After dinner with Niamh and Jill it was a bit of a slow start to the day after a wonderful late night. And Jason suggested we did a trip to Ikea! You see why I love this man. So I obliged of course and said I would show him the wonders of Ikea.

Miss GPS was in good form and got us there in no time. Since my departure Geneva central has obtained its own Ikea, no longer do you have to travel 35+ kms to go shopping for stuff you never knew you needed. Geneva is now complete!

We had not eaten breakfast yet so we indulged in the standard Ikea shopping breakfast! Hotdogs and meatballs, washed down with an undefinable fizzy mixture. Got to love it. Actually we did, it was very tasty and exactly how I remembered. There is a lot to be said for standardisation of products.

We spent an hour wandering through the isles and wishing we had an Ikea at home. Bought some stuff we didn’t need – but we really did need it, how could we possibly live without the ghost shaped night light! And a cuddly toy for Poppy ha, ha.

Once our tour de Ikea was completed it was time to programme Miss GPS and get her to guide us to Yvoire.

I have always loved Yvoire, it is such a quaint little town. Anyone who visited me in Switzerland was dragged for an outing to Yvoire, either to shop, drink, eat fillet de perche – but most likely all three 🙂

Yvoire is a medieval city built in the early 14th century, it’s a 30 minute drive from Geneva or you can take the train from Geneva to Nyon and then the boat. It is a great way to see the lake too. But this time we decided to drive there and it was a very picturesque outing.

We found a store that I remember investing a lot of money in when establishing my wine glass collection 😛 it was great they are still there. We had a chat to the owner and Jason found some beer glasses he really wants so officially bought his first souvineer. He has some catching up to do 🙂

We walked around a little more then sat down for a drink and lunch. It is was a restaurant I had eaten at previously, the location and ambiance is stunning, but the service was not great. Hotel Restaurant du Port, I recommend the location but the staff are not overly friendly or patient. The Asian couple at the seat behind us were told very brusquely to “speak English” to which they responded “we are”. Oops.

After a little more siteseeing, wandering up and down the wee streets, it was back on the road to head home.

We had dinner plans with Carlos, Jacob, Mariko, and Isabelle!

We were going to visit an old favourite. La Trattoria. It was always a treat to go to La Trattoria and have the penne siciliana. Even thinking about it I was drooling and had everyone else worked into a fervour about this restaurant and promises of good food, fun atmosphere, and tasty wine.

Weeeeeeeeellllllll. No, I was wrong, and disappointed, and greatly saddened.

The food was average. Nothing on what they used to be capable of. The pizza base was fat and chewy. The pasta, especially the siciliana, was thermos neculear and had the feeling it had been microwaved before being served.

The atmosphere was as dull as the lighting.

On the up side, Carlos selected some delicious wines so that did help. It was a very late dinner so we left in the rain (yes our dry spell has been broken in Switzerland) to head home.

So La Trattoria but we will never be back and I cannot recommend to anyone to give it a try. Some things should be left in the past. Goodbye La Trattoria for ever.

We caught the bus into town, the public transport in Geneva is fantastic! On time, clean, reliable, cost effective. So we go to get the bus, but in our cloud of despair we forgot to get tickets until the moment we saw the bus.

So whilst some of us put our lives on the line, holding the doors open, Jacob and Mariko purchased the tickets then onto the bus.

Other than the stern looks from other passengers we were not thrown in jail for delaying the bus by 45 seconds, however, I am sure they were all secretly wishing us ill!

Home to bed, another late night. Oh well, too much to do to sleep!

The next day we were heading to Zermatt – very excited.

Items to note:

• The people are still strict
• The bus doors are still violent traps
• La Trattoria is not good