Pedestrians Beware
Situated along the banks of
Lake Geneva, Europe’s largest alpine lake, and at the foot of the Alps, Geneva
sparkles as one of Europe's most beautiful cities.
Most of the time I’ve spent in Geneva has been through
the airport, but I was lucky enough to have a full day there recently after hiking the Alps. Arriving at
the airport hotel early in the morning our rooms were not ready so after
leaving our luggage with the concierge,
our guide gave us transit tickets and accompanied us by
tram to the city center. He tramped us all over the city leaving us in Old
Town. The bell tower down town was out landmark.
One can’t miss one of the city’s famous
landmarks---the Jet d’Eau fountain.
One of the largest fountains in the world, it is featured on the city’s
official tourism web site. Five hundred liters (132 gallons) of
water per second are pumped
140 meters (459 feet) in the air by two 500 kw pumps, using
one megawatt of electricity. The water leaves the nozzle at a speed of
200 km/hour. At any given moment there are about 7,000 liters
(1849 gallons) of water in the air. The original Jet d’Eau,
installed in 1886, was a little further downstream from its present
location. Originally it was used as a safety valve for
a hydraulic power network and was not a tourist attraction. When
factories closed down in the evening the valve was used to release pressure in
the system. In 1891, its aesthetic value was recognized and the fountain
was moved to its present location. The present Jet d’Eau was installed
in 1951 in a partially submerged pumping station to pump lake water instead of
city water!
Lake Geneva is surrounded by a lovely
pedestrian promenade and manicured city parks. Geneva is the capital of the Republic and Canton of
Geneva. With a city population of
192,300 and a canton population of 468,000, Geneva is the second most populous
city in Switzerland---after Zurich.
Geneva is a global city, a financial center,
and worldwide center for diplomacy. Over
200 international organizations, including the headquarters of many of the
agencies such as the United Nations and the Red Cross are located here,
as well as corporate headquarters for international companies such as P&G
and IBM. The Geneva Conventions, which chiefly deals with the treatment of
wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war, were signed here.
Geneva has 200 pianos around the city
that anyone can sit down and play at anytime. We heard a couple people playing.
These people are ordinary people, not street performers. Interesting.
Geneva's Old Town, a gothic maze of
cobblestone streets and is topped
by historic Saint Pierre's Cathedral and the Town Hall where the League of
Nations and the Red Cross were founded.
Being without a car we bought tickets for
the city tram to get to some of the places out of the city center. Riding around we
came upon the Broken Chair Monument. Made of wood, it stands 39-feet tall and
is constructed from 5.5 tons of wood. The chair stands across the street from
the Palace of Nations and symbolizes land mines and cluster bomb injuries.
Erected in 1997 by Handicap International, it was intended to remain for only
three months. Forty countries ratified the Ottawa Treaty, but because of the
failure of several significant countries to sign and public support for the
sculpture, it remained in place until 2005 when it was removed for remodeling
of the Place des Nations. It was reinstalled in 2007. We got around the
city, including by the major buildings, on the tram.
The traffic in Geneva is horrendous. The
cars are high-end and bigger than in the villages. There are a lot of bicycles
and even more motor cycles where the drivers abide by their own rules! It is a
pedestrian beware city.
Hiking friends wanted to introduce us to reclette.
After a bit of walking around and reading restaurant menus we found a
restaurant in Old Town that served this
specialty. Reclette is melted cheese of the same name that is scraped into a
dish and served with cooked but small firm potatoes, gherkins and pickled
onions. We each enjoyed a single portion
and a good size salad which was a most adequate lunch.
We walked all over town, up and down
hills and had a most enjoyable day in Geneva. We saw and learned several new
things on a warm sunny day.
