Switzerland WoooHoooo!!!!

At first glance Geneva looks like any other European city with everyday people doing everyday things. Graffitied walls and art everywhere, heavy traffic, multi cultural people, Turkish, African, Chinese and I hope to explore more in the coming days of what makes Geneva unique. This town has all the stans … Kurdistan , pakistan …. and great Kebabs.  The first full day in Geneva I took a tour just across the French border to Mount Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, Chamonix and a glacier with an ice cave. An amazing day even with a little bit of rain.

Across the border at Mount Blanc the mountain was a bit foggy which is usual and for me it was cool not cold. The elevation and altitude was quite high and my lungs felt heavy and felt a little dizzy . I took my pictures and quickly took the elevator back down to the next level.  After Mount Blanc we took the train up the side of another mountain to the glacier. There was a short gondola ride and then a 534 steps down to get to the glacier and ice cave. On the tour I met a girl from Africa who works the Red Cross and we traversed the steps together. I was surprised how much climate change has affected the glacier. Since the 80’s the glacier has lost quite a bit of ice about 200 meters. My knee, cyborturtle had a fairly easy time going down and heelspurricus(my heel spur) was already fighting me but they survived and going back up cyborturtle was very.

In 5 days I saw a lot in Switzerland, although it did rained a lot, i had a good raincoat and  I was taking another tours to Chamonix, Annecy the Venice of the Alps, Montreux home for the band Queen’s recording studio, Charlie Chaplin world (museum) UNESCO world site, Vevey and Lavouix wine region and Swiss Rivera , Chillon Castle, and Lausanne. All in all a nice set of tours to get a good overall view.  All people speak French here, German outside of Geneva is prevalent and there is English and another language I don’t remember .

Geneva is an expensive city.  My brief stay was in a hotel located just 5 minutes walk from the central train station. If I knew then what I knew now I would have stayed outside Geneva in a smaller city in a boutique hotel or air B and B at 70% lower cost and utilize a very good local train system.  I wanted to see more of the surrounding areas so I booked all my tours thru trip advisor but I could have just walked in to the tour operators office upon arrival and book my tours there.  Geneva is a walkable city but it is  also easy to get around via bus, tour, tram, or bicycle. Experiment , be adventurous and set out on your own you will not regret it.  The airport offers free train tickets into downtown, make sure you get it from the machines located inside the luggage pickup areas.