Ahh Geneva! Where we started and ended our journey. Geneva is the first official entry of our September Europe trip and will tell of the first 2 days we spent in Europe. Technically, we ended up in Lausanne at the end of day 2, but since we spent our last day in Europe, in Lausanne, I'm going to leave it for the last post I do on our trip.

Geneva:
Geneva is located at the south-western end of Lake Geneva, where the lake flows into the Rhone River. It is surrounded by two mountain chains, the Alps and the Jura. Geneva is just minutes from the Swiss/France border, thus it is a French speaking region (canton) of Switzerland.

The first thing we did upon arrival (other than fight) was to hightail it from the Geneva airport to CERN, the lab that is hosting the ATLAS project that Neil is working on.

Neil had arranged for us to tour the particle smasher that they've been building and I have to say that it was simply amazing! Here's some information that I have shamelessly cut and paste from another site (source: http://atlasexperiment.org/)

• ATLAS is a particle physics experiment that will explore the fundamental nature of matter and the basic forces that shape our universe. Starting in mid-2008, the ATLAS detector will search for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy. ATLAS is one of the largest collaborative efforts ever attempted in the physical sciences. There are 1900 physicists (Including 400 students) participating from more than 164 universities and laboratories in 35 countries.
• Protons will be accelerated in the Large Hadron Collider, an underground accelerator ring 27 kilometres in circumference at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.
  The particle beams are steered to collide in the middle of the ATLAS detector. The debris of the collisions reveal fundamental particle processes. The energy density in these high energy collisions is similar to the particle collision energy in the early universe less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Photos don't do it justice. The scale of this thing is huge. Click here for a link to a live web cam in the ATLAS cavern.

Here's a picture of the particle smasher (my non-technical name for it) and also one of Neil and I inside the cavern.

After the tour, we ventured off to St.Genis-Pouilly, France. It was here that the U of T apartment is located... and well, I've already vented on what we found there so there's no point in rehashing that again.

The bright spot of France for me was the croissants. Nothing beats getting up, walking to the local neighbourhood patisserie and getting freshly baked croissants for breakfast. Delightful!

Also delightful was shopping at the grocery store in France (hell -- anywhere in Europe). This is a picture of the decision we faced in aisle 9. So many wines... so little time!!

After our yummy breakfast on day 2, it was off to tour Geneva. We saw the famous Jet d'Eau, or water-jet, a large fountain located in Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman as the locals call it). The park along the lake, the Jardin Anglais, was where we took in a view of the fountain and also where we saw the famous "flower clock".

From there we ventured into the old town and saw St. Peter's Cathedral.

I will admit that by the end of the trip, I was tired of seeing churches. The buildings themselves were always magnificent and impressive. And, yes, there were noticeable differences and styles. But, heaven help me, I just got tired of them. This one however, had a very neat little chapel off to the side with beautiful stained glass and painted walls/ceilings.

The old town was impressive. The roads were steep and narrow. The buildings stone and impressive. The remnants of a city wall were visible. Overall, the highlight of Geneva in my mind. One thing that was clear was that Geneva was a motorcycle or scooter town. They dominated the streets! Especially evident in the old town -- it was not uncommon to see a street lined with 30+ parked bikes.

After leaving the old town, we wandered into the Place Neuve. It is a park that contains the Grand-Théâtre (opera), the reputed Conservatory of Music and the Rath Museum. We didn't have the interest or time for the museums so we just wandered through on our way to the Reformation Wall. Neil stopped to check out the big chess boards.

Our research had indicated that the Reformation wall was the big site to see in Geneva. You can stroll along 100 meters of wall and cover 450 years in the history of Protestantism. It was a very peaceful place to sit down and cool off from the hot sun. We couldn't read much of the wall as our French is pretty terrible, but we could enjoy the serene environment that the reflecting pool and wall provided. Here's a look:

Last but not least, I'll leave you with this... one of my fave photoshops of all time! We were just walking down the street and saw this store. I editted the sign to mark how I felt about Neil at the start of our trip!! Click to enlarge the images.

Click here to view all our Geneva Pics!

Next stop, Innsbruck!