Geneva

This was one of the cities that I was the most excited about as we planned for the trip.  It was on the must visit list for me.  I was a little disappointed that the weather was a bit gloomy but we still enjoyed a wonderful day in the city.  Geneva is the international business hub in Switzerland and is home to some of the most acclaimed Swiss watchmaking companies.  It is also known for very high end shopping so we knew to plan for window shopping rather than actual shopping. 

After arriving we strolled along the lake and admired the Jet d’Eau, it’s a fountain that shoots 140m into the air and can be seen from up to 10 miles away.  It was an interesting twist on the more traditional fountains we had seen throughout other cities on our trip. 

Then we arrived at the famous flower clock which was beautiful and larger than I expected!  The area around the flower clock also had lots of beautiful statues and monuments to admire during our walk.  Our next stop was the Reformation Wall which is a very large and long wall commemorating the reformation movement.  In the center of the wall are statues of John Calvin, William Farel, Theodore Beza, and John Knox.  Along each side are inscriptions.  The whole piece is very beautiful and so unexpected to be in the center of such a metropolitan city.  The Wall is located on the grounds of the University of Geneva.  The four statues at the center were the men God used to establish biblical churches which in turn changed the world through the right preaching of the Gospel with all its implications by applying the Word of God to every aspect of life. (http://reformation.edu/colleges/pages/ref-wall.htm)

My favorite part of Geneva was the Patek Philippe museum.    My dad is a gemologist and I grew up hearing a lot about jewelry and watchmaking.  My dad has always admired the craftsmanship of Patek Philippe watches and the museum did not disappoint.  It walked through the history of Swiss watchmaking and had several hundred timepieces from the 1500’s through the 1800’s.  Then there was a whole floor dedicated to Patek Philippe pieces.  Their work is very detailed and takes about a year from start to finish for each piece.  The more complex creations took several years and were on the cutting edge of advancements in horology. 

We also enjoyed a lovely lunch at a café and strolled through the contemporary arts museum.  Geneva is also where Kyle picked up his Swiss army knife from the Victorinox store.  He was thrilled that he found one for such a great price and they even etched his name into the blade so it is a keepsake he will enjoy for a long time to come.  Geneva perhaps did not live up to the anticipation I had but we greatly enjoyed some of the attractions the city had to offer.