Glorious Geneva

After a cruisey, ever so smooth, 1 1/2 hour flight we landed in Switzerland. Struggling with luggage that is bound for the mountains, deciphering signs and righting upside down maps we left the airport and boarded a very plush train to central Geneva. 

Our hostel wass lovely and we settled in quickly.  Its amazing how the body familiarises itself in ever changing environments. Although the unknown has been a familiar feeling for us for quite some time now.

Geneva is a lovely city, although one that we have only ever, like most, crashed in and out of on route to the mountains.  We would hazard a guess that nobody is ever late here as there are watch/clock shops at every turn of the head. We should also be completely fine for chocolate and army knives during our stay as these are the only other two outlets that rival the watche and clock outlets. 

As we left the station via Rue du Mont Blanc it gave us the first sighting of one of the reasons why to chose this as our next mission, the mountains.  The temperature in Geneva was starting to dip, but these lot have seen and felt it all before. There is something nice about being in a country that accepts the cold. Geneva seems to embrace the chill and everyone looks as stylish as the next.  Wrapping up warm but never compromising style.

We seem to be becoming very accustom to new cities and their coffee shops. As we have said before, having the opportunity to take time out to have a coffee and watch the world go by is priceless.  Often thinking we could continue with this lifestyle for ever!

As we ambled avenues we hit around a butchers 'Epicerie fine du molard' Geneve.

http://www.boucheriemolard.ch/historique.html

This Boucherie may even give Murray's Deli a run out! The guys here on the counter had the smartest of ties on. It was fantastic to watch master butchers in action working with such pride and belief of the products they were selling. Just fantastic. Snout to trotter and everything in between. Yeah, just a fantastic sight.

You then turn another corner to be faced with a baby shop with a equally driven approach. A place where the choice of fabric was only cashmere and cashmere only. Booties to bobble hats this place was equally a sight to witness. The latter though we chose not to look around in such detail....

So to the Jet d'Eau. Oh why is this iconic jet not jetting? Why, for the cause of maintenance. Would you ever hey. Not an engineer in sight though. But the walk of the causeway did give rise to some great views of the city and surrounding lake without the soaking of about 7,000 litres (1849 gallons) of water which is present each moment when the fountain is running.

Why such a fountain. Some brief history on Jet d'Eau........
It is the main tourist pull for this city. A fountain though is an understatement. The water jet from this mere concrete island shoots up with incredible force (200km/h, 1360HP), to create a 140m-high plume. At any one time there are seven tonnes of water in the air, and much of it falls on spectators who venture out on the causeway pier.

The first Jet d'Eau was installed in 1886 at the Usine de la Coulouvrenière, a little bit further downstream from its present location. It was used as a safety valve for a hydraulic power network and could reach a height of about 30 metres (98 feet). In 1891, its aesthetic value was recognised and it was moved to its present location to celebrate the Federal Gymnastics Festival and the 600th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation, on which occasion it was operated for the first time. Its maximum height was about 90 metres (295 feet). The present Jet d'Eau was installed in 1951 in a partially submerged pumping station to pump lake water instead of city water.

So to read that she wasn't running caused really no problems given that it was a cool 2 degrees. Ahh yes, we will keep our full fountain getting drenched experience for a more milder month.