Logical Philosopher: December 2009

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Geneva, On-Time

Back October I spend the weekend in Geneva, and holy time do they take their watches seriously! Fortunatly, my trip gave me 2 full days to spare and see the city. Half of one of my days was spent exploring St. Pierre's Cathedral. With excavations under the church hall dating back as far as 350AD, and the actual Cathedral buildings being started around 1160AD, there was some impressive architecture.

The view from the North Tower offers a panoramic view of Geneva and the lakefront: Geneva. This would have been the view of all of Geneva and Lac Leman when the city was first formed:

Excavation underneath St. Pierre's Cathedral. This mosaic floor was from ~200BC, and would have been the original floor that the bishop would ahve welcomed their guests into:

Crest on St. Pierre's Cathedral:

Inside St. Pierre's Cathederal.

Corner of one of the towers in St. Pierre's Cathederal. I was allowed to climb up into the spires to look at the view. It was one of the highest points in the old city, looking both over the lake and the entire old-town.

The rest of my time was exploring the Old Town.
Place Neuve. The Grand Théâtre de Genève can be seen in the background:
The Grand Théâtre de Genève (Opera House), originally built around 1876

Rue de la Corraterie:

Mur des Reformatures: It is about 5-meter tall and 100-meter wide wall runs along one side of the Parc des Bastion.

You can see the Lords Prayer with a picture of John Knox preaching at St. Giles. Roger Williams (16th century theologian) is on the right.

And yes, for those who know me, I did visit [Jean-Jacques] Rosseau Island.

Unfortunately there was 3 things on my list I didn't get to do:
1) Visit the UN. I ran out of time but would have loved to see the Great Assembly Hall.
2) Impressionist wing of the Art & History Museum. I was looking forward to sitting and contemplating a blog post while looking at the works of Van Gogh & Renior. While the rest of the Museum was open, this wing was closed "because of the birds". I am not sure what that meant, but it sounded ominous when the Security Guard told it to me after I tried to get through the locked door.
3) The Jet d'eau. On the lakefront there is the world's tallest jet spouting water 140m into the air. I walked down to the Jet, both days, but it was too windy for the Jet to be operating.

All the more reason to visit again...