Lyon, France
We decided to stop for lunch in Lyon, which was directly on our way. We were quite surprised by it, and by how pretty it was. As we neared the centre of town, we found ourselves driving by the river, which cuts beautifully through the town. There were bridges all along the water, and spectacular old buildings on either side.
Once we found a parking space, we walked around the beautiful streets of Lyon. We found a big square called Place des Terreaux, with a lovely 19th century fountain in the middle. It was sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the creator of the New York Statue of Liberty.
We found a little street, filled with cafes, and decided to have lunch there. We chose some delicious food, and enjoyed another immaculate French meal. We had to wait a long time, as the service was pretty slow, but our waitress was very helpful. She gave us directions to a FNAC bookshop, as we were hoping to buy a couple of things before we left.
We found the bookshop, and spent a bit of time checking out the mini laptops like the Asus. Loren managed to finally drag him away, and we saw some cool sections of books on the other levels. There were enormous sections of comic books and manga titles, just like they have in Japan! Apparently France has a huge comic book culture too. Quite impressive.
Geneva, Switzerland
Soon we headed back to the car, and made our way to our next stop for the day, Geneva. We had originally been planning to stay in Geneva, but when we did some research, we decided that the other places in Switzerland looked more interesting. We were still keen on seeing the place though, so we took another detour through the city.
Somehow, we managed to arrive in what looked to be a red light district. It wasn't that there were huge neon signs around, boasting sex and brothels, it was the people that we saw there, and a couple of naughty video stores around. As we drove through, looking for somewhere to park, we kept spotting weird looking people.
There was a middle aged to older woman wandering across the street in a very revealing top, a short skirt and fishnets. She looked very aged and tired. We also saw another woman, who looked about 60 years old, riding her bicycle across our path. She was wearing a tight red vinyl miniskirt, high heels, black fishnets and who knows what else. This all happened in the matter of a couple of seconds, leaving us wondering what kind of people lived here, and if they were prostitutes, what kind of clientele did they have?
The other people populating these streets appeared to be immigrants of all nationalities. We have been in a lot of countries with extremely mixed races, but the people here were scary. It wasn't their skin colour, or any stereotype that people might have about them, it was the looks on their faces and the way they moved. They seriously looked like dangerous people, and didn't feel particularly safe. 
Somehow, we managed to arrive in what looked to be a red light district. It wasn't that there were huge neon signs around, boasting sex and brothels, it was the people that we saw there, and a couple of naughty video stores around. As we drove through, looking for somewhere to park, we kept spotting weird looking people.There was a middle aged to older woman wandering across the street in a very revealing top, a short skirt and fishnets. She looked very aged and tired. We also saw another woman, who looked about 60 years old, riding her bicycle across our path. She was wearing a tight red vinyl miniskirt, high heels, black fishnets and who knows what else. This all happened in the matter of a couple of seconds, leaving us wondering what kind of people lived here, and if they were prostitutes, what kind of clientele did they have?The other people populating these streets appeared to be immigrants of all nationalities. We have been in a lot of countries with extremely mixed races, but the people here were scary. It wasn't their skin colour, or any stereotype that people might have about them, it was the looks on their faces and the way they moved. They seriously looked like dangerous people, and didn't feel particularly safe. We came across another street filled with fire engines, and realised that they were trying to rescue someone from an apartment about 3 floors up. We don't know what was wrong, but we saw them raising a stretcher to the window, and a fireman was riding up to move the person on to it. The whole street was blocked off from traffic, but pedestrians could still walk past and stare at the commotion.
We wandered down to the famous Lake Geneva, and spotted even more bizzare quantities of immigrants. These ones didn't look nasty, but there were so many of them! It appeared that the whole waterside was filled with middle eastern immigrants, with women covered from head to toe.
There was a kids train running, and mothers and children on board were almost all dressed in Muslim full covering clothing. More people down by the water, were walking with their husbands, wearing the whole black outfit, but carrying Louis Vuitton bags. It seems like they can't show off with anything else but with their shoes and bags, so the ones that can afford nice ones, show them off.
The lake itself was quite pretty, but not really what Loren had imagined. She put 'Lake' and 'Switzerland', together in her head and thought of a beautiful wide open space with a lake in the middle, and buildings further away from the water up on hills. Maybe grass alongside the water too. Unfortunately, the real thing was just a huge lake in the middle of a city, which creeps up on all sides of the lake. There are boats everywhere, and the sky seemed to be grey and ugly that day.
Maybe we just came there on a bad day, but we weren't thrilled with what we saw in Geneva. Maybe it's prettier when the sun is out.
It was getting dark, so we decided to get back onto the road, and try to get to our campsite in Bern, as quickly as possible. We got lost along the way, and found ourselves on a street with the same name as ours, but not our number.
Thankfully, a guy offered to give us directions to the campsite. He was very helpful, and we were so happy when we finally made it there. We quickly set up the tent in the dark, which we were used to by now. Pumping our squeaky mattress probably woke at least 70% of the other campers, but hey, we needed to sleep too. We collapsed for the night, and hoped for more relaxing days in the future.
To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Lyon and Geneva pictures
We wandered down to the famous Lake Geneva, and spotted even more bizzare quantities of immigrants. These ones didn't look nasty, but there were so many of them! It appeared that the whole waterside was filled with middle eastern immigrants, with women covered from head to toe.There was a kids train running, and mothers and children on board were almost all dressed in Muslim full covering clothing. More people down by the water, were walking with their husbands, wearing the whole black outfit, but carrying Louis Vuitton bags. It seems like they can't show off with anything else but with their shoes and bags, so the ones that can afford nice ones, show them off.The lake itself was quite pretty, but not really what Loren had imagined. She put 'Lake' and 'Switzerland', together in her head and thought of a beautiful wide open space with a lake in the middle, and buildings further away from the water up on hills. Maybe grass alongside the water too. Unfortunately, the real thing was just a huge lake in the middle of a city, which creeps up on all sides of the lake. There are boats everywhere, and the sky seemed to be grey and ugly that day.Maybe we just came there on a bad day, but we weren't thrilled with what we saw in Geneva. Maybe it's prettier when the sun is out.It was getting dark, so we decided to get back onto the road, and try to get to our campsite in Bern, as quickly as possible. We got lost along the way, and found ourselves on a street with the same name as ours, but not our number.Thankfully, a guy offered to give us directions to the campsite. He was very helpful, and we were so happy when we finally made it there. We quickly set up the tent in the dark, which we were used to by now. Pumping our squeaky mattress probably woke at least 70% of the other campers, but hey, we needed to sleep too. We collapsed for the night, and hoped for more relaxing days in the future.
To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Lyon and Geneva pictures
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