Omission corrected

A couple of days ago we came across the most delightful of book stores situated in the old town, a secondhand bookshop in fact selling very old books. The layout of the shop was eye catching, even from across the road and one of the external front walls was in fact shelves of books - it looked for all the world like a picture/painting rather than real life.        

This morning we got off the bus outside the UN building in Geneva and was taken with the three legged chair that dominates the square in front of the grounds which are the subject of very tight security. The chair symbolises the atrocities where people have lost a limb by walking on a land mine

It is a very powerful symbol

Behind the security fence is the actual UN offices which are at the end of the flags of each country- the NZ flag was clearly visible being around five back on the right hand side.

In the general area are also the offices of UNESCO and the WTO (and I am sure others such as the WHO, though we didn’t see them). We continued on down through Parc Baton to the lake edge and walked around the foreshore passed some exceptionally nice old “homes” before catching the water bus (free with our card) across to the other side. Again the panorama was dominated by Le Jet D’Eau. By the time we alighted and started the walk back to the central area the temperature had risen significantly and it was not too long before we were kicking our heels in the water, off what they regard as a beach.













Early in the afternoon we caught another bus to Veyrier-Douane which is right on the outskirts of Geneva so much so that when we had walked about 100 metres we were actually in France. There was an abandoned Customs post at that point as we walked to find the cable car to go up to the lookout at Mont Salève.

It was confusing as mentally I was still in Switzerland yet physically we were in France and of course the price for the cable car was denominated in Euro whereas I had a pocketful of CHF and so there was some debate with the ticket office over what we were being charged until the penny (centime in fact) dropped.

The view out over Geneva was a little hazy but worth the effort.

That bloody jet of water again!

We finished the day back downtown in a few shops, followed by a meal and then the bus home.

Tomorrow we pick up our Peugeot and start the driving part of our holiday, with a first overnight stop at Valence, 220kms or so down the road.

Q. Why in countries where English is not the native language are nearly every song you hear played one in the English language?

BigMac index for Geneva is $NZD9.85