After flooding you with my Paris tome I have decided to split Switzerland up a little. This is part one. Enjoy.

Leaving Paris

Leaving Paris was miraculously easy. Despite the French fuel distributers being on strike, I know, a strike in France WHEN DOES THAT HAPPEN! Gas stations were closed and others limited the amount of fuel you could buy to 20 euros. Not good with a long weekend coming up in the land of bread and wine.

We had booked a transfer and our driver had it all under control.

So a farewell breakfast, to the airport, easy check in (all self-service now) and we wait.

The wait was fabulous as they have a business centre with charging stations and comfy seats. So we sat and skyped Sarah and waited for our flight.

The flight was early, everyone was checked in easily, and there were no issues. Just to underline that this is not the France I remember 😛

Arriving in Geneva – Day One

Time in the air 31.5 hours!

Anyway! The last time I was in Switzerland was 12 years ago. Most of you know the story and I am not going to lay it out here. So returning here I was a bit apprehensive.

Flying into Geneva is always beautiful on a clear day. You can see the lake, mountains, cute little villages laid out below. Stunning.

We landed without issue, bags came quickly, through the non-existent security and customs check. And we are in Switzerland!

As we had some plans to travel around I booked a rental car. Eek driving on dark side again. But at least I knew the roads, kind of.

Our wonderful friend Carlos, massive shout out to Carlos and family, had us to stay in his lovely apartment. So job number one was to find where he lived and try and remember some French again.

Whoever invented GPS navigation and the NAGMAN (the spelling is correct, believe me) I love you. You are my favourite person EVER!

Thanks to the nagman, even though he was speaking to me in French, we made it to Carlos’ house. We only took one wrong turn and ended up back in France. Yes really, we just left damn it.

Dragged the four suitcases up the three flights of stairs. And we arrive in our temporary abode Chateux Streijfert!

We were a bit hungry by this stage and walked the short distance to Thonex from Chateux Streijfert (CS). Where we found a cute little restaurant. The menu was limited, very limited, we kind of had two choices, so we opted for fillet de perche! A very Swiss thing to eat. I explained to Jason it is similar to marlin. Which it is not, at all, not even slightly, except they are both fish.

It was a lovely meal and a great start with the Swiss cuisine.

By the time we were all sorted it was getting late in the day, time to head to WHO via the bus system and go visit an old haunt.

The buses have not changed that much, getting tickets is much easier than before, but they look the same. Google maps assisted and we made it all the way to the other side of the lake and up to WHO. I spent a lot of time reminiscing and showing Jason my old haunts.

Carlos met us at WHO and we had the grand tour. It had changed a lot and not at all. Strange but true. The view is still fabulous, there are a few new buildings and some that have gone. But, some of the people stayed the same. It was lovely to see some familiar faces and even better to be remembered!

Lovely to see you Thor, Luba, Navneet, Laurant, Nick, and many more.

Now, time for some wine.

What I was completely unaware is the state of traffic in little Ol’ Geneve! Its bloody miserable. Taking us over an hour to get from WHO to the other side of the lake. A journey of around 6kms. Luckily Carlos was very entertaining so we managed to stay awake!

We went to a very cool bar called Bateau Geneve. It is run by an association focused on social character, helping those with difficult situations integrate into normal society. So very cool. And very funky as well. The music was loud, the wine very tasty and abundant, and the tapas extremely edible.

While both Jason and I were very tired, it was always going to be a tough day, a few drinks in and we were slightly revived.

We also got to meet and get to know Carlos’ family. Jacob, Arno, and Mariko. What a fabulous crew.

At around 1000pm we opted to bail, so these kiwis got back on the bus and went home for a sleep. As we were waiting for the bus a poor innocent man was walking his dog, I accosted him and asked if I could pat his dog. This is becoming a habit.

Geneva, so far so good.

End of day one!

2^nd June – Day 2 Switzerland!

When we woke, which was far earlier than our hosts who had stayed out a lot later than us, the weather was fabulous! The weather forecast for the rest of the week was not. So we needed to maximise on the clear day.

A quick visit to the supermarket to stock up on food for the day, we need to get better organised and have some breakfast stuff sorted. We got some filled rolls and pastries, of course you have to have pastries in Switzerland. Fresh fruit, sorted.

Into the car and off to Chamonix. Chamonix is only about an hour from Geneva and well worth the visit. It was always one of my favourite places to take visitors. The view of Mont Blanc and the cute little town is lovely.

The drive is relatively easy, onto the motorway and off you go, by this stage we had replaced Monsieur GPS with Miss GPS and were now receiving instructions in English. . The scenery is wonderful on this drive, the cliffs towering over little villages, waterfalls hundreds of meters up, and green, the country is so green.

We stopped at the usual Mont Blanc viewing platform, and it put on a great show, the view looking down the valley to the mountain is very exciting. After our road side picnic for breakfast, time to finish the journey to Chamonix. Miss GPS was a little confused and was trying to take us off the path, but luckily we made it, found parking, and went exploring.

The town is just how I remembered it. But not as busy which was awesome. We made our way to the gondola so we could go up to the viewing platform.

The platform is called Aiguille du Midi and is a 3842m peak.

You take two lots of gondolas to get there, then a lift to get up to the very top and is the closest you can get to the summit of Mont-Blanc without hiking or climbing and is the highest mountain peak served by an aerial lift system.

Bloody hell it was hard to breath, between the adrenalin of looking down and seeing the ground 3800 meters away, and the thin air it was really overwhelming. Each time you climbed a step, BTW the steps are grated so you can see all the way down all the time WTF!, you would need a rest to get your breath back, don’t look down, don’t look down.

There were some people, mad bastards, running up and down the stairs and round and round as part of their training I believe. I could not walk up the stairs and talk!

We went up to all the viewing platforms and then saw a glass box hanging off the side of the platform, what is this new madness!

The madness has a name “Step into the Void”. It is a glass room with a glass floor, hanging off the uppermost terrace of the Aiguille du Midi. That’s right people a glass box that you stand in 3842 metres from the ground.

It consists of three glass walls, the glass floor and glass ceiling panels, means that you experience 1000 meters of free air directly under their feet, in total safety APPARENTLY! Though that was not reassuring when I was queued up to stand in it for a photo opportunity.

They encourage you to look around and admire the highest peaks in Western Europe, I felt more like getting the hell back onto solid ground. Deep breath, deep breath. Panic, not panicking!

Anyway, we did it and it was amazing, breath taking (literally), and we got some awesome photos. Unlike most other attractions there was no additional cost for this.

The mountain put on a great show for us and we saw the summit, some awesome birds, and some crazy people climbing the mountain – for fun!

After scaring the sh*te out of ourselves we decided to go back down. The altitude had given Jason a nasty migraine and my breathing was not flash.

So down we went.

We stopped at Plan de l’Aiguille (2,317m) for lunch where we quickly regrouped.

After some discussion we opted not to walk the rest of the way down, time was not on our side and Jason’s knee was giving him a bit of gip, though if you ask him its fine. I had my hiking sandals on but this is probably a terrain that you want your precious toes safely covered – and with my track record. Anyway, we opted to take the gondola down. For several reasons J

Our ticket also gave us cheaper access to the Mer de Glace – essentially a glacier cave. So once we hit, much appreciated, terra firma we walked over to the little railway station.

Making it just in time, literally 30 seconds to spare. We jumped on the little red train.

The train chugged and struggled its way up the mountain side, away from Mont Blanc and the gondola we had just been on.

The train is a famous rack and pinion railway that take you to the Montenvers site at 1913 meters, this holiday is filled with height and scariness.

Worth the effort though as you arrive to a fabulous panorama of the Mer de Glace glacier, the Drus and the Grands Jorasses.

Continuing our trend of following the older crowd the train was packed with retirees obviously on an outing. These were all French speaking so that was a little change J

The train ride takes around 20 minutes and you stop at the original train station which has been around since the late 18 hundreds. It has been refurbished and they are currently doing up the hotel and other facilities.

BUT, you have to wonder how long they will be doing this for. The amount that the glacier has shrunk is phenomenal. Seriously, when I was last there circa 2004 the glacier was at least 40 meters higher, not longer but higher up the side of the mountain. That is 40 meters depth that has melted away.

They have signs that show you over the last 100 years where you would have encountered the front of the glacier, and they have had to keep adding more and more steps to reach it.

To be honest, it was really depressing and an “in your face” abrupt realisation that global warming is very real (Mr Trump) and its being witnessed live.

I suppose if you see it every day it may not be so evident, but like a growing child, if you don’t see them for several years the change is immense. We were staggered by the decrease.

It is more evident as they have put insulating mats on top of the glacier cave to help keep it cold so it does not melt.

Despite the disappearing glacier and global warming shock to the system the cave itself was very, very cool. They keep digging one out and they actually carve little rooms, furniture and fittings into the ice. Not a place I personally would like to stay but it was so great being surrounded by these think ice walls.

Jason was like a nerdy kid at a science fair. Very excited.

We wandered around for a wee bit, whilst avoiding frostbite, before walking up the hundreds of steps back to the train station.

By this stage it was getting close to leaving time, we had talked about going through the Mont Blanc tunnel, just for fun, but the cost really made it a bit of folly. 56 euros to drive to Italy and back without actually seeing anything except the inside of a tunnel. Maybe next time…

And that was our outing in Chamonix, a great day, Jason loved the lack of people, the fabulous nature, and exciting heights.

The ticket price isn’t cheap. 132 euros return for both of us, but when you think that you can spend the whole day exploring or walking down, the views, and the exciting ride up there, it’s actually really worth it.

The time was getting by and we needed to head back to Geneva. Because that night I HAD A HOT DATE WITH TWO HOT LADIES!

I left Jason and Carlos to fend for themselves and ubered my way to Café du Soliel! An old favourite that we frequented constantly when we lived there. That place is still as amazing as it ever was.

The highlight was seeing two dear friends Jill and Niamh! We spent the next few hours talking, drinking, eating and laughing. It was so fabulous to see these wonderful faces. I wish we could have spent more time together.

And that was the end of day two. Wonderful.

Feeling good!