Thursday, April 9, 2015

Geneva City


Montreux is about a 1-hour drive from Geneva, so we decided that a day trip was a must.

Our first stop in Geneva was the United Nations offices and conference centre.  We also took some photos at the broken chair, which is a symbol of those affected by land mines.  Taylor also visited the Red Cross museum.    

From there we continued to the lakefront where the 140m-water fountain squirts into the air and is home to the famous flower clock (which was still being planted for Spring).  We also looked at some watch shops along the lakefront; Geneva is the birthplace of fine watch making.  The most expensive watch we saw was 99,600 Swiss Franks (NZ$134, 063.04).

Heading into Old Town we wandered through the cute little streets until we found St-Pierre (Saint Peters) Cathedral.  St-Pierre was the centre of the reformation movement in the 14th Century.  The people destroyed many of the paintings and altars, only the original pulpit and choirs seating were left.

Since Geneva is famous for watch making we visited the Patek and Philippe Watch Museum next.  Our expectations of the museum weren’t that high, however we were blown away with how amazing it was.  There were interactive presentations and the most beautiful and intricately detailed watches from the past 500 years.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos, so I found a YouTube clip (it doesn’t do justice to the amazing detail and skill we saw). Watch making used to be a true craftsman ship!  Along with the watches were various pieces of jewellery, tiny mechanical birds, bugs and fans.  We are definitely pleased that we visited this museum; it was really different from other museums we have visited and the pieces were stunning.



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