hotel in France, since Geneva was so close to the broader. From the center of the town, we had to take a Tram right to the boarder of France and Switzerland. From there we had to cross the border and walk to our hotel. The walk wasn't long; it was about a 15 minute walk. 

 The next day, we got up early and walked back to Switzerland and took the tram to some tourist attractions. We went and saw the giant broken chair, and the united nation building. It was so neat to see all of the flags hung that are part of the same nation.

United Nations

Jardin Botanique

From there we walked to Jardin Botanique. This was a very peaceful garden park. We took many pictures of the Beautiful flowers.
 
Our next stop was too the flower clock. We walked along side Lake Geneve until we came across the flagged bridge that we had to cross. Unfortunately the bridge had no flags on it. While walking we got to see the giant waterfall and Mount Blanc in the horizon. This is one ski area in Switzerland. We soon found the flower clock. This was a giant clock made all out of flowers. It was pretty cool, especially since Switzerland is known for watches.

Flower Clcok

After a very successful morning, we got lunch and took an afternoon train back to France. Our train left at 3:30 and was going directly to Lyon. It had a few stops in between. When we got close to Lyon, we had to stop and turn around because there was a fire on the tracks. This two hour train ride turned in a six hour train ride. Luckily for us someone who sat next to us was translating everything in English for us and was showing us a map, on how far we were away from Lyon. This guy was so nice. He even gave us chocolates. After waiting hours on the train, we soon learned that the station Lyon Part Dieu had no power. We had to go to another station nearby called Lyon Perrache. Our train was not permitted to go to this station. So, we had to switch trains. The guy who sat with us told us what was happening and asked if we would like to follow him to the other train. He waited and sat with us again until we arrived at the station. Since he knew where we were trying to get to, he took us there. We had to take the Metro to Lyon Part Dieu the original station we were trying to get to. He took us there and paid for our tickets because we had no coins and our cards did not work. Once we arrived at the station all of the trains were late and our connecting train was not on the big screen. We all went to the ticket counter which was crazy, and found our train on the smaller screens. It was 25 minutes late and we made the train. While going through this crazy adventure we were talking to this nice guy, who gave up his time to help us out. We learned a little bit about him as he learned a little bit about us. Half way through our adventure we learned his name and he learned our names. His name was Marc. He took us right up to the train and we said our goodbyes and Thank-yous. Five minutes later our train still had not moved and Marc came back on the train to give us his e-mail. He was such a great guy! Marc if you are reading this THANK-YOU again!

After a crazy adventure coming home, and making all of our trains, Switzerland was fun, even though it was only a short amount of time I got to spend there.

Lake Geneve

This coming week is all about chocolate! We will also be watching our French videos we made on Tuesday. This should be interesting.