Mediterranean cruise and European adventure - Day 14 - Geneva

Geneva

I woke up at Dru’s house and all was quiet. I turned on my phone to find several messages from Roger. He was supposed to fly home from London, but he had been taken ill overnight with a variety of symptoms, mostly GI related. There was no way he could travel. Between the two of us, we had only one computer and one SIM card that could make calls (his European SIM was data only). I started by calling Norwegian airlines. They told me I could rebook over the phone for a fee or online, still for a fee, but not as much. I logged in on the computer and rebooked the flight for two days later (Norwegian only flies between Austin and London every other day). As it happened, this was the flight Emmaline and I would also be taking home so I moved our seats so we could all sit together.

Then I had to work out hotel. He had already contacted the front desk at his current hotel, but they had no vacancies for the next two nights so then I was working online and over the phone to try to find somewhere he could move to with an earlier check-in time. Nobody could guarantee anything, but the Doubletree said that if I made a reservation, they would put a rush on getting one of those room categories cleaned and ready. He arranged to get another hour at his current hotel so we had a little more wiggle room. So we booked him into the ridiculously expensive DoubleTree Victoria Station.  From there I started the claims process with the trip insurance company, then sent the paperwork over to his current hotel, called them and asked them to print those up for him to have. Then I found a nearby urgent care he could go to. Whew!

After all that, I was pretty hungry and Emmaline had woken up hungry in the middle of all this process so Dru ran to the store to grab a variety of yummy things for breakfast. She came back and we all split up some pastries and had some cereal. We had a general idea of a few things we wanted to do for the day, but we were mostly playing it by ear and we were a little later setting out than we had anticipated since I spent a chunk of the morning dealing with the crisis.

First, we decided to set our for the Telepherigue du Salève, the cable car of Mount Salève. We took Dru’s car the short drive from their apartment over to the base of Salève and purchased our tickets. There were very few people there and we only had a few other people in the cable car with us. We rode up to the top of the mountain where we were greeted by an incredible view of the city below. The weather was beautiful and perfect and we took it all in.




From there, we made a short hike in the opposite direction to a different vista. The hike was probably about 20 minutes and it wasn’t too technical. My foot had had a day of rest the day before so it was doing fairly well. Up was actually a little easier on it than down was, though down was faster, obviously. The meadow on the other side at the end of the hike was like something out of a fairy tale: a beautiful green meadow with tiny wildflowers, buzzing bees, blue skies and a gentle breeze. We stopped and had some snacks there.  We arrived back to the cable car and rode back down the mountain and then drove the car back to Dru’s house where we found some lunch. After some salad, fruit and cheese for lunch, we set out this time using public transit for the city.



I’m going to pause for a moment to tell you we did a lot of walking for the rest of the afternoon and early evening and took some buses and trams and things and by the time we got back, it was sort of all a whirlwind so Dru sat down and made some notes about our day so that I could write this up. So along the way I’ll pass on some of her notes as we go through.

She noted that we took the bus to Terrassière and then walked along the lake but the fountain (the very famous fountain in the lake) was off. Dru notes “injustice!” We took in the sights and people along the lakeside, including some swans, a funny dog playing fetch in the water who, when his owner stopped to take a phone call brought us the ball instead. Of course, we couldn’t leave our new friend hanging so we threw the ball for him until his owner became available again (and then some). Then we came upon a little beach with a swimming area and a sandy playground made from recycled rubber (looked like bicycle tires) and Emmaline played there for a bit.






From there we took the bus again to Rive and we set off in search of treats. Emmaline spotted a little cart in front of a shop selling macarons and ice cream called Ladurée. Emmaline got ice cream and Dru had a macaron/ice cream sandwich (of which I tried a few bites and it was amazing). We walked over to a nearby square with a carousel near old town in Place de la Madeleine. We watched the carousel while Dru and Emmaline ate their treats and then Emmaline had a go on the carousel. I’ve lost count on the carousels, but we definitely hit at least one in each country except England. If I had known it was going to be a thing, I would have sought one out there, too!




After the carousel, it was time for me to have a treat so we went to Martel and I ordered several little two bite pastries there: a mini Opera cake, a mini eclair, and a tiny raspberry tart, along with a couple of chocolates. Of course I shared a few bites with my companions, but I couldn’t help think of poor Roger in his hotel room in London feeling awful. We left there and went into a nearby store for some souvenir shopping before walking across the river (where we saw a really cool black swan on the way) in search of a public piano so Emmaline could play a little. There were lots of public pianos all around as part of a temporary installation, I believe. Emmaline played what pieces she could remember on the colorful piano before we walked back across the river.






From there we set out for the Horloge Fleurie (flower clock) then walked all around Vielle Ville (old town) and saw the beautiful streets and the cathedral where we found a friendly cat and sat down to rest for a bit and give him some attention. By this time, it was past 7 PM and we were hungry so we spent some time trying to find something to eat. Everything was either not what we were looking for, way too expensive, or too long of a wait. Finally, exhausted, we stumbled into Starbucks and had some toasted sandwiches and a salad that were actually surprisingly good (and cheap). Though I felt a little odd eating dinner at Starbucks, everyone was happy and fed so it worked out.





From Rive, we hopped back on the tram and then made the short walk from the stop over to Dru’s apartment where we got all our things packed and ready for the next day and our flight back to London.

Click here for Day 15.