Europe

After a good night’s sleep, we were ready to take on another big day of activities.

Of course, the first big activity of the day was breakfast! We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, while discussing plans for the day.

Our initial plan was to head out immediately after breakfast, but we ended up relaxing in the hotel for a while, before going out around 2:00 pm. We walked out past the Jardin des Alpes, which features the neo-Gothic Brunswick Monument, a mausoleum built in 1879 to honor Charles II, Duke of Brunswick.

We continued on over the Pont du Mont-Blanc, to explore the Vieille Ville (old town).

We walked up the hill to the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, a landmark church in Geneva. Construction on the church commenced in 1160 and was completed in the 13th century.

We left the church and continued on to Place du Bourg-de-Four, the city’s oldest square, where we admired the architecture and soaked up the busy weekend atmosphere.

Our next stop was the beautiful Parc des Bastions, the garden adjoining Université de Genève.

We continued walking through to the north end of the gardens, to the beautiful Grand Théâtre de Genève.

We retraced our steps back through the garden, to head back to Place du Bourg-de-Four. On the way, we passed the fountain marking the entrance at Pont de Saint-Léger from the old route into Geneva in the Middle Ages.

We made our way up Rue Saint-Léger, where we looked in the windows of some of the very pretty shops (although nothing was open because shops are closed on Sundays in Geneva).

When we got back to Place du Bourg-de-Four, we decided to stop for a well-earned ice-cream.

Feeling energised after our ice-creams, we headed back toward the lake to the Jet d’Eau de Genève, the huge fountain in Lac Leman.

We then headed to the Jardin Anglais, a beautiful manicured garden on the shore of Lac Leman. The garden was full of people enjoying a relaxing Sunday in Geneva.

From Jardin Anglais, we decided to make our way back to the hotel, stopping on the way to admire the Jet d’Eau de Genève.

We got back to the hotel around 5:15 pm, which gave us enough time to relax a litle before dinner at Yotam Ottolenghi’s restaurant, his first one outside the UK. Since light rain had now descended on Geneva (a common occurence!), we decided to take a taxi to the restaurant for our 6:45 pm reservation.

We had a lovely meal at the restaurant, afterward resolving to cut back a little over the next few days before we board the first cruise of this trip (where we will, no doubt, eat far too much!).

When we got back to our room, we found evening treats and a lovely book on the history of the hotel, courtesy of Alex, the wonderful doorman at the Beau-Rivage Hotel. All the staff at the hotel have been incredible, but Alex has gone above and beyond to look after us.

Now, it’s time to head to bed. Tomorrow, we’re driving about 300km to the small town of Vitznau, on Lake Lucerne, where we’ll be spending the next three days.