Part 1: Getting Here

It is the end of the holiday season and tickets were hard to come by, so I was put on a route through Paris CDG on Air France. The flight was nothing to talk about, but Paris CDG almost put LHR to shame this time. Firstly it is freezing weather (at the 8 am landing time, it was -6 degrees C). And they asked everyone to get into buses, which meant alighting on the tarmac in that cold. Not having anticpated this, I had my warmest stuff (and consequently heaviest) inside the check-in bag.
Still had some warm stuff. Got on the bus and on to terminal 2C. Flight to Geneva leaves from 2F. Okay another coach. Again brave the cold and get to new terminal.

As if this was not enough, the boarding gate was changed at the last minute. Right, things have not gone well with CDG so far, but it seems to be looking up. The old departure gate would have taken us through a bus (cold again – getting the theme?) and the new one had an aero-bridge! Yay! Not so fast. They make us climb down the aero-bridge and into a bus. So there you have it, in one of the coldest winters in years, CDG decides to shunt me through the open air at every opportunity possible.

Part 2: First impressions

Geneva is a lovely town. My hotel is at the edge of the old town and near the private banking district. The lake Geneva is just around the corner and I had a lovely walk in the afternoon along its bank watching the Jet d’Eau – a 140 feet tall fountain. Later I walked in and around the old town walking up to the Plainpalais, Place de Bastion and the University of Geneva, past the St Peter’s Cathedral. One very interesting sight was the Eglise Orthodox Russe – the Russian Orthodox Church.

Being Switzerland, everything is maintained well. The roads are cleared of snow properly. Nevertheless there was so much snow that I slipped several times – one time on a slope when I was certain I would take a tumble. But my luck held and I was on two feet all along!

More: I wanted to get this post up quickly in the time before heading to a business dinner. Photos and more will follow.

PS: The couple of recent travels to France has really improved my French. I am able to understand aircraft announcements now!