Swiss Miss

After leaving the insanity of Clos des Nutjob, we had the brilliant idea of driving directly to Geneva, Switzerland, without having booked anything ahead of time.

The drive took about 7 1/2 hours, and as I have mentioned, Steve has to do all the driving since I can't drive the manual. It was a lot of driving for him. And the GPS took us to City Center which was, to put it mildly, skeevy.

Even in this part of town, all the hotels were full, and the ones that weren't had rooms starting at 350 Swiss Francs.

It was suggested to us that we drive to Lausanne, a half an hour away, since we might have better luck there. After a few dead-ends, we finally landed in an Ibis Hotel chain, just outside of Lausanne. The hotel is surprisingly good. The room has a bit of a dorm-room feel, but it is super clean and functional. And there is free WI-FI in the lobby and bar.

Did I mention that it is spotlessly clean. This is why I have begun to love the Swiss. Everywhere is so clean. The garbage bins in the cities are clean; the park benches which in most cities are covered in bird poop and graffiti are clean; the phone booths are spotless and do not stink of wee.

Ah, Switzerland. And the people here are so nice. They don't mock my French, or Steve's, but are also more than happy to speak English with us, and we have started chatting spontaneously with people next to us at restaurants, who have given us suggestions of other places to visit while we're here.

They put Americans to shame in the foreign language department. The two women we spoke to last night at dinner spoke fluent French, German, English, as well as some Italian.

I finally got to see what all the fuss is about as far as Geneva is concerned. Beautiful waterfront area. (Also photo above)

Geneva: Sponsored by Rolex.

Lovely Lausanne at night.

We will be heading to the mountains soon so I can eat fondue, chocolate and yodel with the Swiss Miss.