We started today by sleeping until we woke up - to the church bells at 7:45 in Zermatt! We did allow ourselves some time to relax and slowly shower, pack and get ready to go. Jason and Rachelle joined us for a late breakfast and then we headed out of town on the 10:40 train to Geneva.

The train ride was beautiful. During the mountain portion of the ride we followed a river from Zermatt all the way to the bottom. There were so many neat little farms with sheep or a small herd of cattle. We even saw a few farms with the same cows as us - Scottish Highlanders. Once we were in the valleys of the mountains we were surrounded by vineyards on both sides. Who knew so much wine was produced in Switzerland?! The vineyards went on for miles and miles of our ride. Finally we started to go around Lake Geneva. It's a huge lake that is made even more beautiful in the fact that the Alps are towering across the lake. It made for a very nice ride. We were surprised on the train that all the announcements and the ticket collectors spoke French. We knew we were getting close to the border with France, but it seemed odd that the announcements weren't made in German like our ride from Zurich to Zermatt. Upon further investigation it turns out that the spoken languages in Switzerland change based upon region and there are four national languages!

Once we got to Geneva we met the host of the apartment we rented and went up to the studio apartment. Unfortunately the elevator is broken so Kevin had to haul up a heavy suitcase and his big backpack up to the fifth floor! Lucky for me the host carried my suitcase up the stairs so I only had a backpack. The apartment is small but clean and adequate for our one night stay in Geneva.

We made our way to Rue du Rhone, the upscale shopping district of Geneva. There are stores like Hermes, Rolex, Armani and many others. It's basically the 5th Avenue of Geneva. It was fun to window shop, especially at the fancy Swiss watch makers! We found a department store that was similar to a Nordstrom that had a great grocery in the basement. We selected some cheeses, meats and a loaf of bread for dinner. I recalled some French from high school because the employees behind the deli counters did not speak English very well. We all muddled through and ended up with a delicious spread for dinner. We got up to the cashier hoping to use the rest of our Swiss Francs without going over, it felt a little like The Price is Right. We did pretty well, we only had one Franc left over!

After shopping we took a quick walk to St. Peter's Cathedral and the Old City of Geneva. It was quite interesting with the huge old church in the middle. Some of the old wall and buildings still exist. There were lots of little shops and restaurants and a plaza with cafes. If we had more time in Geneva it looks like it would be a neat area.

We walked back along Lake Geneva. There was a really nice park with a neat clock that is built into the side of a small hill that is planted with flowers. It was pretty creative for the watch making capital of the world! It was windy by the lake and the sea birds were definitely out and about. Their seagulls have black faces and one that is all black with a white face and bill.

We went back to the apartment for dinner and relaxing before getting ready for bed. We have a 7am flight so we are getting on the train at 4:45am!

Keely