Bienvenue à Genève!
In early December Lloyd and I took a quick weekend trip to Geneva, Switzerland to do some exploring and to go to a classical piano concert. One of my oldest friends, John Vera, was going to be in Switzerland attending his girlfriend Salome's piano concert. Unfortunately for us but fortunately for John, he was asked to play a prestigious Christmas gig back in the states so he was unable to attend, but we decided to go anyways. Geneva is such a clean and beautiful city, nestled in the alps the city is centered around a crystal clear alpine lake with a giant waterspout in the middle, aptly named the jet d'eau, literally meaning 'water jet'. We enjoyed walking around the lake and taking pictures of the crystal clear water.
We arrived late our first night in Geneva and were starving (bordering on hangry...) so we left our hotel in search of food. The first cafe we came to was packed and not many people spoke English, but the owner of the restaurant, recognising we were tourists, ushered us outside to chat. He got one of his friends who spoke English to translate for us and said that his kitchen was about to close but he would take us to another restaurant nearby that was still serving food. So off he went, weaving us through the cobblestone streets until we reached a busy restaurant, and instead of taking us in the main entrance he opened up a side door and took us through the tiny kitchen, passing the owner of that restaurant on the way where he explained that we were hungry and needed a good meal. I assume she told him that she'd be happy to take care of us (it was in French so only a guess) he shook our hands and headed back to his own restaurant and we were taken to our table.
We were pretty impressed at the genuine hospitality shown to us and the following meal was nothing short of amazing.Lloyd had a delicious steak and I had the biggest schnitzel I've ever seen - I've discovered that schnitzels are pretty much the chicken fried steak of Europe.
Amazingly enough we ate all of it and were thoroughly stuffed!
The next day began with another chilly stroll around the lake and this time we were shocked to find that people were actually swimming in the frigid water!! They were braver than us, as we were bundled up in our gloves, scarves, and hats.
Later that afternoon we attempted to take a bus over to the French side (about 15mins away) to ride the gondola up the side of the mountain to one of the ski resorts, but when we got there we found the lift was closed for a few months so we wandered around the tiny town before we went back to Geneva.
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| Christmas markets |
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| Ready to go to the show! |
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| Marquee outside Victoria Hall |
Salome's performance was at the Royal Victoria Hall, a beautiful venue that looked even better lit up with the lights for the performance.
The inside of the hall was just gorgeous, with ornate carvings and gorgeous instrumental murals painted on the ceiling. Salome's program was unique and interesting, see below for the description from her website:
In Salomes Envisage, the artist performs the music in its purest classical form. During the live piano performance a video projection of cinematic visuals and lighting takes the audience on a wandering journey through lost, forgotten and mysterious places. Parallel to the musical rhythms of the compositions, the visuals support the performance as both a scenic element surrounding Salome and as a series of freely interpretable micro-narrative fragments that transport the audience into a new experience of classical music and allows to experience the music in a truly heightened way.
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| The beautiful ceiling in the hall |
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| And the brass! |
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Salome's stage - lovely performance!!
Geneva was beautiful around Christmas time and was decorated with lights, Christmas markets, and brass ensembles playing Christmas tunes.
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| Local swans |
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| Geneva's own Christmas display :) Cartier, Tiffany's and all the banks! |
Our hotel in Geneva was so cute and charming, modeled after an Austrian chalet, the rooms were full of knotty pine wood which gave the hotel a warm, comfortable feeling.
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| So cute! |
The hotel also had a restaurant which played live music and we decided to have dinner there one night which meant that I got to sample some of the local cuisine - cheese fondue! The cheese was smooth and delicious, and made me wish I had an excuse to eat it more often!
Not only did they have great cheese fondue, but they had great music too - even a real live yodeler!
I even got a chance to play the big horn on the back of the wall and of course impressed everyone since most people couldn't even make a sound with it. The bald guy bandleader didn't speak English but somehow explained how I could play Amazing Grace using the different harmonics on the horn and he called me up a second time in the evening to play it again.
The house band finished the night with one of my favorites :)
On the last day we met Salome for a yummy Swiss brunch on the lake, capping off a relaxing and pleasant weekend to Geneva. Au revoir, Geneva, see you next time!
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| Jen & Salome on our last day in Geneva |
