Switzerland – Geneva | Planet Manel

Fountain of Geneva!

As some of you know, I haven’t been in London in the whole month of August. I was in Mallorca, France and Switzerland. It was for work, but I’ve had a great time. I’d like to take you to Geneva this time. I went to Geneva for 3 full days, together with my mum. I didn’t know anything about Geneva, it wasn’t on my travel-bucket-list, but as it was only 20 minutes away from where we stayed in France, what made it very logic we went there.

Electricity boxes are all pieces of art in Geneva!

We stayed in a AirBnB just next to the Plainpalais, what means we were very central and were able to do everything by foot. Which is recommended for Geneva anyway, because it’s not a very big city and it’s easy to walk everything. The nice thing about that is that you can see so much more.
We arrived at our AirBnB at 19:00. What meant we were an hour late! We could have been on time if my mum didn’t forget her handbag in France (yes……. we had to drive all the way back!). Typical for my mum.. Anyway, we got there and it was lovely! There was nobody home for almost the whole time we stayed there and our room was next to the kitchen and sitting room, so it looked like we had a whole apartment to ourselves. After we’d freshen up a bit we decided to go to the Italian restaurant ‘La Pignata’ around the corner. Not a lot of people 14285566_1240203762690391_141837025_o can speak English very well in Geneva. There was only one guy in this restaurant who could and even though he looked very confident in understanding everything, my pizza came with cheese.. whilst I think I’ve said ‘no cheese’ about 10 times. No worries, I just waited a bit longer and luckily that wasn’t very long, because within 10 minutes there was a cheese-free damping, delicious looking pizza in front of me! Yum!! It was a good pizza, so if you’re looking for a nice pizza, I’m sure you can get one here.. just make sure you get the ‘no cheese’ part very clear in case you’re vegan! 😉 Now the fact is.. my mum is a very active PokemonGo player. No joke! So after our pizza we walked all over the Plainpalais to catch some real Swiss Pokemons. It was starting to get dark and it looked quite nice outside actually. In the middle of the Plainpalais is a skater-park and it was nice to watch some cool tricks. Learn how to ride a skateboard is on my bucket list! Yay!!

Breakfast!

The next day we went to get some breakfast at the local supermarket. I got 2 smoothies, and 2 yummy peaches. Then, without shame, we went to Starbucks, because gosh I missed that.. It was more than 3 weeks! So I really enjoyed my ‘Soy Green tea with cinnamon’. Such a treat! After a little break (not that we did so much already, haha!) we walked up to the waterside and I sat there with the most beautiful swans. The day only just started, but it already made my day. Absolutely beautiful animals! They’re so elegant and the right word for them is ‘majestic’ for sure. I could have stayed there all day. We didn’t, because we crossed the bridge, admiring the clear water of lake Geneva. Then we walked passed the water, through a lovely little park where a guy was making soapy bubbles, a little train with tourists drove around and where everybody was relaxing. 14303936_1240195976024503_754176401_o The park is called ‘Jardin Anglais’, what literally means ‘English Garden’. It has a beautiful fountain and a clock made of flowers. We enjoyed the boats, the giggling kids chasing the bubbles and the lovely atmosphere for a while and then we went to get a very nice seeded baguette and we ate it, sitting on a step next to a junction. It was a lovely spot with lots of different people and expensive sports cars passing by. We decided to just walk around a little bit and when I really had to go to use the toilet it happened to be that we were standing next to a vegan cafe! 14285110_1240196006024500_1014325483_o And it looked so nice! There aren’t a lot in Geneva, so it was a real coincidence. So I joked ‘I only go to the toilet in vegan places’.. Haha! As we just had our lunch and the cafe was nearly closing I told the very friendly lady we were going to come back the next day.
We kept walking and went towards the ‘Rue de Rive’, a big shopping street. There happened to be a Lush (Yay!) and a lot of other nice shops and though I told myself a 100 times I can’t buy anything(my suitcase would explode), I found myself walking out of the ‘Vero Moda’ with 2 new shirts. Oops! Just behind the shops is the big ‘St.Pierre 14285474_1240207222690045_1493442816_o Cathedral’. We walked up the stairs, enjoyed the view and took a look inside this amazing cathedral. What I really liked were the stained glass windows, wohw!
For dinner we went to the COOP supermarket quite close to our BnB. We got 2 vegan burgers, a just-out-of-the-oven-bread and some salsa sauce. Then.. at the till there was quite a bit of products from the Vegan supermarket ‘Veganz’!!! I didn’t know why they had this, it was so unexpected, but I was so happy! Even happier when they even had my favourite biscuits! So I also got the biscuits and some chocolate (of course). I prepared the burgers in ‘our’ kitchen, we ate it (very delicious!) and the rest of the evening we watched Gossip Girl together. Lovely!

14215607_1240195962691171_1122604085_o Tuesday.. on the Plainpalais there was a little farmers market and I read that there is also a vegan bakery stand. I was very excited, but apart from a lot of lovely looking fruit and veggies there was no vegan bakery. They’re probably there on a different day. A shame! What I did spot was.. a Starbucks! In front of the Starbucks was this very hot guy sitting next to the entrance, but when I went inside he was gone. Just one minute later he happened to work there and was serving me.. Lucky me! He made my tea with mint instead of green tea and I had to go back to get it right.. what a shame! (I wouldn’t mind him making it wrong another 10 times, hehe..) 14285023_1240196079357826_1365087596_o We sat outside on a bench with comfy cushions and had lovely chats and enjoyed the perfect sunshine. Very close to that Starbucks is the University and around there is a very nice park with the ‘Reformation Wall’. Also there were a lot of Pokemons there.. happy mum! I just chilled on a park bench whilst she walked around staring at her phone. I just love her!
Then it was lunchtime and as I promised the lady we would come back, we went to the vegan cafe. It’s called ‘Takinoa’ and it looks very nice. We ordered a tortilla wrap, some soup and a little chocolate cake. It was very delicious! Though the lady wasn’t very good at speaking English, she is very friendly and we had a little chat. She let me test some very tasty green juice and we talked about my blog. Her daughter was there too and they really 14303714_1240196026024498_1138491909_o made my day. (..after the Starbucks guy did that already) I just appreciate it so much if people care. I hope she will read this. (If you do, then another big thank you for the good service!) No doubt I’d really like to recommend this place. A must go! When we walked back we passed the ‘Art and History Museum’. This is the largest art museum in Geneva and I was thrilled to go inside. Only the museum was almost going to close and as rushing through a museum is no fun at all we made it an activity for tomorrow. For dinner we went to the supermarket again, we chose the broccoli burgers this time and we ate it with the left over bread and sauce from yesterday. We also found these very yummy chocolate soy yogurts. What a feast!

14285643_1240211282689639_252964178_o Our last day.. Which started with a visit to the big flea market again, at the Plainpalais (what a joy our BnB was next to this). My mum’s dream came true (she adores flea markets) and I must say I really enjoyed this too. All those old things, so many memories and the exciting feeling you have the whole time, trying to find something amazing between all that stuff. What a good start of our last day here. My mum found a very nice pendant made out of stone and a lovely silver coloured little box with a rose on top. And it was just meant to be that the flea market ended where Starbucks began.. Shame on us! We didn’t sit there for that long this time as my mum wanted to go back to the park to catch this Pokemon she didn’t have yet. So we did that and then we headed to the museum. It was beautiful, I l 14285309_1240209522689815_1030736243_o ove museums! It’s a shame though that everything is written in French.. and what really is even a bigger disappointment: I can’t speak or read French. It was lovely anyway. At least the numbers are the same and I was able to understand how old things were and (mostly) also where it came from. After a lovely time spend at the museum we went back to the ‘Jardin Anglais’ and just stayed there until it was time to go to the airport. There we got some food and then it was time to say goodbye. My mum was going back home and I was going back to France. What an amazing time we’ve had together though. I love my mum so much!

14341830_1240196076024493_595765759_n About Geneva.. it’s an absolute stunning city! The buildings are all very beautiful, with lots of lovely balconies and flowers! The people are all very classy. Everybody is dressed very stylish. We had a lovely time, but the only downside is: It’s crazy expensive!! You better save up a lot of money before going here. Especially if you’re planning to go out for food all the time. To give a few examples, a coffee and a tea at Starbucks are £11 together and a simple bottle of (0,5l) water is £3,50. So I’d recommend to bring a bottle and fill it up with water whenever you have the chance. The water in Geneva is very good, great taste! Also, if you have access to a kitchen, cooking a few meals yourself will save you quite a lot of money too.
All together I do recommend Geneva. We had a great time and it’s definitely worth going, you won’t regret it!

14303954_1240195922691175_516892243_o HOTSPOT LIST:
La Pignata – Plainpalais, Avenue du Mail 3, 1205
Lush – Rue de Rive 1, 1204
COOP supermarket – Boulevard Carl-Vogt 22, 1205
Takinoa – Rue du Nant 12, 1207
Farmers market – Sun: from early morning-17:00. / Tue + Fri: early morning-14:00. (small)
Flea market – Sat + Wed(small): 8:00-17:00.