Suisseland, une monde entier

Last weekend I passed a beautiful two days and a night in Geneva, or Geneve, as the Swiss and French call it. Geneve is a beautiful city, small, but still somehow very worldly and alive, all at once. It is a city where being a foreigner is somehow not foreign, where being multi-cultural and multi-national is average, and where money is king, queen, country and god. (Though the statue of Rousseau in the middle of town might disagree.) Everything that the Swiss are good at, those are the things necessary for the world to function: diplomacy, time (in the form of 1000 CHF watches), chocolate and money. All in one small city, in one small country, in the middle of Europe.

Perhaps the most interesting landmark of Geneve is the infamous Jet d'Eau, a giant 140 foot fountain of water rising out of the Lake in Geneva. The Jet is not natural, but rather, a testament to what handling the world's money will get you, enough hydraulics to make your own continuous Old Faithful. The lake around the Jet is amazing, sparkling even under the clouds, and somehow much larger than it seems a lake should ever be. There are hourly boat rides and water taxis that make continuous tracks across the water, showing tourists and travelers old chateaux and mansions on the shore.

Up the hill from the lake, into the older section of Geneve lies the Cathedrale St. Pierre, where Calvin preached some 500 years ago. The cathedral is a beautiful gothic testament to the reformation, with circles of lights that hang like halos or crowns. 

Back down the hill from the Cathedrale lies a garden with a giant wall that bears the likenesses of the four reformateurs, all displayed in 3-4 times life size. The garden is a calm, quiet place, nothing like  the rest of geneva, where busy and bustle are common. 

Far to the other side of Geneva, sits the Palais de Nations, the home of the United Nations in Geneva. The Palais was built in the 1920s and 30s, a collaboration of five architects from four different nations, Italy, France, Switzerland and Hungary. Since then, several new wings have been added to the Palais, all designed and built in the same collaborative manner. The Palais is by far one of the most interesting locations in Geneve, it feels like a place where things are always happening, for indeed they are.

Beyond being a city of international diplomacy, Geneve is also a city of international gastronomy, with more restaurants and more nationalities of food than I have ever seen. There is thai, indian, pakistani, chinese, french, swiss, german, italian, japanese, ethiopian, lebanese, moroccan and classic american food all crammed into one city. Really. Your tastebuds will never get bored. And then there is always Swiss chocolate to polish everything off. 

mmmm... I think I will have to go back sometime soon.