Geneva & Nearby Villages

My home base whilst in Switzerland was Geneva, as I was staying with my cousin and his wife. It was so nice to be around family, as I’d been travelling for just under a month at this point and solo travelling can get rather lonely.

Whilst in Geneva, I explored Lake Geneva, the old town, visited the longest park bench in the world, and tried traditional Swiss cuisine. I also saw the tree which is an official part of the city council; the secretary of the Grand Council of Geneva observes the tree, recording the date the first leaf opens and announcing it publicly as a sign of spring’s arrival. 

Once I had seen the highlights of Geneva, I decided to explore the nearby Swiss villages of Montreux and Vevey.

Montreux was what I imagined a typical Swiss village to look like, with cobblestone streets, flowers growing everywhere, street lanterns, and beautiful architecture. Whilst there I visited Church Saint-Vincent, and after coming across an organist, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to play the cathedral organ whilst the church was empty. It was an incredible experience.

Next, I travelled further north to Vevey. The old town in Vevey is right alongside the lake, which made for absolutely stunning views. I spent a large amount of time exploring the beauty of the village streets, and also visited Eglise Notre Dame. I stayed there for dinner and ate right at the lake, surrounded by ducks.

Whilst in Switzerland, I also took a day trip to the nearby French town Annecy. It was one of the highlights of the trip. The town is gorgeous, and very charming. Lake Annecy runs right through the old town, which is why the town is nicknamed the ‘Venice of the Alps’. I only was able to spend an hour here as I missed the earlier train, and had to get back to catch my train out of Switzerland, but it was definitely worth it!

I planned to head back to Vienna as I needed to repeat some security scans for my UK visa, due to having to replace my passport. As goes my luck, two of my trains were delayed and I ended up missing my overnight train to Vienna by roughly 30 seconds. I was then temporarily stranded in a small town called St. Gallen, and had no way to head to Vienna until about 6am the next morning. My visa appointment was for first thing that morning, so I ended up missing my appointment and had to pay a further $400 NZD to reschedule it. To summarise, it was 11pm at night, I was in a foreign country alone with nowhere to sleep and very little money, so I was pretty stressed out.

But, thankfully it wasn’t all bad. I have a German friend I met on her exchange to NZ about 10 years ago who happened to be living in a seaside town in Germany about an hour away. I managed to message her 5 minutes before she was about to go to sleep, so I was able to get to her place and crash on her air mattress for the night.