Poor Geneva. It always seems to be looked down upon in the
tourism world as an afterthought. In
fact, Rick Steves’ tour group created a 2-page summary of Switzerland and its
different attractions-- for every city
and region there was something positive mentioned, but when Geneva came up it
says: “Not all famous cities are worth visiting.” Ouch! To be fair, we might agree with that
sentiment as we’ve always said that Geneva is a great place to live but not
necessarily to visit. It’s just a simple
truth… It’s expensive. It’s small for a
“big” city. It’s French. And besides our precious Jet d’ Eau, there’s
not a whole lot going on. But,
regardless, Geneva does hold a special place in our hearts for obvious reasons. There are a number of things we’ve been
meaning to see/do since we moved here, just haven’t done so yet. That’s why over the course of this summer we
set out to discover some of these attractions that Geneva has to offer.
Besides our Jet d’ Eau, Cathédrale Saint-Pierre (Saint Peter’s)
has to be the second most known attraction in Geneva. From Geneva’s right bank it impossible to
miss the cathedral up on the hill in Old Town, even more so when it’s lit up at
night. We fell in love with this
cathedral when we used to pass by it on our commute to work last year (when we
were in corporate housing and working at the temporary office). Additionally you might remember our story on
hearing the organ playing late one night during our first few weeks here in
Geneva. Wow – looking back it’s hard to
believe it took us this long to actually go inside! The day finally came and we entered with much
anticipation.
The inside of the cathedral
is just the way we like our cathedrals – not over-the-top, but still with a hint
of elegance—grand architecture, but not overly grand décor.
There is a side chapel
(Chapel of the Maccabees) that definitely boasted more elaborate décor.
We also had the opportunity
to climb the bell towers that we’ve been staring at over the past year. We were pleasantly surprised by the rustic
look on the inside of the towers with plenty of exposed beams. One unique aspect of this tower was that it
was the first that we’ve climbed so far which finally had a solution to a
common problem: squeezing too many
people, going opposite directions, through the narrow staircases. As you can see below in the two pictures,
there is a red light and green light, letting people know when it’s their time
to go up. Simple, yet effective.
The views from the cathedral
were great – the only problem is that our Jet d’ Eau was not on… maybe next
time!
When Gavin was here in May
he discovered the Archaeological site below the cathedral and said it was one
of his favorite things he saw (otherwise we may not have known to look for it). We would have to agree after our visit that
day. The museum was literally the entire
underground (and more) beneath the present day cathedral—full of ruins that
dated back more than a thousand years.
The interesting thing about this site is that the artifacts are so well
preserved and presented in such a coherent way that you can actually tell what
you’re looking at and imagine what the previous structures looked like back
then. For example, in the pictures below
you can see they laid out what the Reception Hall and one of the temples used
to look like with diagrams compared to what ruins look like today.
The three images above show part of one of the original church's nave (illustrated in the top right picture, you can still see the columns standing, shown in the top left photo).
The model of room #9 (shown above) is seen in the three photos to the right. The floor detail was in amazing shape and the outline of the room today reflected what the model illustrated.
We won’t go into too much
more detail, but if you come to Geneva for a visit it’s a must-see to get a
little more historic context around Geneva’s history and the surrounding
area. Actually, the museum was so well
done that it won a cultural heritage award in 2008. Take that Rick Steves! :)
As many know, Geneva was key
in the history of the Reformation, and John Calvin is well represented here. There is a Reformation monument (right) in the Parc des Bastions that we pass on our
bike ride every day to work and as we discovered, the International Museum of
the Reformation is right next to Saint Peter’s in Old Town. The museum has many artifacts on the history
of the Reformation from Martin Luther, to John Calvin, and beyond. It’s a must-see for any reformed believer out
there who is interested in knowing more about the history of the reformed church.
It doesn’t get any more
touristy than the mini-train that trollies visitors around town. We had always been curious as to what this
tour was like and to see if there were any eye opening facts we didn’t know
about Geneva (and to see if we should recommend it to visitors). To be quite honest, we’re drawing a blank on
the historical tidbits we learned, but it’s a good way to get carted around the
town if you want to get a quick overview of the city. :)
While there is more yet to
see in Geneva (CERN, the UN, the Red Cross museum, watch museums, etc.), those
will come in time over the next year that we remain in Geneva. Not really knowing how to end this blog post,
we’ll leave you with a surprise sculpture that showed up one day on our ride to
work. It’s the largest, creepiest spider
we’ve ever seen! It was taken down about
a month later, to move to its next location (although we’re pretty sure they
took it down because it scared so many children—and bike riders…). :)
Thanks, Geneva!
