We stopped first at Mr. Clean- a full service train station bathroom. There was a 2 Franc price for women and 1.5 Franc price for men using just the urinals. You put your coins in and walked through a turnstile and entered the cleanest train station bathroom I have ever seen!
We left the station and headed straight for the metro. Lausanne is home to the Olympic committee's office, fyi.
We found ourselves on a platform slanted at a 30 degree angle uphill and took the metro line 2 stops up to the center square. We saw another very old church:
(where it seemed as though an organ lesson was taking place) and would have had excellent views had it not been so cloudy...
We took the metro the other way...downhill to Ouchy:
which was right next to Lake Geneva. We took heed to this warning sign and stayed on the main tram:
We thought we could take a boat to Geneva from here but turns out the boats are not functional this time of year (bump #2). We strolled along the lake a little and caught a glimpse of the snow capped mountains in the distance as we watched the ducks and swans feast on something in the water. We soon headed back to the metro to return to the train station and took a detour down this cobblestone path that led us right into an enormous group of Japanese tourists (Yetta did warn us of this)
and the shopping district. Lausanne is also known for the theater and dance industry so advertisements for plays and music seemed to be everywhere we turned. This hologram was pretty cool:
Soon we were back on the train headed to Geneva. We arrived and exited the wrong side (which was my fault). Found ourselves in the multicultural center...passing Ethiopian restaurants,
kebabs, Brazilian steakhouse, Chinese, Thai, Sushi...you name it. We were about to turn at the next corner when we saw the headquarters for Medicins San Fronteirs (MSF) or more commonly known in the US as "Doctors without Borders":
We continued down a ways and stopped into a crepe place that advertised wi fi (it was 2 Francs for 15 minutes and despite being appalled at the price Brian still paid so I could post my blog!) and we sat down had enormous crepes for lunch! Patrick would be proud of how healthy we are being ;)
We oriented ourselves with our 15 minutes of wifi and google maps and headed down to the lake where boats were all neatly lined up and clinking against each other...black ducks swimming in between and what looked like Joshua trees lining the path:
We had expected to see the famous Geneva water fountain but it was no where to be seen...it was cold and overcast and we saw a sign for information so we headed up the hill to get a map. We walked into the tourist office and asked the girl behind the desk (who luckily spoke English) about the water fountain..."oh yes, it should be going...well that is unless it's too cold or too windy..." hmm. Well that pretty much describes today. (bump #3). We then asked her how to get to the Red Cross Museum (which came highly recommended from Yetta) and she quickly said it was closed, Until 2013. (bump #4).
She suggested maybe we would want to take the number 8 bus in that direction and visit the United Nations instead...? So we took her advice and had some time to kill before the tour so set out to walk around Old Town Geneva...this is very similar to Bern except no arcades (so the streets are more open) and more expensive stores. Rolex, Hermes, Louis Vitton, Fendi, Gucci, Tag Heur, Burberry, Guess, Diesel, Bally, Peter Pitake just to name a few. One noticeable difference to America is that all items on display in the window actually have price tags listed - I suppose to avoid any potential Pretty Woman moments :)
The weather wasn't great for picture taking, I wasn't in the mood to shop (nor could we afford anything more than a hot chocolate (5.5 Francs) on this street and it was pretty cold and windy...I couldn't wait to make our way up to the UN! We found the bus stop and waited for the 8 which only took a minute or two...about 20 minutes later we had arrived at the Palais de Nations or the palace of the United Nations...
We entered and had to go through metal detectors, produce our passports (thank god for that guy at the train station who insisted we bring them everywhere we go!) and get our picture taken. Under no circumstance were we allowed to roam the grounds without a tour guide. The Palais de Nations was built between 1929 and 1936 and quickly turned into the largest center for multilateral diplomacy in the world. The United Nations seal or symbol includes a map of the world with latitude and longitudinal lines supported by an olive branch to symbolize the primary function of the organization which is to promote peace and foster cooperation of all nations to support basic human rights.
Our tour guide explained that the symbol for the organization was (ironically) highly debated...the countries involved could not decide who gets to be in the middle of the map! Have you ever thought about this? In the US, the US is in the center of our world maps. But if you live in France then France would be in the center, if you lived in China, China would be the center and so forth. Finally it was decided that the north pole, which was considered neutral (at least at that time) would be the center of the symbol and everyone seemed happy with that compromise :)
The United Nations' compound is rather impressive with a succession of massive buildings set upon pristinely landscaped grounds and tight security. We had to wear bright orange lanyards to identify ourselves as tourists. The UN hosts more than 9000 meetings a year with participation of an average of 25,000 delegates in 34 conference rooms. Some meetings are open to the public (with some even having an online option!) while others are closed. An example of a closed meeting would be those on very sensitive and heated topics such as disarmament.
Each meeting must be interpreted (spoken in the moment) in the 6 languages of the United Nations which are: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic (and I thought the meetings at HUP were long!). While meetings must be translated (written) into only English and French (although this will vary depending on the countries affected/involved). Our tour guide explained a fun fact about the property: peacocks had always been found roaming the grounds and the city of Geneva wanted to make sure this tradition would continue even with the construction and expansion of the UN...so at any given time at least 10 peacocks could be found on the property. I wanted to go look for some but our tour guide wasn't really on board with this ;)
All in all, the tour of the UN was really interesting and I am excited to know that I can attend their online sessions! We left and boarded the 8 bus back to Old Town for a few more photo ops. As we walked back to the train station we stopped in a few chocolate shops for some snacks for the ride. I chose a Swiss version of the caramello bar which was delicious. We headed to the train station just in time for our next train (for a country of watchmakers they sure do keep time well!) and had no more bumps in the road on the way back...
Patrick and Yetta had prepared a Swiss feast of raclette! This is a special table top BBQ machine (for lack of a better description) with an upper layer for grilling meats and vegetables and a lower level for melting cheese (of course! A meal would not be Swiss without cheeses!). We had meatballs, chicken and bacon along with several different kinds of cheeses and a variety of vegetable toppings: white potatoes, baby corns, grape tomatoes, asparagus, and even pineapples for a Hawaiian raclette (Yetta was excited about this but I passed on the Hawaiian version!). We ended the meal with a shot of pear schnapps and fell asleep watching "The Hangover"...an end to another good day in Switzerland, despite all the bumps in the road :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Rue du Prieuré,Geneva,Switzerland
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