Fall Break, Part II - Geneva

After some train confusion, we got to Geneva at 5:30AM.  However, we made friends with a boy studying abroad there from UMass Amherst who let us hang out at his dorm until the city woke up.  We slept in Starbucks from 7-9AM or so then checked into the hostel.  We didn't see as much as we had hoped to just due to the lack of sleep from all of the train changes that night. We first walked across the bridge into Old Town.  We stopped for lunch and had chicken, potato wedges, and salad to give us the energy we needed for the day ahead.

We went back to the hostel around 4 to sleep for a bit until dinner.  We attempted to go to a restaurant called Bain de Paquis which is on a dock in the middle of Lake Geneva but the wind was ridiculously strong that night.  We would have gotten soaked or pushed into the water if we tried to walk across the dock.  Instead we ended up at a lovely restaurant where I got to try fondue.

The next day we took a trip to Cailler chocolate factory and Gruyere cheese factory.  The Cailler tour was probably the best tour I've ever been on.  It's clearly designed for children which meant lots of animation and interesting facts.  We got to see the assembly line for one of their products called Branches which were chocolate logs with some hazelnut pieces.  We assumed this was the only taste testing we got to do.  Boy were we wrong!  In the next room we were able to try EVERY type of chocolate that they produced.  After about 20 samples I couldn't handle any more chocolate and had to skip over about 15 more kinds.  We walked around the town a little bit and went into the gift shop.  I may or may not have bought some goodies to bring to Christmas festivities...

The cheese tour was very good but not as exciting.  We did get to sample three ages of Gruyere cheese.  The three of us each preferred a different age.  The tour was with audio guides, with commentary from Cherry, the cow.  We got to see a few videos of the process and then a room in which the men were working on the cheese.  The last room was the cheese storage which had so many wheels of cheese.  We climbed the hill into the village to have lunch.  I had Gruyere cheese and onion soup with bread.  We went in a few souvenir shops and enjoyed the scenery before taking the train back to Geneva.

On our last morning in Geneva, Emily and I went to the top of Mont Salève.  We rode to the top and halfway up had great views.  However, it was slightly foggy that day so at the top we couldn't see a thing.  It was a complete white out.

On the bus back we got to see the Jet d'Eau which was finally on since the weather the previous days didn't allow for it.  It was a great last view of Geneva since it is one of the main tourist attractions.