Ferney/Geneva for the summer, part 1 Switzerland

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On the British schooling system, the kids and I had 7 weeks holiday (the kids actually have 8 weeks), so we spent 6 weeks in Europe, as Murray was working from the Geneva office. This meant Murray got up at his regular time and went to work Monday-Friday, and came home approximately 6pm every evening. Just to clarify, Murray was not on holiday, but we made the most of the summer evenings and weekends. The kids and I enjoyed our apartment, till we were told off for being too loud, more on that later. We saw a bit of Geneva and explored a little around the Ferney area which is on the French side of the border where we were staying. Mostly we just slept in, rested and swam. I underestimated how tired I was from my first year full time teaching.

We had some visitors which was cool, Murrays cousin Janine came through for a few days, and we managed to do Mont Saleve Gondola with her. Hayley declared her desire to one day paraglide off the top after watching them all evening.

My parents and brother came from NZ to spend a few weeks in Europe and to keep me company while Murray went to a conference in Holland for a week. My sister and her boyfriend flew in from the UK for a bit as well. The last time the 5 of us were together was 4 ½ years ago, so it was cool to be a family again.

We saw a bit of Geneva while they were here as the Fete de Geneve was on, the Festival of Geneva. The lakeside came alive with rides, food stalls, and street performers. We went on a solar train tour of the west side and the old town. We caught some water taxis to explore more of the lake. We found some cool playgrounds and fountains to play in. Fireworks displays happened by night. Lots of walking. Lets be honest, we are travelling with kids, we spent most of our time bribing our kids to keep walking, finding suitable toilets and eating at McDonalds who has a code on their toilets for customers only. We joke that we know where all the toilets are all over the world.

When it was just us, the kids and I would drive into Geneva (on the wrong side of the road and through a border), park in a parking building and walk to Murray’s office. We would meet him for lunch in the office or at the UN fountains so the kids could play, or we would come in the evening and have a picnic dinner by the lake or in the botanical gardens a short walk from the office. It took a while but the kids managed to enjoy walking without too much whinging and changing our body clocks to stay up later in the evenings with it getting dark late to optimise time together.

We have enjoyed our European summer holiday, but as usual I have a few stories about being too loud and involving border control police and bus police and supermarkets. More on that in the next blog with photos from our France side.

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