Day 5-May 17:
First thing’s first: we called Lufthansa for updates on our luggage. They were in Munich but they promised us they would be delivered to our address in Geneva within a day. My wife's friend works at the UN so, in the morning, she gave us a tour of the UN and we had a very expensive cafeteria lunch with her there. We also stayed for the official one-hour tour, which was worth taking.
The Red Cross building
The ceiling of the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room used by the Human rights council. It was done by Miquel Barcelo. It represents the floor of the ocean. It was beautiful and the iphone photo certainly does not do it justice.
In the afternoon, we took the city bus to the cable car to get to the top of mount Saleve also known as the "Balcony of Geneva." You can see the whole city from there.
The mountain is actually located in France, but again don't expect much in terms of border crossing – just a sad looking “customs” building.
On the bus ride back to the apartment, Thomas from the Welt contacted us regarding our non-working GPS. At my suggestion, he agreed to ship a new USB stick to our friend’s address. Later in the afternoon, the luggage FINALLY came. . . and, things were finally heading in the right direction. For dinner, we went with our friends by the lake and had fondue.
Day 6-May 18:
This was our day of driving though the Swiss countryside. Our first stop was Gruyere, about 75miles away from Geneva. We took the highway to Lausanne, then country roads to Gruyere. If you like Gruyere cheese, this is where it comes from. We had a tour of the cheese factory, where they also gave us some cheese samples (varying degrees of age), then went up to the village of Gruyere for brunch. This was followed by a tour of the castle. The village is on a hill and surrounded by the alps. It was truly beautiful.
It takes a lot to make cheese.
The real happy cows!
View From the castle at Gruyere.
The village of Gruyere.
We then took the mountain road to Montreaux – great views and fantastic twists. We had some amazing Movenpick ice cream in Montroux then drove to a restaurant high up on the hill overlying Lake Leman, with great views of the lake and Alps in the distance. The place was called “The Deck.”
Montreaux
View of Lake Lemon(Lake Geneva) from The Deck
Afterwards, we made our way back to Geneva. We parked at the same surface lot in Bernex again and took the tram to our friend’s apartment. For dinner we went to Les Tilleuls, where we had the best pizza of the entire trip. Would definitely recommend this.
Day 7-May 19:
Our original plan was to leave Geneva in the morning for Interlaken. However, the weather in the Interlaken area was indicating freezing rain for the whole day and the passes close to Lucerne (Furka, Grimsel, Susten) were still closed. USB stick also hadn't arrived, so we decided to stay another day. We spend the early part of the morning walking around Geneva and stuffing ourselves with chocolate presents for family and friends back home. Laderach – amazing and expensive.
Random walking through the city.
For the later part of the morning and afternoon, we took a trip to Neuchatel to visit the castle there. Parking by the castle area was tight but after several maneuvers back and forth, we made it work between the tree and the other car (pic below). To my credit, it was much tighter than it looks.
You can only go inside the castle with a guided tour, however, the guided tour is free. It was originally built in the 12th century by the King of Burgundy. The castle is still used today by the Neuchatel regional government (regional parliament and court are there, equivalent to the state government in the US). Afterwards we took some pictures of the M by the castle area.
View of the city from the castle.
Panorama of the courtward inside the castle.
Regional court inside the castle.
Regional parliament is inside the castle.
On the drive back to Geneva, we got a call from the mail company saying they tried to deliver the USB but no one was home; they would try again the next day. Since we were leaving the next day, the only way to get it that day was to go to the driver's apartment as he still had it in the delivery car. Well, without further ado, we were off to another adventure for another hour searching for this apartment complex. When we got the package, the flash drive worked so we were relieved. Finally everything was good again . . . Or so we thought.
Day 8-May 20:
Our next destination was Lake Como and given that we did not go to Interlaken, we decided to get there by going south, driving through the Mt Blanc tunnel. It's not cheap -- 44 euro toll just for the tunnel. The tunnel itself is 11.5 km long. We did get some good views of Mount Blanc and the rest of the alps along the way.
On the Italian side of the tunnel.
Then, as we were driving on the Italian autostrada, I heard a crack then noticed a small chip on the windshield, I felt sick for a few minutes. But at least the weather in Lake Como was gonna be in the 70s, so, yay.
We stayed in Varenna at Divina Vita. It's one of the first buildings on the lake. Our apartment was on the second floor with the fabulous lake view. I would totally recommend this. It is above Bar il Molo, same owner. The only small downside was that their parking was occupied; we parked in the city’s parking structure (5 min walking) for 25 euros per day. It was a little nerve racking going up and down the structure with the car because of the tightness and steepness. For the rest of the day, we visited the castle in Varenna and Villa Monastero. Make sure you are wearing comfortable shoes when you take the path to the castle. It's a hiking trail and you'll walk for a good 30 min uphill.
The view from our apartment.
In Varenna
View of Varenna from the castle.
From inside Villa Monastero.
Day 9-May 21:
Breakfast at Bar il Molo.
We spend the first part of the day walking around Bellagio and the wife did some shopping. Then we took the Villa Balbianello tour with the Bellagio water limousines. The villa has been used for several movies in the past including Casino Royale and Start Wars Attack of the Clones. The villa and the grounds were beautiful and the history very rich. This is a must do experience in Lake Como, WITH A GUIDE though! You can’t rent the villa but the house next door (owned by the head of Virgin) is and it costs $200,000/week, we were told! We spend the evening in Varenna drinking wine and eating good food.
Some older cars passing through.
Bellagio in the background
The Villa Balbianello
200K a week will get you this!
View of Varenna from the ferry.
Day 10-May 22:
In the morning, the wife was feeling kinda tired so she let me go drive in the mountains all by myself (it would snow there the next day when we would leave). I drove north from Varenna through Passio di Spluga into Switzerland then took the San Bernardino Pass coming back south to Menaggio. The drive was great and with breathtaking views as well as breathtaking roads. I drove some of the narrowest roads I have ever seen that day. The road was clear but there was still a lot of snow on the ground at the top. Outside, it was really cold. It was 45 degrees at the top of the mountains and 77 in Lake Como.
Passo di Spluga
San Bernardino pass
View from the bottom looking up at San Bernardino.
From the top of San Bernardino.
I met back with my wife in Menaggio with the idea to spend the afternoon there. Menaggio however is a very tiny place and not much to do so we just got on the ferry back to Varenna with the M adding some needed color to the old ferry.
The M went back to the parking structure and we decided to be lazy and admire the lake view from our apartment for the rest of the late afternoon/evening.