MaSaM MaSaM MaNiS

---~@ Swiss Part I @~---

~ Geneva ~

we've been planning this trip for months with 2 months of hotel booking in advanced. like always, summer is a holiday season with a smiley faces! (eventho it is not fully summer just yet) beautiful sunny days with less fabrics and more skins!

approximately 900km drive from wateringen to Geneva and took us more than 12 hours to reach our hotel in Geneva (with 3 pit stop-isi minyak, buang apa yang patut, etc..). did i mention we depart 2am in the morning? ehheheh, the plan was so that we enjoy most of daylight when we reach geneva.

early dawn, we arrived at Luxembourg

driving along the France motorways, entering Lyon and Paris

arriving at the Switzerland's border and also customs check points (Alps is just a view away..)

Geneva is a cosmopolitan with French speaking (1/3 of the swiss people speak french, another 1/3 speak German and the rest speak Romanian/Italian and other languages). but majority of geneva population speak french or swiss french is what they called it. Geneva also swiss's most cosmopolitan city with an expansive but exciting place to stay.

above picture is what they called the "Jet d'Eau ", is the world's highest fountains, shooting a plume of water 140m into the air! visible from afar and floodlight after dark, the Jet d'Eau is the pride of Geneva and has been adopted as the city's emblem. the big football floating above the fountain is a symbol of Switzerland for hosting Euro 2008.

large floral clock the ' Horloge Fleurie' was created in 1955 as tribute to swiss's clock making tradition.

the 'Monument National' is a symbol of Geneva's accession to the swiss confederation in 1814

international train tour which consist tour of important international organization, mostly NGOs. Geneva is home to UN Headquarters also WHO and HQ of international Red Cross . if you read Dan Brown's book title ' angels & demons', well here in geneva is the famous European Laboratory for Particles Physics (CERN) situated.

Entrance to 'Cathedrale St-Pierre', built over a span of some 70 years from 1160 to 1230. here also the tomb of 'Henri de Rohan'-head of the reformed church in france in the 16th and 17th centuries.

view of lake geneva from one of the two towers that open for public

Bell tower between the 'two towers',nice...

small walkway beside the cathedral, just around the corner to the left, is the 'Musee International De La Reforme'

the 'Cathedrale Orthodoxe Russe', an Orthodox Russian church with gilt onion domes glittering in the sun. completed in 1869.

'Petit Palais', the 19th centuries palace contains a fine collection of modern paintings and sculpture mainly by french artist. unfortunately it was 'closed until further notice', so not much story to tell only a picture of me at the main door showing how wide i could spread my legs...ehhehhehe.