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Published: September 9th 2008
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So, I arrived in Geneva last Saturday morning after a routine flight. Easyjet actually was pretty good, with the same setup as Southwest with people paying more loading first and working through 3 other lines with the biggest discounts seating least (no prebooked seats at all). I got an aisle seat with a swiss girl by the window who was friendly and nobody in the middle. I had arranged a small car by priceline from Geneva Airport, and got a 1.4 Fiat Punto which was been more than sufficient for getting around the mountains etc. I took my time driving to Torgon, which involved driving around the north and east sides of Lake Geneva, then up a VERY STEEP mountain road with countless switchbacks up to the timeshare (it was 11 miles on the mountain road alone, taking about 20-25 minutes). I checked in and settled in to a quiet evening that first night. The room was fine, with a double bed, a decent balcony overlooking the mountainside with a bit of a view of the valley. The kitchen was well equipped, and the room would be good and cheap for more people. It was sparesly furnished, but it was only
7000 points (the equivalent of one nights stay back home) for the whole week, so what are you going to do eh (certainly no complaints from me!) On the tv, the only two english language channels were cnn and bbc world news, but obviously I'm not really here to sit in the room and watch tv anyway. Over the first couple of days, I noticed for really the first time that travelling alone wasn't the best. In cities like Amsterdam, there's so much to do close at hand that it doesn't bother me in the slightest, and I'm sociable enought to chat with whoever I come across anyway. In a remoteish sky lodge in the off season where almost everyone speaks german or french (as a canadian I should know more french than I do really), it was, lets say, pretty quiet. On the other hand, it has been relaxing, and some r and r is partly what I'm here for anyway.
I picked up a pile of groceries from a big store in the valley, so I've been making most of my meals in the unit, which in Switzerland saves a large amount of money (I didn't buy
anything there, but I noticed a McDonalds big mac combo would have cost just over 12 swiss francs, which is about the same in canadian dollars!!
On Sunday I drove down to Aigle in the valley, and wandered around a sunday carnival/festival I happened across. You'll see in the video I'll post, but there was a crazy band with wild costumes playing a kind of rock/classical thing that was pretty good. I then drove to Montreaux on Lake Geneva (known as Lake Leman by the locals, no idea why). I visited a castle called Chateau de Chillon. It was famous for Lord Byron's poem about 'the prisoner of chillon' (wikipedia that). It was interesting, and I then drove back up the mountain. It turned out to be Karaoke night, which was something to do, but pretty brutal at times also (no I didn't sing this time).
On Monday I drove through the mountains to Interlaken, so called because its a city between two large lakes. I wandered around and had lunch at, get this, Hooters Interlaken (yes, its true). I then drove to Meiringen were I took a furnicular (narrow guage steep mountain railway) up to the Rhine
Falls, which was the fictional sight of Sherlock Holmes' fight with his arch nemisis and subsequent fall to his death. I hiked up a steep trail to a restaurant for a drink, and the view was spectacular (as they all are around here). I'll be honest in saying the swiss alps are quite a bit like the rockies, except the mountains themselves are older, as are most of the accomadations (this isn't meant to be sour grapes, but it makes me pretty proud of what we have in good old Canada (all you brits reading this, come VISIT US PLEASE).
Today, Tuesday, I've had a slow day so far, and I'll probably drive down and walk along the lake or maybe find a kayak rental if it exists around here.
Anyway, that's my trip in Switzerland so far. I have two more full days Wednesday and Thursday, then off to Geneva Friday to fly back to East Midlands late Friday Afternoon. I'll now post some pictures and video and attatch them to this message. Anyone who wants to let me know what you're all up to, that'd be great. See y'all later now,
Jcrontheroad
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