Day trip to Geneva

In his Switzerland guide, Rick Steves suggests to give Geneva a miss (ands he doesn't even include a walking tour of the city!) however we're a stone's throw away so we decided to do a day trip.  We drove to Annemasse (just across the border) and took a train to downtown Geneva.

One of the most famous attractions is a water spout that streams 140 metres high and can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city.  Here we are not looking like tourists at all.

And of course every second shop is a watch shop (in between all the chocolate and designer cloths stores).

Here is a monument to some guy who bequeathed his entire fortune to the city of Geneva on the condition that they build and maintain a monument to him.

I climbed the 160 stairs to the top of the local cathedral.  The ladies decided to give this activity a pass, so we took the opportunity to take pictures of each other.  Spot me in the photo below:

And in this photo, Sonya and Shelley taking the above photo:

The inside of the church is very plain, contrasting with the Catholic churches, which are much more ostentatious.

Here is a view of Geneva from the church tower.

Geneva is also home to the longest wooden bench in the world!  How on earth can Rick Steves suggest to give this city a pass!

In the evening we went on a boat crust of Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman as it's called on the French side).  We were on an old paddlewheeler boat (not the one in the pic below but the same model).

We enjoyed a 3 course wine tasting and got a look at how the "other half" live.

Shania Twain apparently lives on Lake Geneva, but at the other end (not the end of the lake stalked by tourists).

Most exciting for me, you could see the operation of the engine!

Overall a good day in Geneva!  Worth a day trip for us, but we'll reserve judgement on Rick Steves' judgement until after we visit Zurich (in a couple of days).  For our next stop, we're going to have a picnic in Yvoire and hopefully have a swim in Lac Leman.