Sunday, September 2, 1979
But we got off in Hannover, Germany. The next train headed
south wasn't for three hours, leaving for Basel at 7:10. We had to keep
ourselves amused in that time, with writing journals and people-watching. We
have found that all German train stations have a mission chapel somewhere on
the premises, usually evangelist and sometimes Catholic. We caught our train
and slept most of the way to Basel. Once there, we almost immediately
transferred to a train headed for Geneva. Once in Geneva, we checked our bags
and checked the hotel boards for the best within-our-budget hotel. There were
direct telephone lines to the hotels, so we called to confirm availability and
price of a room. We walked the couple blocks to look
at the room and confirm our reservation. We went to a nearby McDonald’s for
dinner, retrieved our luggage and settled into the hotel. After cleaning up, we
took a walk around Geneva which was lighted up with neon signs advertising
mostly watches, and light bulbs lined the bridges crossing the river. Also a
lighthouse was lighted up, as well as the trees on a tiny island. A utilities
building was colorfully lighted which made it look like a casino. It was really
beautiful at might. We saw several camera stores which we planned on visiting
the next day, as well as stationery stores where Kathy wanted to look for a
zip-up three-ring binder type notebook. And we saw a lot of chocolate shops,
with all types of figures made from chocolate including elephants, swans, even
split chestnuts, neat! We headed back to the hotel after getting drinks at
McDonald’s to accompany the super-huge Tobler chocolate bar we had bought. In
our room was a radio on which I heard my special song, even here in
Switzerland! I had also heard it in the open-air market in Florence. One of the
beds had a massage unit. It was supposed to take U.S. quarters since all the information
was written in English. We didn't have U.S. quarters and the Swiss don’t have a
25 cent piece. So Kathy tried a Moroccan dirham which is the same size and
value as a quarter. It worked, so we had a vibrating bed to help relax us and
put us to sleep.
Monday, September 3, 1979
We
were awakened by the maid with breakfast at 9:00. Had a wonderful meal with
great instant hot chocolate, croissants, and regular rolls with butter and jam.
We took it easy in the morning, catching up on correspondence, washing clothes,
etc., because we knew the stores weren't open Monday mornings. Just before noon
we left, going to the post office and the TWA offices, which seemed permanently
closed. We walked along one river bank toward the lake, seeing the huge
geyser-like fountain and numerous swans and ducks.
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| Geneva's Jet d'Eau |
We saw a couple windsurfers, one who did fairly well and the other who got dunked a lot. We found a lovely park with a rose garden to wander in. We headed back towards “downtown” Geneva, window shopping along the way. We also looked for a place where we could try a cheese fondue, but the restaurants seemed too expensive. We went back to McDonald’s. After a late lunch, we started hitting the camera places, where Kathy discovered she couldn't get a better deal for her old Minox. So she wanted to buy a reflex camera, but the ones in her price range weren't well-known to us. She was given a real sales pitch by one fellow who figured she’d surely be back. After about the 5th place, we decided on another deal. I would more or less sell Kathy my camera, so that she would have a camera she can trust in Morocco. With the camera situation settled, we continued window shopping. We ended up in an old and obviously elite section of the city. Back in the “normal” part of town, I bought a leather make-up case for a friend. We then went off to find a Japanese restaurant, but it wasn't open yet. We walked back to our hotel to get information on possible movies to see, and what buses we should take. We were planning on taking a bus back to the restaurant, but we just missed one. We bought the bus tickets anyway from a vending machine and started walking towards the restaurant, keeping an eye out for the bus. We ended up walking the whole distance. Even though we didn't have reservations, we only had a couple-minutes wait for a table which was fortunately hidden in a corner so that it wasn't obvious how ignorant we were. There was a table in the restaurant surrounded by a bench with pillows so that the diners could simulate eating at a low table, but put their feet on the floor. We had regular chairs with similar pillows. The menus were brought with a tightly rolled hot washcloth on a small plate. We assumed we were to wash our hands with it. I ordered a tempura meal and Kathy ordered two separate dishes. We shared almost everything, and managed well with our chopsticks. We started first with Kathy’s pickled crab, followed by my vegetable salad. Then came Kathy’s sukiyaki with my tempura seafood and vegetables. We both also got rice with a tiny bowl of soy sauce. I dipped my rice in the soy sauce and Kathy poured the soy sauce over her rice. I had a bowl of bean soup that I sipped directly from the bowl (eat soup with chopsticks?). A little while later came the pickled vegetables which tasted terrible! For dessert I got apricot-sherbet (awful!). Our main dishes were great, though. We generously tipped the waitress who was very nice, We had plenty of time to walk to the movie theater, but decided to take the trolley-bus because we already had the tickets. We bought movie tickets right away, and wandered around the area, seeing more exclusive shops and finding a square with neatly lighted old buildings; a museum and an old theater, perhaps.
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| Movie ticket |
Finally it was time for the movie: “The Wiz” which was in English with French and German subtitles. They had difficulty with the translations: “ease on down the road” was translated into French as “go down the street prudently.” Before the movie started was the usual 10-15 minutes of “commercials.” On our way home, Kathy skipped along her imaginary yellow brick road and was swinging around lamp poles. We finally got to the hotel and into bed.
Tuesday, September 4, 1979
This time we were awakened via phone by the desk clerk at 9:00 and our breakfast soon followed. We consolidated all our souvenirs into one suitcase and ended up throwing away a lot of boxes, old socks, shoes, etc. There was one big bag full of junk to be thrown out, but we still had Kathy’s pack, my backpack, and two small suitcases; no longer the light and easy travelers. We checked out of the hotel, went to the post office, and then to the TWA offices. Apparently just a front! We walked on the near bank of the river to see the Woodrow Wilson house, to pass a war memorial in a lakefront park, and to see the grounds of a mansion on the lakefront where we saw several chipmunks and a black squirrel. We continued on to see the Palace of Nations and several United Nations buildings. We even found the International Red Cross Headquarters. We went into one of the Geneva museums showing basically only ceramics. The main attraction there was a serving set molded to look like cabbage heads. |
| Ariana Museum |
We went to the botanical gardens
which included an aviary, and closed-off areas for ducks, llama, deer (totally
pestered by flies), peacocks, and some strange-looking bird species. There was
a dahlia garden where apparently you can order bulbs. There were lily ponds
where we saw tadpoles, but only heard the frogs. We also saw a strange
wormy-writhing creature in these ponds. Finally there was a tropical garden
greenhouse which was super-hot and humid inside. It felt really cool and breezy
once outside again. We made our way back to the train station, doing some
grocery shopping along the way. We checked the train schedule, then went to
McDonald’s for a quick late lunch. We got our luggage from the hotel and
boarded the train for Lausanne. We had asked for information as to the best way
to get to the French Brittany coast and were told to go through Paris. We asked
the best way to get to Paris and were told to go through Lausanne. When we
arrived in Lausanne we found only one train went to Paris and it left at some ridiculous
hour. So we re-boarded the train which had taken us to Lausanne, to take it to
Biel. The conductor on this train told us it would be better to get a train for
Paris from Basel, so we continued to Basel. Once in Basel, we found we had a
three-hour wait for the midnight train to Paris, We sat and waited. We felt
thirsty, but had no more Swiss money. The fellow at the snack bar wanted us to
go to the bank to have our French money changed to Swiss currency (at this hour?). We figured
it wasn't worth the trouble for just two Cokes, and let him overcharge us in
French francs. There were two girls from Venezuela who claimed to be “lost” and
wanted to get to Paris, so we told them when the train left. Finally we walked
through customs and boarded the train. An American from California joined us,
but she wasn't able to give us much news about the States. We sacked out pretty
uncomfortably until we arrived in Paris.
Next: Madrid.
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| Map of Geneva |
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