Geneva, Switzerland

August 12, 2007 by Tiffany.

Back from Geneva!  Sadly, our weekend in Geneva did not get off on a good start but it turned out to be fun all the same.  After driving six hours from Paris on Friday night, we went to check in at the Ibis Hotel where I had made reservations almost three weeks ago.  Upon entering I knew something was up.  The eyes of the guy at the front desk bulged and then he just started shaking his head, like he knew this would happen all along.  Of course, I immediately had a sinking feeling in my gut, and for good reason.  Apparently earlier in the evening some guy tried to check in but realized his card had been denied and they gave away his room.  The hotel was completely booked for Friday night, he put up a huge stink, and guess what, the idiot working at the front desk gave him our room.  So then WE were up a creek.  Totally infuriating and unprofessional.  Just so you know, that’s IBIS HOTEL.  They suck!  They are owned by the same people as Motel 6 though (Accor Hotels), so maybe that says something.  Anyway, my rage at the situation wasn’t going to change the fact that we literally had no room and we were in a brand new city and country.  Luckily, since they are a huge chain hotel, they had extra room at their inferior chain hotel about ten minutes away that could take us for the evening.  I’m used to poor standards of lodging in Europe, but this was low even by European standards.  Think of the cheap room of a three day Carnival cruise to Ensenada.  Kind of like that.  Bunk beds included.  Really special.  Needless to say, I was not impressed with night one in Geneva.  Fortunately the next day we were able to get into the room we had reserved nice and early, walked around, had a nice lunch, and went to check out the on-going festival on the shore of Lake Geneva put on by the Geneva Tourism Bureau.

Fortunately, the festival was really cool, with tons of food, drinks, rides, live music, vendors and later, dancing.  They also put on a really nice fireworks show that was choreographed to music and lasted a full half an hour.

We mostly spent the day drinking our way through the festival and then enjoyed some dancing at night.

Today, with the six hour drive back to Paris looming ahead of us, we didn’t want to waste too much time, but did manage to see the United Nations headquarters, as well as the headquarters for the Red Cross, (at about 30 miles an hour from the car window, that is, since Jason wasn’t terribly interested in stopping).

In all we had a nice time, and the natural resources in Geneva, meaning the lake and surrounding mountains, are gorgeous.  The city of Geneva is only okay, and if it wasn’t for the festival, I think we may have been a tad bored.  Anyway, nice to be back in Paris, if only for a few more days.

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