You will be happy and perhaps unsurprised to hear that the BBC forecast for Geneva over the weekend was wrong. It rained a wee bit during Friday night but Saturday morning dawned bright and clear with not a cloud in the sky, and that lasted till well after lunch.
I headed straight for the cathedral with a fruit smoothie for breakfast and was there just after the doors opened at 9am, which I have decided is not an hour of the day that exists for Europeans at the weekend. Consequently there were only about half a dozen other people in the whole old town and I spent a wonderful morning climbing the two towers, taking sneaky photos inside the church when the warden wasn’t looking and listening to a truly talented violinist playing in one narrow cobbled street.
Geneva, I discovered, also has not one, not two, but THREE Starbucks! Living in a city which does not even have a Costa or Cafe Nero, this was a truly exciting discovery. Yes, Brussels does good coffee, but only if you are wanting something very strong that can be drunk down in three mouthfuls. I wanted something tall, sugary, and fattening. A grande vanilla latte with whole fat milk was the way to go. Although the way the place suddenly falls silent and with all the sharp intakes of breath you think I’d ordered my latte made with liquid butter. But really, if you’re going to order a skinny latte, you might as well just have water in my opinion, coz that is what it tastes like.
Moving on.
Sunday was a little less sunny and rather more cold but I had a lovely breakfast of coffee and muffin (I forget the name of the coffee shop…) on the water front and then caught the tram to the UN building. The UN has apparently decided it is still winter, despite the welcome signs of spring approaching, and so is only open to tourists on week days. Which seems bizarre as I would have thought there would be more tourists at weekends but nevermind. I took the obligatory photos and then walked round the corner to the Red Cross and Crescent Museum, which I would highlyrecommend to anyone in the city for a few hours.
I ended the day by attending a gala performance by the Berlin Festival Orchestra in the cathedral which was truly spectacular.
In other news, our General Assembly in Lausanne this week was very fruitful and it was wonderful to see the wonderful bunch of people that make up the network again. Much fun was had, much more was learnt (on my part) and I came home late on Wednesday evening exhausted but very content.
