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Sunday June 29, 2014
Geneva, Sion, and Cabane de Prafleuri
My 'free' flight from United was pretty lousy - SFO to LAX; 4 hour
layover at LAX; LAX to Toronto (YYZ as any Rush fan knows); 2 hour
layover in Toronto; Toronto to Heathrow, 2 hour layover in Heathrow,
then Heathrow to Geneva. Leave SFO at 7:15am Friday, arrive
Geneva 5:15pm Saturday. My flights out of both Toronto and
Heathrow were both delayed about an hour. It was started absolutely dumping rain as we arrived into Heathrow.
One of the few things I found of interest along the way was the Air New Zealand "The Hobbit" plane
British Airways Concorde G-BOAB
Kent arrived in Geneva a few hours before I did; long enough to skateboard across town and get a beer.
I talked Kent into trying to use Priceline Express Deals for our first
and last nights in Geneva. The first night's hotel turned out to
be the Best Western Astoria, ideally located within site of the Geneva
train station. Kent then tried an Express Deal for the last
night's hotel, and that turned out to be at the airport. Kent was a
little disappointed with the second Express Deal.
Kent was waiting for me in our hotel's bar when I arrived.
View from our room in Geneva
View from our room in Geneva
View from our room in Geneva - the train station
Jet d'Eau, which used to be the tallest fountain in the world
He showed me the fountain and the closed Cathedral, then we wandered around trying to find dinner.
We encountered an real life Green Army Man ... on an bike... with lots
and lots of stuff attached to his bike. I took his picture and he
started yelling at me in French. At first I thought that perhaps
he wanted me to pay him for taking his picture, but I eventually
decided he was probably just fairly deranged.
We finally decided to have dinner at a brewpub showing World Cup soccer near the train station.
The brewpub had five beers on tap, including an agave / tequila style beer.
I got the beer sampler and Salmon tartar.... very, very yummy.
