Zürich -> Geneva

When we moved to Switzerland, instead of getting a car, we chose to get the all-inclusive Swiss GA pass, giving us free access to every train, bus, and public boat, and some public gondolas as well, within Switzerland.  Our hope was, with our tickets prepaid and the nation as our playground, we'd be more inspired to get out and about on the weekends. I think it's working: this weekend we went to Geneva.

Trains to Geneva leave every hour, and the ride is only two and a half hours, which goes by very quickly, particularly when your train has playground inside. The Swiss rail system has just started introducing these Family Cars on some of their longer train routes: to Alex's and Joey's delight, they somehow they managed to squeeze a climber and a slide into the upper deck of one of the train cars.

We arrived in Geneva just after noon, and our hotel was just across the street from the main train station so checking in was easy.  I can't tell you what a relief it was to be in a French-speaking part of Switzerland: when we're in Zurich, I generally let Dennis take care of all of the communication, his German being much more effective than my charades.  But here it was my turn to handle the reservations and the ordering at the restaurants, and I have to admit, it was an incredible relief to not need to depend on an interpreter (handsome though he is).

Our soggy march through Geneva.  The Jet d'Eau, the spout of water that shoots

450' into the air and is emblematic of the city, was shut off just after we arrived

because of the wet and windy weather. But it would have been in this picture, otherwise.

Reward for a walk across Geneva: Ella ordered off-menu and

had a Nutella crêpe with chocolate ice cream.  For lunch.

We'd only given the kids snacks on the train, planning on finding lunch in Geneva, but the clouds broke as soon as we left the hotel. Heady from all of the French surrounding me, I gotten it into my head that a crêperie would be just the thing for lunch, but we were still a little too far from Brittany.  But still, when in almost-France...we slogged across the old town of the city, and, after almost an hour's walk through the rain (and doesn't that sound like fun?) we were rewarded with galettes and cider, my most favorite meal.

Unfortunately, we had to hurry back, almost to where we started, to catch a sightseeing boat ride that we'd reserved around Lake Geneva.  The stopped while we were eating, and Dennis figured out the bus system well enough to simplify our trip back, but we still had to rush.

The first ten minutes of
the boat ride were lovely.

Not all vacation pictures are smiles. Can we get off now? Please?

The kids were excited about the boat ride to start, enjoying watching the water and the city, but the weather turned again and we had to retreat to the cabin, where you could scarcely see for all the rain. What with the confinement and their fatigue and the stress of rushing, combined with all of the sugar they had for lunch...well, Ella and Alex just bickered. Incessantly. Luckily for them, my maternal instincts prevailed, and I kept myself from throwing them overboard.  But it was a close call.

And I think I must have made that clear to the kids, because they made their peace again as walked back to the hotel.

And the hotel was enough to cheer up the grimmest of parents.  We'd been given an upgrade, with two adjoining rooms on the top floor, overlooking the bustle of the train station.  So Ella and Alex took over the kids room and began their negotiation of who would get which side of the bed and set to work making all manner of things out of crayons and hotel stationary, while Joey chortled over the view of all the cars and trains below.

All the same, Dennis and I were feeling defeated enough to not really want to wrangle the kids into another restaurant. Instead, Ella and I got a picnic supper from the grocery store next door, and we curled up on the floor, soothing ourselves with bread, cheese, and our extraordinary view.