One of the more difficult things about planning weekend trips with friends is that someone has been there before or someone is busy that weekend or someone’s family is in town or someone wants to stay in Madrid this weekend or yada yada yada… Well we lucked out with our Chamonix, France and Geneva, Switzerland trip because 7 of us were able to coordinate our schedules.
Chamonix, a spectacular mountain town situated in the French Alps, was our first stop. We opted for an inexpensive lodge apartment, complete with a tiny kitchen and just enough beds for the gang. We arrived at night, fully unaware of just how phenomenal the views during daylight would be. Waking up was (almost) better than Christmas morning! I have seen mountains before, but never on a scale like these. The difference is that the Alps are much more steep and jagged. I got up early so that I could relax with sugary cereal on the porch with The Kite Runner.
We decided to take a little red railcar up the side of the peak to catch a panoramic view of the Alps. We were disheartened to discover that the car merely took us to a scenic viewpoint. We got lucky when Katie, Catie, and Valerie began to venture down this little path, expanding the scope of our mountainous endeavors. After taking a few “band” pics, we stumbled upon a steep ladder stretching across the rock face toward a glacier in the canyon. This vertiginous drop to the chasm below was enough to make anyone a bit tense. I, for one, was not going to let this window of opportunity escape us. After a series of surmounting ladders, footholds, and ropes with my petrified friends, we landed on a massive ice formation. The glacier was enormous in comparison to how it looked from above. Ben threw a rock down a glacial cavity, and we didn’t hear the rock hit the water for 5 seconds. We took turns eyeing the hole while the boys held on to us so as not to slip. We hiked on the gelid glacier, took pictures, and tried to be veerryy careful.
We somehow all made it out alive, although the ascent was must scarier than the original descent. We celebrated the physically demanding day with a pasta dinner and card games at our apartment.
Geneva was an entirely different story than Chamonix. We walked the city, ate Swiss chocolate, and visited some cool sights. We got to see the United Nations headquarters in the Palace of Nations and tour the Red Cross Museum. The Red Cross Museum psyched me up that I added my International Business major. I would love to work with a worldwide nonprofit like this. We learned some interesting facts about Red Cross aid throughout the world wars. Because of legal issues, the Red Cross had a difficult time helping those in concentration camps during the second world war. Apparently, the Nazis allowed Red Cross aid in the camps as long as the volunteers never left. Apparently 10 individuals signed on to spend the rest of their lives in concentration camps providing medical care to those that suffered. Talk about a reality check!
That evening we went ice skating at a Christmas-lit rink in the middle of a funky park. The Parc des Bastions had life-size chess boards and held the Reformation Monument. The Monument was a giant wall that was 325 feet long and 30 feet high, composed of 15 foot tall statues of John Calvin, Guillaume Farel, Theodore Beza, and John Knox. The setting of our ice skating activity was engaging, to say the least.
We topped off our evening with tasty pizza and (free!) bread at a restaurant near our hotel. The next morning was rainy, but we suited up and went for a walk anyway. Geneva certainly has character… we saw the flower clock, admired the fake parachuters stuck in the trees, took pictures of the standing mirrors and tree-free-hugs box, and walked along the Rhone River. Our trip came to a close after walking around a beautiful green park and playing on a tire swing in a jungle gym on the Rhone.
