Of Countries, Frost and Missing Fountains.

Last Monday, I travelled to Geneva. For a newcomer, Geneva is the city of diplomacy and international relations. It was an independent republic for a long time, before it finally decided to join the Swiss Confederacy. It is so close to France that it is almost France, and behaves like it too.

So then, We went to Geneva. I live about a half-hour train ride away from Zurich, so the first thing to do was to get to the Zurich train station, the Hauptbahnhof. And it would take is about 3 hours to get to Geneva from there, which meant that we had to leave as early in the morning as possible, and that in turn would mean missing a good three hours sleep.

Right, so we wake up at 5 in the morning, and leave at 5.46, so we can catch the train at 6.34 (sorry for funny timings, but that's how it is, in Switzerland). And so we got on board a nice and cozy, not-so-crowded train where we could have a few seats for ourselves. The sun wouldn't rise till 8, so we slept. For an hour, everything went smooth, after which we saw the train slowing down to make a scheduled stop at Bern, when we heard the announcement: 'Ladies and Gentlemen, due to a collision with three horses on the way, we regret to announce that this train will return to Zurich after reaching Bern. Passengers travelling to Fribourg may take a connection at blah blah, to Neuchatel at blah blah, and those travelling to Lausanne and Geneva are requested to take the connection to Biel/Bienne at 8.04 where another connection awaits you to Geneva. Right. So we get down at Berne, where the temperature, I can swear, was atleast -100 C! So we wait there, shivering in the cold, when an already crowded train glides in at the wrong platform. So we run, and manage to get into the train, only to find out that it's as crowded as a Mumbai local train at peak hour (well that's exaggerating, but it wasn't far from that). We finally got off at Biel/Bienne, and got into a better looking, but seemingly full train, where we finally found decent seats and settled down.

We then reach Geneva, and are all excited and take the first tram to the UN office. This was an awesome experience- we got a guided tour, bought some souvenirs, and had fun like any other tourist. Next on the agenda was the Jet d'Eau, which is supposed to be a round-the-year attraction for tourists, what with it being the poster-boy of it's tourism and all. So we decide to walk along the lake, get to the point where it should have been- Surprise Surprise. It's not there. The temperature's -5 degrees, so they've turned it off so that the droplets from the fountain do not form ice on the pavements.

At that time, we were, understandably, bloody pissed off. We obviously had a plan-B: Go to the Telepherique du Saleve, an alpine ridge just outside Geneva which affords a brilliant view of the surroundings. This, we soon realised, was flawed- one phone call to the office of the cable train told us that it was closed as well. Some luck we were having!

So we're stuck, at about 3 PM, with nothing to do but see the city in the bloody cold. So we walk around aimlessly for a bit, see all the nice places, and then board a boat. We get to the destination, which turns out to be just one stop away, and we're still sitting there, drawing stares. The driver waits, then realises we wouldn't get down, and starts back, and we get down at the same place where we started.
Then, we go into a nice looking cafe, buy ice cream and later, a cuckoo clock at a souvenir shop (that completes the touristy list of things we did). but we still have to kill time till 7 PM, you see. We have this Gleis-7 card which allows travel throughout Switzerland for free after 7 PM. so we go back, take a random bus, and do the same routine- half an hour to the destination, and half an hour back.

Then, we get back, roam around some more and finally get to the station, where we find out that our train is late by half an hour. There are a few more annoying delays and when we get home, it's 12 in the night. some day, eh?

My suggestion: Never, ever go to Geneva in peak winter. Never.