Geneva still...

25 feb, wednesday-day5

Another windy,cold day eventhough the temperature was 6 deg.

Walked to Old Town, across the lake.

The water fountain-geneva landmark is situated at this side of the town (visible from the other side anyway). The fountain shoots water 140m high up.

Late evening, Wan & Nan went to the lake-photography!

Dinner- Spaghetti, prawn salad, fruits....seemed that we enjoyed 'homecooked' food so much

26 feb, thursday -day6

The three of us (xclude dr zairi) were supposed to travel further...like Bern...but Nan had stomach problem, so we cannot go very far....

Jardil Botanique (Botanical Garden) is about 10 minutes ride by bus#1 from the central station-Cornavin Gare. 

The garden was supposed to be more beautiful with blooms, but it was (end of) winter. All we saw was many leave-less trees and landscapes with the names and origins of flowers. At some areas, there were small flowers popping out of the ground

Workers were busy with their tools/wheelbarrows tending to the area, preparing for spring.Barren but it didn't bother Wan/Nan as they're busy shooting.

We shop stuffs for dinner @ Manor..I always mentioned Manor(supermart & near to hotel), I only have photo of the shopping bag (we have to purchase).

Lunch was cold spaghetti leftovers and sardine sandwiches. Drinks/fruits were kept cold outside the window!

Evening by the lake....picture speaks itself...

The words above (a signboard), simply means 'The beach is not under  surveillance, you bathe under your own responsibility' => no life guard, swim at your own risk

Dinner was again our staple food- picture speaks a thousand words!

It was also over this dinner that we decided on our saturday sightseeing...Montreux.

27 feb, friday - day7

After breakfast, we went to the station to check for saturday travel tickets.

The central station (bus/train/tram) is just across the road from our hotel-very convenient)

We took a 20 minutes bus ride to Ferney, a France border town with Switz. Passed by places:-

cornavin(the central station), Valias, Varembe, Nation, Appia, BIT, Vy des Champ, Crets Morillion, Le Pommier, Susette, p+p f47 (hmm strange name). After this we passed the tunnel and we're in France.

Names of the town again;- Gd-Sarconex-dne, Ch de Colovrex, Brunette, Jargilieres, Avenue du Jura & Ferney-Marie

The notice board with the time table and in-between stops (Ferney - Gare Cornavin).

Town looked isolated (it was friday, most were closed), we went to the information office to check.

We walked along the stretch to Rue de Gex and we could see large plains with the Alps on the background

The only supermarket (Champion) that seemed to be opened on friday @ Ferney....

Back to Switzerland...  the Swiss knife...

.......................The Flower Clock....

.........................The night.....

28 feb, saturday day8

Our supposed trip to Montreux had to be called off-Zairi fell ill, another around town tour.....

Took the bus to Old Town, stop @ Plainpalais where they had a flea-market/street market/saturday market-whatever they called it. There were many traders selling stuffs from beads to sofasets and the stretch covered no less than 2 km. It was a sunny day - 12 deg, still cold anyway.

After brief lunch, we walked the other direction- to University of Geneva. We walked the campus grounds. It was very clean. This toddler caught my sight! He was wondering around the place alone; the father was under a huge tree some 50 meters away, romancing the sun!

The other side was an open space with chessboards 'on the ground'. There were many people, old and young playing chess standing up!

Another walk along the stretch out of the campus brought us to the town area, you won't miss this building.

After 7 hours walk we decided to go back. Bought kebab for late lunch, wan & i still have our shared leftovers for dinner....

We have to pack for tomorrow....

Switzerland-Geneva

22feb, sunday- day3
Checked into International &Terminus Hotel @ Rue de Alpes, after about 40 minutes Inter Region train ride. Snow falling, heavier than before. This hotel is more expensive than the one in Lausanne but with less facilities. After settling down, Wan & I went out for a walk around town. All shops were closed, even the supermarket, Manor. We stopped for snacks at roadside kiosk; cup of coffee + doughnut @ chf6/

We bought McD fish fillet for dinner, then zzzzzzz, it was cold.

23feb, monday-day4

Wan & Dr Zairi attended WHO meeting after breakfast. And me? Thanks, Dr Zairi lent me his computer, otherwise.......

Spent the whole morning surfing the net, drafting my blog, so i don't miss out the moments until Nan knocked on my door......it's time to go shop for lunch. He he, when Wan & Zairi came back, the 4 of us had sardine sandwich, salad & fruits. Hmmmm not bad. They went for the afternoon meeting and I again worked on the computer. Managed to chat with my youngest son. Miss you both Alif & Adil

Dinner was the left-overs from lunch with addition of serunding & tea/coffee. That was better than having to find food in the cold!

24 feb, Tuesday- day5

As usual, wan went off to meeting after breakfast & i, in the room with the computer...ohhh again Dr Zairi thank you very much (merci buku kata orang france). Lunch was Manor's salmon pizza & fruits....we saved our stomach for dinner...jeng jeng jeng..

Wan came back late afternoon & took me to a place called Nation. This is the headoffice of the World Health Organization (WHO); where his meetings took place,

This is also where the International Organization for Migration (IOM), The United Nations (UN);among others are located. Sunny but windy and the cold is setting inside me!

The Broken Chair, Nations, Geneva, Switzerland-a symbolic structure to ban land mines

We went back to the hotel & together with Nan proceeded to the Lake (Lac Leman) on foot. Wan took several shots but the cold wind was really bad, we went back to the hotel.....

The over head lines above are the electrical cable that connects to the train/bus.

The excitment began...we want to have rice for dinner. Cooked rice (2x!) in Dr Zairi's small rice cooker. Dishes were canned yeo's chicken curry, cili padi/onions with lemon juice & dr zairi bought beef artichoke, libian fish, currypuffs, samosas etc...ohhhh what a delicious dinner, away from the cold-in the comfort of our room! Plates? We use whatever we have;-that's what you called survival!

We continued our feast with barguette/boursin cheese/creme brulee chocolate/hot jasmine tea/strawberry......everybody went to bed smilling! Too hungry to take snapshot of the food.

Switzerland getaway

Greetings from Switzerland

This is my diary.......you may not want to read my stories but i hope you'll enjoy the photos. I'll try to put more photos..
20th feb, Friday-Day 1
Wan & I boarded Qatar Airways from KLIA to Doha (~7hrs 50 mins). Arrived at 5.20am local time and took off to Geneva at 7.45 am. Landed in Geneva after ~7hrs flight.
The journey was smooth (being long journey first timer, I've expected otherwise), meals were good.We had window seats, hence the picture of the wing....


As always, I will look for something different, their names this time! Sweeta, Ajin, Deborah, Mamindra, Yamla, Fatima Zohra, Hyun Jin, Ekta...among those that I can remember. From their names and look, I assumed they are not Qataris: -Qatar Air with international crews I would say.

Geneva was at 3 deg when we arrived (12.30 pm)-thick clothing began.We met Dr Zairi& Adenan who arrived earlier on MH flight. From the airport, we took a 45 mins train(inter-city) to Lausanne, a place 3 cities away @CHF 25 each. The train briefly stops at Nyon and Morges. Makcik in the train messaging kids at home...


We met Xavier (Dr Zairi's friend) at the station and he helped show us to our hotel-Agora Hotel, a 10 mins walk from the train station

After checking in we took a taxi to Xavier's house where Dr Zairi & Nan will be staying. Sorry I couldn't figure where Xavier's house is

Lausanne is a quiet, hilly and beautiful city. Around the places that we passed by, most people live in apartment,I saw many cars parked by the roadside. I don't see many people, where were they?? Was it because its a weekend or because it was snowing?? i wonder.....

Pictured here with Dr Zairi.



Pictured above Wan & I at the garden, between the train station & Xavier's home.

We rested for a while and went out, walking again. We stopped by the store to purchase bread, cheese & fruits. Wan & I had dinner in the hotel room:- bread & cheese roulade (very nice), salad and strawberries. We slept very early that day, 7.30pm! (6.08pm dah masuk magrib) as it was about 2.30am in Malaysia.
Ops, forget to mention; We were given free ticket to travel within the city by bus/train when we checked into hotels in Switzerland.


21 feb, Saturday- Day 2
We had breakfast at 6.30am. Hotel breakfast was very simple; Bread, yoghurt, cereals, eggs, hot/cold drinks, unlike those back home where the buffet tables are full of varieties. Love bread so food is not a serious problem for us (at least for now). We took the metro train from Grancy (near our hotel) to Ouchy, the pier & passed places like Delice & Jardil.

Seen here at Grancy metro station



I was not prepared, it was very cold despite having so many layers of clothes under me! I was shaking ( kita kata ketaq dagu-he he he). Tu pun masih sempat control ayu, posing tepi tasik.


Brief viewing of the place, we took the same train to Lausanne, met up with Xavier, Nan & Zairi.
We proceeded on foot to the Old Town. This part of the town is only lively on weekend, saturday particularly.



They sell farmers produce (ala ala our pasar tani); fruits (fresh&dried), vege, flowers etc but no fish. We went to Manor (their supermart) to purchase some stuffs for dinner, including fish etc; Chef of the day-Dr Zairi.

We bought another piece of sweater as i tak mau mati kekerasan di situ.

Wan took photo of me with the cows as it reminds us of someone dear to us. Cheerio!


We sent the stuffs back to Xavier's home, went out again for lunch, this time joined by Xavier's pal, Adisa, a very sweet lady. We had Spanish lunch @ El Chiringuito Restaurant located at Saint-Laurent 38, 1003, Lausanne (hmm, I can put all this info as i took their tissue back with me!). A small place, there's only about 7 small tables but they have this bar-like tables where people eat, standing.

Halfway thru lunch, a group of young boys came in and started playing their music, then they pass the hat around...
We went back to Xavier's to rest. Xavier's home seems like a garden, full of fresh plants in the living room, even a banana tree as you can see in the picture.


We helped Zairi prepare stuffs for dinner.....




Xavier, Adisa, Wan & me went out to Ouchy again later in the afternoon, Xavier took us through 'jalan tikus', the shortcut so he said, but OMG it was a vey long walk! Wan had a great time with his camera,clik clacking away. We enjoyed the wonderful sunset, in full view of Lake Geneva, though all the trees were leave-less. Adisa said it will be spring in about 3 weeks time



We arrived just in time for dinner.
There were seven of us at the dinner table; Xavier invited his colleague, Natalie to sample the Malaysian food; white rice with Chili Fish, fish in dark soy sauce, buttered prawns, vege & masak lemak lala (a type of clams). Thanks Dr Zairi for the delicious dinner and thank you Xavier & Adisa, the host.


After dinner, it was dessert (?); Bread w cheese again, green tea flavoured with fresh mint and a specially home-made honey prepared by Adisa's uncle in Bosnia, it was made from nectar of flowers from Tilia tree
It was late evening before we said goodnight. Too full/too tired/too cold/too late to walk, we took a taxi back to the hotel.

22 feb, Sunday -day3
Sunday morning, we went to Ouchy again joined by Nan/Zairi after b'fast. It was raining, so there's nothing much we can do/enjoy.


We checked out of the hotel to our next destination - Geneva. It was snowing then & I had the feel of 'snowflakes' coming down.Pictured below, Lausanne central station in the background.


The sad look as I boarded the train from Lausanne to Geneva....I missed the earlier (when we arrived) nice countryside view that was covered in snow now.....till then.