Edwin and Alison return to Europe: Geneva is starting to grow on us

Our second day in Geneva and we're starting to warm to the place. It's not that we never liked it, I mean, what's not to like about anywhere in Switzerland. It's more a case of it failing to really grab us. But today has been beautifully sunny, and quite warm, and we've managed to use the public transport network to explore more of its environs. It's no Vienna or Paris, but that lake does give it a certain quality which makes you want to get out and experience more of the city.

Sorry about the number of images of the water jet, but it is pretty impressive.

We were up pretty early this morning, hoping to maximise our time. To kick the morning off, we took a bus to the Jardin Botaniques (that's botanic gardens for the uninitiated), which sits next to the lake. Although not a world beater of a garden it was, nevertheless, a very nice place for a morning stroll. When we'd finished in the gardens, we took three short ferry trips zig-zagging across the lake, which brought us back pretty much to the centre of town, from where we took a forty-minute bus trip to the lovely lakeside village of Hermance. Although only a short drive from the city, it seemed a world away in terms of its pace and tranquillity.

This old villa was at the botanic gardens, as were the adorable sheep below.

That is definitely the last time I let Alison leave the house without makeup.

Lake Geneva from the quaint village of Hermance

Hermance village

One thing which has really intrigued us about Geneva is the number of people who use scooters as a means of transport. I'm not talking here about your motorised scooters, nope, I mean the ones you skip with. They are everywhere and it's a real sight to see businessmen in designer suits scooting their way to work. We can't quite figure out whether they're ten years behind the rest of the world or ten years ahead.