Geneva, Switzerland

The last place we visited on our June trip through Europe was Geneva (Geneve), Switzerland. Geneva is located in the west of Switzerland and it borders France. The city is also connected to one of the largest fresh water lakes in Europe, Lake Geneva. It was a big change going from central Switzerland to eastern Switzerland because they spoke German in the central part and French in the east.

Geneva is perhaps best known for being the home of one of the headquarters of the United Nations. The Palace of Nations was originally built after WWI, and it was the home of the now debunk League of Nations. In the 1950s, the United Nations moved into the building, and we were told that they used all the of the information that the former League of Nations had there. Today, though there are many meetings in Geneva, most of the UN's most important councils meet at the headquarters in New York City.

In the photo above you can see the stone monument that was given to the UN by the Soviet Union after WWII was finished. The Palace is filled with works of art given to the UN as gifts from member countries all over the world.

Here is one of the the many council rooms. We were only allowed to spend limited time in this room because security discovered a rogue bag in one of the rear seats. We had to leave so they could contain the area. I don't think it was anything dangerous.

Unfortunately there were other cool council rooms that we weren't allowed to enter because they were being used for meetings at the time. It's cool though; nations uniting is a good thing.

This giant chair was an art piece sitting in a big square right next to the Palace of Nations. I thought maybe a car ran into one of its legs. It now stands a humongous hazard to giants everywhere looking for one of the world's only chairs big enough to fit them. Switzerland with its high standard of living should know better.

Here I am standing in front of the Palace of Nations entrance. There is a nice walkway underneath the many flags of all 192 member states.


This guy was definitely checking out this strange statue in downtown Geneva. I guess it's pretty hard not to stare.

The most famous site in Geneva is its Jet d'Eau fountain in Lake Geneva. The EuroCup championships still going on (and Switzerland was a host country, along with Austria), it seemed appropriate that a giant soccer ball hung suspended above the ever flowing shoot of water.

Ab and I went onto the pier to get some cools views of the shipyard and the lighthouse and lots of people swimming and sunbathing. The last day of our 15-day trek through southern Europe, it was also probably the hottest day of the trip, easily topping 90 F.

There were lots of big ships coming in and out of the Geneva port all the time. The pier is a great place to relax and watch the action. We only spent a little over a day in Geneva, but I thought it was a really nice place, albeit expensive. We didn't buy any Swiss watches or knives, though we could have. We ate a little bit of Swiss chocolate, which was of course wonderful. Frankly, we were at the end of our trip and at the end of our funds. It was a good thing we slowed down when we did, because I just barely made it!


We flew back from Geneva to Madrid and went over the Alps on our way out. They look big from 10,000 feet too.