On Monday December 21st Christmas came early to Switzerland, when we welcomed the Johnsons and Sandra Zwanzinger to stay with us in our adopted country. Our day began around 8 a.m. when we left our apartment to drive to the Geneva airport in a rental van. Driving in Switzerland was a new experience for us, but it turned out to be uneventful. We took wide suburban streets to a freeway which brought us all the way to the airport. No narrow cobblestone streets, or confusing one ways to worry about, and Melissa’s phone had turn by turn directions to make everything easy.
We made it to the airport arrival area just after 9 a.m., and only waited a minute or two before our first guest, Sandy, came out to meet us. Sandy was a foreign exchange student from Austria who stayed with the Johnsons back in 2010. The Johnsons weren’t due to arrive until 11:15, so the three of us dropped off Sandy’s suitcase in the van, then caught a bus to see some of the city. We first swung by a Starbucks to grab coffee, then walked a short loop along the lake, before heading back to the airport to meet the Johnsons.
We shared a joyous, tearful, reunion with the three Johnsons at arrivals, then found a little shop in the airport to buy lunch for our weary travelers. After catching up over lunch, we left the airport to tour a cloudy, drizzly, Geneva. We saw the U.N. building, the Parc des Bastion, the Reformation Wall, sections of the old city wall, the old city, and the cathedral. The next stop on my Geneva tour would have been the art and history museum, but unfortunately when we came to it we found out it was closed on Mondays. So we continued the tour by walking toward the lake, and stopping along the way for more coffee. At the lake we walked through a large park called the Jardin Anglais, from which we could see Geneva’s landmark Jet d’Eau. We then caught a bus back to our van and drove everyone to our apartment.
The van was definitely a European sized minivan. Only three carefully stacked suitcases could fit in the back, so the rest had to be put in the aisle or held on laps all the way back. Once back, Melissa took everyone up to the apartment to settle in, except for Keith and I, who went on a trip to return the rental van. We first stopped at a gas station where I was confused with the proper procedure to fill up, because there was no credit card reader at the pump. Keith and I went inside where I asked an employee in French how to do it, but he gave me a confused look and told me I could ask in English. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to show off my French speaking skills, but the employee gave us a simple answer. We just needed to fill up and pay afterward, apparently the Swiss aren’t as worried about gas drive offs as Americans.
After dropping off the van, Keith and I walked back to the apartment where Melissa had a delicious meal of cheesy penne pasta prepared. We all caught up over dinner, and made plans for our trip to Freiburg Germany the next day, before all the travelers passed out for the night.
