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This
is the great day we went to Geneva, Switzerland. Rob
had already spent a week there in Geneva a previous trip about two months
before by himself and loved it, so he came up with the suggestion for us to
take a one day visit there during our Paris trip. I loved the idea and went
for it, I thought it would have been cool to get to visit a second country
during my first trip in Europe. Rob
had already spent a week there in Geneva a previous trip about two months
before by himself and loved it, so he came up with the suggestion for us to
take a one day visit there during our Paris trip. I loved the idea and went
for it, I thought it would have been cool to get to visit a second country
during my first trip in Europe.
On
Wednesday 8/25/99 we had to get up early in our hotel in Paris to catch our
train to Geneva, we got up about 5:30 to 6:00 AM Paris time (11:30 PM to 12:00
AM EST six hours behind back at home in New York). We departed the Gare De
Lyon train station in Paris on an orange TGV train, they reach up to 200Mph.
It was about a three-hour trip from Paris to Geneva, which is right over the
border of France into Switzerland. It was a nice smooth train ride, and I
would also like to add that it was also my first time on a passenger train. I
never went on a passenger train to get anywhere before, and never needed to.
Ever since I started taking out books about France from the library and read
about the TGV trains I always thought about how I would love to ride in one of
those if I ever got to go to Paris. And look I did, I still can't believe it.
:o)
It
was a beautiful day, sunny and hot. It was right around lunchtime when we got
off the train so we wanted to eat right away, needless to say we ate at a
Pizza Hut. Hey, it was something that was right there and fast to get, just
because we were in Europe doesn't mean we have to settle for European food the
whole time. After we ate we started touring and walking the streets of Geneva,
what a beautiful place.
One
of the first places we went to was the Jet
D'Eau , the famous water jet there in
Geneva. It's a water jet that shoots up a powerful stream of water about 200
feet straight up, it's located right on Lake Geneva. Rob told me it was built
around 150 years ago and engineers from all over the world tried to figure out
how it worked, but the Swiss kept it a secret. You can see pictures of that
below, and a picture of me starting to walk out close to it. There was mist
blowing everywhere, it felt really good because it was a hot day. You can see
two cool pictures below where the lens of the camera was all misted over, it
looks really cool. Rob walked out near the water jet but not as close as me, I
don't think he wanted to get as wet as I did. :o)
Jet
D'Eau , the famous water jet there in
Geneva. It's a water jet that shoots up a powerful stream of water about 200
feet straight up, it's located right on Lake Geneva. Rob told me it was built
around 150 years ago and engineers from all over the world tried to figure out
how it worked, but the Swiss kept it a secret. You can see pictures of that
below, and a picture of me starting to walk out close to it. There was mist
blowing everywhere, it felt really good because it was a hot day. You can see
two cool pictures below where the lens of the camera was all misted over, it
looks really cool. Rob walked out near the water jet but not as close as me, I
don't think he wanted to get as wet as I did. :o)
After
the Jet D'Eau we took a look at the flower clock, it's a clock made of flowers
and it actually works. You'll see it in the pictures below. After the Flower
clock we walked over to Jean
Calvin's (a.k.a John Calvin) church,
St. Pierre. Now, you're probably wondering who Jean Calvin is. Jean Calvin was
a Frenchman and a great reformer for the Reformed Baptist faith back in the
18th century, I'm sure you heard of Calvinists. Reformed Baptist is my
religion and Jean Calvin's studies of the Bible have a lot to do with how we
believe in God's word.
I
have several pictures of the inside of the church, which is now a Presentation
church. There is a picture of me touching Calvin's pulpit and I
have a picture of the Bible that Calvin used, it's on a stand behind a
covering of Plexiglas. The church has two towers, one of the towers, Tour Nord
(North Tower), we could go up inside and get a bird's eye view of part of
Geneva. You can see a few pictures of those as well.
A
little while after the church we a park and there were large chess boards
painted to the pavement with large plastic chess pieces and there were people
playing chess with these large things, it was funny. In that same park a
little further down there was large stone statues of Jean Calvin and some of
the other reformers he worked with. This park is called Reformation park,
you'll see the photos of those.
Rob
and I a little later went to this little island that was a little into Lake
Geneva, it was very small. It was only a small park with some park benches, we
just relaxed there for a little while and had some Habbana cigars, it was
nice. :o)
Later
after the island we walked over to part of Lake Geneva and took a little drink
from the lake so we can say we have part of Geneva in us forever. Rob thought
of that. LOL
Then
we did some shopping for some Swiss chocolate and just walked around the city
some more. They had these cool electric trolley type of things, they were cool
to get around in. We took a little ride in those for a few minutes, I have
some pictures from those.
Before
we knew it the day was almost over and it was time to get back to the train
station to get back to Paris. As much as I loved Geneva I still love Paris and
couldn't wait to return. This was a good day and a very good vacation, taking
the trip to Geneva added to making this an even better trip. I hope to return
to Geneva again someday, maybe if I take a trip to Paris again I'll take
another day trip to Geneva.
Please
take the time to check out the photos below, reading the words about my trip
is one thing but seeing images to go with it is another. It's so much better
to see all the things I mentioned above, so please check these out. :o)
Also, more
information can be found about Geneva at this website. www.interhyve.com
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