Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva is not a tourist town and doesn’t really have to many highlights as such. It is a pleasant city though, situated on Lake Geneva (also called Lac Leman) with the mountains all around. More than that, Geneva is vibrant; lots of different nationalities, a reflection of all the international organizations headquartered here. There’s lots of money – you can smell it- with tons of expensive stores and chic restaurants and bars. But, and I found this suprising, Geneva is a small city. Suprisingly small.
I was here primarily to meet one of our customers. I’m used to visiting places as a tourist – it was actually great to be taken around by locals. And not just locals, but locals with expense accounts. Frankly, Geneva is so darn expensive that we would not have experienced the city the same way. We were taken to an a fashionable restaurant in Carouge (the equivalent to Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal district) and were treated to 5 courses of incredible food and wine. The restaurant was packed – even on a Wednesday – and the crowd was a mix of business people (there was a table of Sikhs, and another of muslims close by) and locals on an evening out.
We had a bit of time the next morning and took a walk, seeing the ‘Jet D’eau’ (water jet – I told my Geneva friends that I had seen the “fountain” and they kind of blanched and held their steak knifes a bit tighter) and visiting Cathedral St-Pierre for impressive views of the city. These are the tourist highlights of Geneva. Not really a city that I would recommend for a visit, but I can imagine Geneva as a nice place to live considering its location on the lake and i’s surroundings.
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We stayed at the Hotel Edelweiss Manotel. Fantastic (more that we expected) but pricey. Again, lucky we were on a company expense account. Damn this city is expensive!
The best place we’ve stayed in, but considering the expense I’ll just give it a 4 out of 5..
Next place: Lauterbrunnen and the Berner Oberland.
Tags: Europe 2009, PHOTOS, Switzerland
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