15 Aug 07: Grenoble-Culoz-Geneva (Day 2)

We awoke at 5 plus am the next day. I went to settle the reception to settle the bill as requested. The receptionist was this endearing old man, Karim, from Algeria and we talked for quite abit cos I think he was bored too. He went out of his way to offer to prepare breakfast for us (although breakfast officially only starts at 7 am) as we had to leave at 0640h in order to catch our 0715h train. Only 2 out of the 5 of us were entitled to the free breakfast and since the other 3 didn’t think breakfast should cost 6.20 € (the price Splendid charges), the 3 of us decided to go without it but the uncle Karim offered us a small croissant each and an espresso at no charge. Think he sympathized with the poor Chinese on a tight budget ahha. It was a really nice gesture and of course, Yeemian was very excited to take photos with him. =p

Sleepy, unglam morning faces (haha)

Yeemian (who could hardly contain her exitement =p) and la Gourmande!

Enroute to Geneva, we stopped over in transit at Culoz, a quiet little town with mountains all around.

French pride (THREE flags?)

Poor Lynn stumbled and fell onto the platform as she got off the train and grazed her knees and arms! What took us by surprise was that the staff at the station promptly came over armed with alcoholic swabs and antiseptic. As of then, all the people we had met had been incredible. Never expected something like that after our unpleasant encounters with the French service personnel last summer.

We reached Geneva at about noon and checked into City Hostel Geneva, which, in my opinion, is top of the pack (at least out of all the hostels I’ve stayed in). For 20 € (they accept Euros too!), you get a spotlessly clean room, a common toilet that is equipped with powerful hairdryers (very useful for the girls especially after a long day of sightseeing), a cool common room with a fuzball table you can use for free, a laundry service and internet (payable though) and a kitchen. The service there is top notch too! They also provide a free map of Geneva and a free transport pass for the length of time you are staying with them.

this hostel rocks


Swiss and Genevian flags

For lunch, we headed to this shopping centre called Manor, where there’s a restaurant called Manora on the fourth floor. The concept’s similar to Marché’s but it’s above ground so you get to see a beautiful view of Geneva. The food looked so appetizing (especially the dessert section) that we were virtually drooling while queuing up. I had a demi-poulet avec garniture (half a chicken with some side-dishes like salad, potatoes and pasta that you can help yourself to, as long as it fits onto your plate). That cost CHF 12.50 (about 16 SGD). Quite reasonable for that portion of food. The food was all right, although it did not taste quite as good as it looked.

Manor
Nice décor

view from the window

slurp bon apetit!

wanted to take photo of the name of the restau and inadvertently captured this lady’s expression LOL

After lunch, we were off to the UN building! Nothing spectacular, just flags of the different countries lined up in rows.

spot the Singaporean flag! We're pretty close to the front

Next stop was Cathédrale Saint Pierre, one of the rare protestant churches in Europe.


Just love looking at the mosaics in the European cathedrals. Pictures simply don’t do them justice!

This marked the start of Lynn’s nightmarish second day on the trip. Very poor thing man, she vomited quite badly so we returned to the hostel and when midnight came, she had already vomited about 10 times. We’d never seen anything like that and were very worried so we called in a doctor to the hostel. He gave her a jab cos she couldn’t hold in any medicine to be taken orally. The bill came up to 200 €!