Recently updated on October 4th, 2022 at 11:33 am
Today we set forth through the Rhone Valley towards Lake Geneva to Evian (Evian-Les-Bains or ‘water of life’) and along the way we stopped to take photos of the 9th century Castle of Chillon.
The drive along Lake Geneva is spectacular and our next stop was Geneva, a very beautiful and rich city. I’m sure that everyone living here has a Rolex watch! Geneva is also one of the most fertile areas of Switzerland. We drove past the monumental Broken Chair located near the Palace of Nations. It is constructed of 5.5 tonnes of wood and is 12 metres (39 feet) high. It symbolises opposition to land mines and is an amazing monument to see. We were dropped off in the park area beside the Jet d’Eau fountain, a truly awesome sight. This fountain shoots water 145 metres into the air, approximately 500 litres of water per second, mind boggling!
The final two days of our trip was spent in Lucerne and that morning we could see fresh snow on the mountain tops. Lucerne has to be one of my favourite cities of this trip, if not the best! The streets of old town Lucerne are very quaint and possess a lot of charm and I went a little photo-crazy. I spent the better part of my free time shopping – no one can say I’m not a die-hard shopper! I didn’t know Victorinox is the original Swiss Army knife. Victorinox took Wenger knives under their umbrella and the red Swiss Army knives are made by them. The red, blue and black clear plastic knives and the white Victorinox knife can only be purchased in Switzerland. I bought one of each and had them engraved on the back, a nice touch. I also purchased some Swarovski pieces for my collection and lots and lots of chocolate made it back to my hotel room. I can truly say the shopaholic in me was satisfied!
Our Farewell Dinner was at a lovely restaurant in old town Lucerne. It included a salad buffet, followed by my choice of chicken, while the others had the mouth-watering veal in pastry dish. Apple strudel plated with flourishing touches of crème freche and raspberry coulis topped off the meal, as did the included two drinks of our choice. At the end of the night, our Travel Director surprised everyone who had previously been on a Trafalgar trip with a thank you card and a box of Swiss chocolates from Gavin Tollman, Trafalgar CEO.
After lingering over coffee, reminiscing and making promises of staying in touch, the time quickly arrived for our transfer to Zurich airport… And I still had shopping to do there!!
Glenna – Vancouver Island, Canada
To read Glenna’s full Best of Switzerland travel tale, visit the Trafalgar Online Forum here.
