I went to Geneva!
Well 2018 continues to be a busy year for work travel for me and this time I was off to Geneva. A lot of standards work takes place in Geneva so it felt inevitable that I would some day come to this city, and I was excited to see the sights. My flight landed at 10am on Sunday and I had the whole day to myself. Lucky for me the weather was perfect, about 15 degrees and blue skies. I dropped my bag off at my hotel and then walked down to Lake Geneva and across to the old city.
The first thing I noticed was the SIZE OF THE SWANS. It’s hard to get a sense of them in this picture but believe me, those are some big birds.
I was also very surprised by how clear the water is, I could see straight to the bottom no matter where I was in the city.
Geneva is very charming. It’s clean, not overly crowded (at least not in November) and has lots of beautiful architecture.
These cannons were amongst the artillery requisitioned by Austria in 1814, but were returned to Geneva in 1815. I’m sure there’s some complex history behind this story, but I just really liked the mosaic murals.
I also really liked the fact that there were fountains throughout the old city with potable water.
After wandering around the old city I went to check out the chocolate shops.
And after the tenth chocolate shop I thought I’d change it up.
By late afternoon a nice fog was rolling in and I decided to head back to my hotel to order room service and watch tv in bed.
The next few days were work as usual. I had meetings at the World Trade Organization which is in an old building with beautiful gardens.
And in case you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to sit in a committee meeting at the WTO, this is what the room looked like where my meetings took place.
It was pretty surreal to be sitting in this meeting on the first day.
By the third day it was all old news and I was off to the United Nations for another “pinch me” moment.
This was certainly a trip I won’t soon forget.
gabandkirby 
What a chance of a lifetime,quite an experience.👍👍👍
I love the pictures and the stories. The Avelines are so good ! Thank you again Gabrielle xx