02 November 2009

scenes from Geneva





Geneva. What a beautiful city.






We only had a day (and spent nearly one-third of that at Palais des Nations), so I'm not sure if we saw much.





But what we did see was lovely, and we enjoyed it all.





The weather was perfect in a it's-the-beginning-of-fall kind of way, and because it was a bit overcast, I had excellent lighting for taking photos all day.







This kind of shows what my frame of reference has become, but my first impression of Geneva was that its streets and sidewalks were clean. I was walking around while looking up at the buildings and taking photos, and I didn't have to worry about stepping on something!









The only thing that wasn't lovely was how expensive everything was. We went to Starbucks for breakfast (because breakfast for a family of three at our hotel would have cost us over 100CHF), and there, a venti cafe Americano was 6.20CHF, a maple walnut scone 3.80CHF. I wanted to buy one of those huge mugs that said "Starbucks Geneva" (I know, I know, but I was a tourist in Geneva), but I didn't get one because it was 19.50CHF! That's approximately $19.50, or 12€!

A quick web search reveals that Geneva has the honor of being the fourth most expensive city in the world. Ouch. FYI, Lyon has the 18th position, Paris 9th. I'm not sure why San Francisco didn't make the list -- L.A. is listed at 15th.







But this post isn't about other cities; it's about Geneva.





We had to pay 30€ for a Swiss Highway Pass that expires at the end of the year, so our plan is to go back soon.

It's only an hour and a half away, so why not?




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