Geneva, Switzerland

August 31st

Geneva, Switzerland

Welcome to Switzerland!!  This is our 9th country at this point of the trip.  We have officially said good-bye to France and are ready to embrace some Swiss culture.  We had always been told that Switzerland was expensive, but WHOA it is EXPENSIVE!! We arrived in Geneva and the first thing Steven saw was a Starbucks!  He has barely had any "real coffee" lol...on the whole trip and since it was cool and rainy, he decided that this was the time! Well to our surprise the price for a Venti (20oz for the Tim bits out there) was $7 Swiss Franks.  So first of all we were thinking that the conversion must be so different from Canadian and the Euro, but the Swiss Frank was basically on par with the Canadian dollar.  A $7 coffee, no thanks! I think Steve pouted for about the next 20 min.  We walked by a MacDonalds to make sure the pricing was consistent...and whoa!  a combo was $11.  Only in Switzerland!  Thankfully, we were able to find a grocery store in the city that was more reasonably priced, but definitely not great prices like in France and Spain.

We started in Geneva by taking the tram out to the CERN, which is the place of particle research with a Large Hadron Collider (Steven was extremely excited!).  

CERN - European Organization For Nuclear Research

Aren't so many people in the world asking this question?  Physics is an incredible branch of science, and the advances in particle theory can really challenge our perception of reality. Yet with every discovery there are so many new questions.  We are thankful for a God that that encourages us to probe the deepest mysteries of nature; and in so doing reveals himself!  God has definitely blessed us with curiosity and discovery, but also shows us how big and complex life itself is. All the while, God is aware of it all!

Inside the CERN - Universe of Particles
Lots going on, 175m below the surface of the earth, here at Cern. With a circumference of 27km, over 20 participating countries and close to 300 million a year in operating cost, the collider spends it's time smashing protons together at near the speed of light! Not everyones cup of tea, but very impressive if given a chance to understand the magnitude of science going on.

Learning is fun...especially when you are sitting in a particle that talks to you!

After the CERN exhibition we decided to take in the highlights of Geneva.  One of the main attractions that Geneva is known for is its large water fountain, the Jet d'Eau.  It shoots up 500litres of water per second to a height of 140 metres.

Geneva's large water fountain

Whoa, I think you shook that can too much!!!

As we were walking through the city our legs were pretty tired from our big hike in Annecy, France the day before.  We were walking down the street saying how we wished we could bike (but because of the high prices in Switzerland we did not feel like paying for anything) so we decided that we would suck it up and just walk!  All of a sudden we come across this sign that says 'Free Bike Rental.'  Really?  No Way?  It can't be possible, can it?  Jenna walked into the bike rental place and asked about the 'free' bike rental.  Of course there is always a catch right?  Nope!  Your first 4 hours of rental are FREE!!!  yay!!  So we were able to get all around Geneva much faster now!  

With our free bikes we rode to the very popular lawn made clock

Riding in the rain!  We were a little disappointed that it was raining in Switzerland, but we looked up the weather along the Mediterranean to see if we would have been better off staying at the beach, but apparently there was a big rain storm throughout most of Europe and any place we would have gone to was raining, so we felt much better about that!

Enjoying the sites and scenic routes of Geneva!

Steve chilling with some urban graffiti.

Our final destination on our bike tour was the Hans Wilsdorf Bridge.  We ended up going in circles on our way back to the bike rental place...and ran into this bridge a few times : P  Apparently Geneva never heard of the grid road system...very confusing!