Our last stop for the week was Geneva, which started with, naturally (we felt), a pot of fondue. I'd originally been excited about seeing some of the international institutions there, but after Brussels I ended up fascinated by the Jet d'Eau, a fountain that shoots a stream of water about 140 meters into the air in the middle of Lac Léman.
Saturday morning, we enjoyed a climb to the top of Cathedrale St.-Pierre (more vistas, plus two belltowners!), a game of giant checkers overseen by the big names (and statues) of Reformation players, and a stroll down the historically cobbled Grande Rue, including a peek into Jean Jacques Rousseau's birthplace (which conveniently appeared mere moments after Andy had wondered from where the philosopher originally hailed). Lunch was at a delightful café in the quasi-suburb of Carouge and was followed up by a small pyramid of chocolate mousse coated with raspberry mousse that we shared. Uh, wow.
After lunch, Andy kindly agreed to go to MAMCO, Geneva's modern art museum, which totally satisfied my desire for some real off-the-wall nuttiness. My personal favorite piece was a little fluorescent light a few inches tall shaped to read "CORNER" that sat bent in a right angle in the corner of one of the rooms-- you could easily have missed it. There was also one room whose floor was covered with a thick layer of yellow dust; the installation's title was ''Luce, luce, luce," Italian for "moon, moon, moon." We did make it up to the United Nations and WTO buildings, and though it's not as if you can just walk in, the area was beautiful to walk around, particularly once we were back on the lakefront. The boats across the lake are part of the local transportation system, so we caught one to get back to the hotel (albeit in a roundabout way).
We caught the 6 o'clock train to the airport thereafter and said our goodbyes-- which, fortunately, don't have to last for too long, as we're meeting in Stockholm, and then in Copenhagen (!) right around my birthday next month.
In all, it was a wonderful, wonderful week together. Obviously all of the sights and doings and food were great, but we found each other to be very complementary travel companions who definitely enjoy the other's company for a whole week and then some.
Coming up next: an eight-hour turnaround between international flights, mother Russia, and some much-needed napping.
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