A trip to Geneva: a giant fork, landmines and dream gardens.

Hello everyone!

Today we're going to use our time machine to travel back to the past. Today we're going to Switzerland and in this post we're going to talk about Geneva. In 2012, my French teacher decided “Genève” was the perfect destination since it borders France and so they speak French there. So, in today's post, I'm going to tell you what I visited there, the impression I got... Would I go back? Let's get started!

First of all, we got lucky and the weather was wonderful for all of the five days that we were there. It's a city that is so much better on a clear, sunny day. What's more, the temperature was perfect, not too hot and not too cold, it was great.

The first thing we saw as soon as we arrived was the “jet d’Eau”, which translates to the Jet of Water. I had already seen photos on the Internet and it seemed like the most iconic feature of Geneva. It's a huge fountain, it's huuuuge. The best way to go to see it is to walk along the pier, which stretches out into the lake. The further along the pier you walk, the more the fountain wets you, depending on the direction of the wind, of course. What's more, I remember the water droplets from the fountain often made rainbows. Sound good to you?

The United Nations Palace is one of the most important buildings in Switzerland, as well as Europe. The entrance is decorated all of the flags of Europe, on each side, leaving a "corridor" down the middle. We went inside and we visited a lot of rooms, where some eight million meetings happen every year. Every room, aside from being huge, is decorated in a different way. What I liked the most was one of the room's ceilings. Here's a photo so you can have a look. They're like colourful icicles, aren't they?

Aside from that, the rooms and the corridors are decorated with pictures, painting, wallpaper and Latin phrases are embossed on the walls. I didn't know any Latin, so I didn't understand any of the phrases. The Ariana Museum is nearby the Palace. It's dedicated to works of ceramic and glass art.

There's a giant chair in front of the main entrance to the United Nations. As you can see, it has a broken leg, it's called the “Broken Chair”. This broken chair is a symbol to represent all of the people who lose body parts (legs, usually) to land mines. These mines are usually used in warfare to cause grave injury and not to kill, since someone injured with an amputation or a burn will have to deal with more problems than a dead person. So the chair reminds people of the dangers antipersonnel mines, as they're also known, pose to human life.

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Another tourist destination is the well-known Reformation Wall. It's a huge wall made out of stone, that has statues of the most famous people from the reformist movement in the 16th century. Another place of interest is the Cathedral of Geneva, especially if you're an architecture fan.

I remember that the Reformation Wall was near to some huge, beautiful gardens. There were green, freshly cut lawns, where we sat to have a snack. Everything was decorated with different types of perfectly arranged flowers. It was a beautiful park to see nature. I also remember a greenhouse, but it's way more than just a greenhouse, I'd go as far as to call it a palace. It was beautiful and it had lots of different exotic, brightly coloured plants, anybody can turn into a gardening expert there. I also remember visiting some parks and gardens, all of them were different, but they all had something in common. I remember one of them very clearly, it had a giant chess set, it's very Harry Potter. The chess pieces were huge, but it wasn't an impediment for those wanting to play. They get 100% for originality. Ah, yes, I also remember a square with a giant clock, decorated with flowers that told the time. I'll put some photos in here so you can see everything I'm talking about. I took them all myself!

Finally, I'll tell you about the area around the giant fork (is everything giant in Geneva? ) that's in the middle of lake Lemán, it's huge and ideal to go on a bike ride around. It's blue, even more so on sunny days, and the fork's metallic colour stands out even more, too. To this day I still don't know what it represents or what it's there for... I looked it up, but I didn't find anything. Maybe because it's an area with a lot of restaurants? I don't know. Anyway, it's an area to walk through, to relax and it has a lot of very well kept gardens with lots of flowers, which are lovely to visit, a great carrousel and ice cream stalls to snack at. The Alimentarium is nearby. It's a museum, which we also went to visit, where they teach people to see food and nutrition as something fun and easy to do. There are different rooms with different types of old food, canned food and things like that, you can go on a historical tour, too.

Oh, before I forget, they use trams as a form of transport in Geneva, which I wasn't used to seeing. It's cool.

That's all I have to say about Geneva! I hope that you liked the article and the photos as much as I do. Any comments or suggestions? You already know where to leave them. Thanks guys, until next time.