May 16 - train to Geneva

 

It was time to catch a train to Geneva (coat of arms above).   Here's Joe, now with TWO hats!   What to do?   Wear both I guess.

We're at the Lyon train station. Don't be nervous, Europe uses trains a LOT!   It may feel like going through O'Hare or Dallas or Denver ..

Train's windows were dirty, sorry.   Some scenery out of Jan's window.

Into Switzerland and Geneva we come.   Jan is making sure we're walking the right way to our hotel.    Joe's just taking pictures.

And, of course, of a Swiss watch shop!

We made it to our hotel and were warmly greeted by our ship's cruise director for this pre-cruise portion.  Her name is Heloise, she's Swiss.  Here's our room.

We were handed a packet of 'daily cruiser' sheets, which look like :

After a short rest, we ventured out to do a bit of exploring before returning at 6 and meeting our other cruise mates.

This is the Geneva water fountain, 0.5 cu.meter per sec. 140m high.  The following pic shows the Temple de la Fusterie, a protestant church built in 1715, currently undergoing restoration.

The following pic is of Eglise Saint-Germain, built in the 15th century which was built on top of a 4th century primitive Catholic basilica.   It wasn't open.

Not sure about the next several places, hopefully we'll learn more on our guided walks tomorrow.

We got back to the hotel just in time to freshen up and go down and meet our other travelers.    There's 18 of us doing this pre-cruise portion, and we'll be meeting the other 32 when we get on the boat in 3-days.     After the meet & greet we walked over to Mama Corleone's for some pizza.    Look at the last item, pizza for $1,780 !! .. with caviar & truffles .. yikes!    We opted for a more common pizza ($24) & salad.

It was delicious!!     Long travel day.   Tomorrow is the city tour and the Chillon Castle visit.  See you there!