Italy and Switzerland

May 2008

Geneva

Geneva is a bustling, large city, not at all like Lucerne.  The language here is French, as the border with France is nearby.  The hotels give you a free pass that is good on all public transportation in the city, but today, May 28th, we walked from our hotel to the old city.  We found a nice restaurant with outdoor tables under a huge tree and we had a good dinner (including wonderful French fries) with wine.  We have a wide choice of TV channels here (we had no TV in many of our previous hotels), although there are only a couple of channels in English.  We’ve been catching up on what’s happening in the world by watching CNN World News.  We heard that there were 60-90 minute delays at the MSP airport because of rain.

Thursday, May 29th started out overcast and rainy.  We walked to the train station to check the schedule for tomorrow and had some pastry and coffee in a nearby cafe.  We decided to use our free bus pass and set out for a casino near the airport.  It was about a 15 minute bus ride and then a 10 minute walk to the very small casino.  We had a couple hours worth of entertainment and lost just a little money.  On the bus trip back, we got off hoping we were close to our hotel.  We were only about a block away and across the street from a Mexican restaurant.  It sounded like a nice change, so we went there for lunch.  Reading a Mexican menu in French is interesting, but pretty easy, as there are no French words for tortillas, nachos and guacamole.  The weather was dry and quite warm after lunch, so we walked along the lake for a few miles.  We went through two parks and took some pictures of the roses.  We also shopped for some Swiss chocolate and a book for the plane trip home.  By the way, if the price of gas is getting you down, we calculate that gas costs about $7.00 per gallon in Italy and Switzerland!  This is the last time we will update our blog, as tomorrow we take the train back to Milan.  We will spend a night near the airport and fly home on Saturday.  We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

On the train to Geneva

Train to Geneva (Lake Léman)

Geneva - Dinner at this restaurant

Geneva - Cathedral St. Pierre (old town)

Walk along the lake

Walk along the lake

Walk along the lake

Walk along the lake

Parc De La Grange

Parc De La Grange

Flower clock

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