Greetings from Geneva

This is me before finding out about all the wicked things my bank and International Relations office did to me.


I went to a modern art museu and was really stymied by some of the pieces. Like these... rolls of tape... symbolizing... the need... to buy... more tape.


One of my favorite attractions - enormous chess pieces in the park! I wanted to play, but all the old men were busy arguing back and forth about who could lift a pawn with the fewest amount of bones cracking.


Nestled in the Old Town is this gorgeous church - I took an archeological tour of the original church, underneath this one, built in ~200 A.D. Quite amazing, really, and superb excavation work. I saw monks' little work areas, the bottom of a bell casting, and all sorts of preserved artificats. I must've been speaking excellent French that day because the museum fellow was astonished to find out I was an Anglophone and offered to take me on some "special tour" of Geneva. He batted his eyes a few too many times, though...


The longest wooden bench in the world - 413 feet!


Here's the exterior of the Musee d'Art et d'Histoire. It was, believe it or not, rather difficult to find.


I loved the Musee d'Histoire et d'Art. It was enormous, interesting and FREE! They had an incredible section on weapons and armor - all sorts of knight's outfits, huge pikes and deadly crossbows. I think there are enough pistols in here to arm half the country.


In the basement of the museum was the Egyptian section. Here are some fragments from the Book of the Dead. Oooh...


I'd never heard of it before, but this is Geneva's "Jet d'Eau," an enormous jet of water (132 gallons per second) that shoots 459 feet high. It's visible from most places in the city and is an excellent landmark. You can actually walk up really close to it; I went within 50 feet and had to turn back because there was so much spray and mist.


I'll conclude with this picturesque, quintessential Geneva photo. The water is so amazingly clear; you can see straight to the bottom even at night.