21 April 2019

The Nellington Adventures - Geneva - Sisters on Tour

 I love travelling with my sister. She is definitely one of my favourite travel buddies.



Like me, she loves a nice hotel. She gets lounge access pretty much everywhere. But most importantly, she totally gets us not sharing a room whilst on holiday - which we are starting to realise not everybody understands. We enjoy going away together, but we appreciate and quite frankly need our own space. Most people we tell this to, think its crazy - but it works for us. 

I'm currently writing this post, from the beautiful Switzerland. This will be the first installment (of hopefully many) of what I'll be calling the ๐Ÿ’•Nellington Adventures๐Ÿ’•. This will consist of  a collection of posts, about places I travel to or stay at,  abroad and in the UK for any duration of time.


Chapter 1 - Geneva - Sisters on Tour 


I was lucky enough to start Thursday with  a lie in, before strolling down to my local favourite cafe, forks and green. www.forksandgreen.co.uk - Seriously... check it out if you get a chance. I love their scrambled eggs on sourdough toast. Their Tropical Crush smoothie is a weekly buy for me in the summer . Once my sister had arrived at my house (having landed from the US) we left for the airport. No, our flight wasn't leaving until the next day. Yes, We like to stay in airport hotels if we can. We cruised in on the Gatwick Express and checked into the Hilton London Gatwick (south terminal)- Amazing hotel. Staff were lovely. Room was lovely. Once chilling out in the executive lounge - my holiday had officially begun. We had dinner in the hotels buffet restaurant, and ate so much I was thankful I wasn't going on a bikini holiday.  A bottle of Prosecco and 4 courses at the buffet later and  I was ready for bed.

I'm not a fan of my alarm clock, but when it went off at 4:30am, I felt the same excitement I feel on  Christmas morning (Yes, even at my age I still get excited on the morning of the 25th December, like a kid that still believes milk an cookies for Santa, whilst he does a little breaking and entering the night before) We grabbed our bags, grabbed breakfast and jumped on the shuttle to the North Terminal. Do I think Easyjet need to have a chat with Gatwick about them flying in & out of both terminals? Definitely.

We decided to give premium security a try. Absolutely worth it, for getting through without having to join a massive queue, or if you're running late. And at the a cost of only a fiver, it won't put a massive dent in your cocktail budget. Of course, our gate had to be the furthest one away, but I'm always trying to get those steps in, to hit my daily Fitbit goal, so its all good. The flight was 20 mins delayed and even though we had speedy boarding we ended up on the plane last. Not gonna lie, irritation crept in from that - which seemed like a good opportunity to work on that deep breathing to find calm. It worked. I was falling asleep before take off, but we'd landed in the most beautiful country I've ever see, in what felt like 10 mins. My sister also got us passport control in Geneva. This is pricier and unless you're making big bucks I wouldn't suggest doing it on every trip. But for the experience of being picked up as soon as you walk down the steps of the plane, by your own escort, being chauffeured over to a separate passport office (One I've been advised diplomats use), getting a stamp in my passport, - even though I'm travelling within Europe (I did have to request this) and being walked out of arrivals to the hotel shuttle bus in under 10 mins, it was worth it.

We arrived at the Starling Hotel Geneva in about 7 minutes.



I seriously didn't realise how close it was to the airport. I'm a creature of habit, so I tend to stay in hotels I've used before. But I figured I'd throw caution to the wind. We were visiting a country we'd never been to, so why not stay in a hotel we'd never used. As soon as I stepped out of the shuttle bus, all trepidation had subsided. The hotel is beautiful. The staff have been amazing. Super helpful, friendly and accommodating. Our rooms are smaller than I thought they would be, but it didn't even matter, because they're lovely. With 2 restaurants and 3 bars, I'm clearly hitting my workouts hard when I get back.

We arrived at midday and even though check-in is at 2pm, our rooms were ready. So we dropped off our stuff and came down to the outside restaurant L'olivo for a snack. We only wanted something small, and everything on the menu seemed quite big, so we went for the sensible option. Desserts. I had a strawberry tart (which when it arrived was accompanied with strawberry sorbet) and My sister had a pistachio creme brulee. Both were divine, but she did have a little dessert envy over mine. The sun has been shining its little ass off since we arrived, so were lucky enough to be able chill outside with our desserts and cappuccino's for a while.

As it had been a long day already so far (and quite frankly we couldn't be asked),  we made the executive decision to uber into town, rather than try and figure out the public transport system. As part of your stay, the hotel offer a free travel card, to use on buses, trams and trains for your entire stay. Below are places we checked out over good Friday and Saturday. They're definitely worth visiting, if you're ever in Switzerland.

1) St Pierre Cathedral (Chapel of the Maccabees) - I haven't visited a lot of  cathedrals or churches in my time, but this one is a beauty.



2) Old Town - A mixture of old style architecture with some modern elements thrown in.



3) Jet D'Eau - A water fountain that looks like it literally touches the cloud. Its beautiful from far away and so surreal up close. 


4) Lake Geneva - Its in the name..lol. It has some beautiful statues on the walk around it and you can hire a boat to get across it.



5) Palais des Nations - I figured I could sort out Brexit whilst here, but I was clearly in the wrong place. It was nice to see though and you can do a take a free tour of the building.


6) Broken Chair - A humongous chair, with a broken leg. Now this may not sound spectacular, but its one of the biggest chairs I've ever seen that you cannot sit on.



7)Le Perron (Fondue) - A cute little restaurant, located near the St Pierre cathedral, where we stopped for some Fondue. They Offer 3 cheese, cheese with mushroom and cheese with champagne.



8)Maison Tavel - A museum dedicated to the reformation of Geneva. Obviously they had a lot of historic content. Lots of doors, a cellar you can climb into and a barrel that could hold enough booze for an Ibiza weekender.





9)Sweetzerland Chocolats - A little boutique chocolate shop where my sister and I spent more money on chocolate then the average person would. Sorry, not sorry.



10) The Starling Hotel - A beautifully modern hotel located less than 10 minutes from the airport. Its about 25 minutes from the town centre on public transport, buts it where I will probably stay, WHEN I come back to Geneva. 


As I'm making more of an effort to try new things wherever possible - and being in a new country I figured there was no better time than the present to give my tongue a treat. All of you with Dirty Minds or Sexy Imaginations.....calm down. The treat was food. 
Below are 5 new foods I sampled in Geneva

Croissant au Jambon - A mini croissant with a big lump of ham in it. Not gammon or sandwich ham, it was more the consistency of a sausage roll. If I ever lived anywhere where these were as easily available as here, I'd quickly have to make peace with working out 3 times a day.

Veal sausages - I've never tried veal before, so I thought I'd give the pork a break and give these a go instead. They were being served as part of the breakfast buffet at our hotel and I've had them every morning whilst here. 

Gruyere Cheese - 3 words..... Very Smelly Cheese! I wasn't a fan. Even when coupled with a beautiful brioche bread. I'm not sure if this was because, I'm a mainly mild cheddar cheese person or if the smell put me off, but I can't say I'll be picking up a block of Gruyere on my next Tesco run. But I'm glad I tried it. Thankfully my daily hit of  brioche bread wasn't alone on the plate. I paired it with the Brie and Turkey Ham on offer.

Fondue - So despite what I said about my mild cheddar cheese choice, I tried a 3 cheese fondue at the lovely Le Perron. It was a lot for 2 people but the experience itself was worthwhile. Using super skinny forks, to dip bread into an oozing pot of cheese, whilst sipping prosecco & sparkling water, sitting in the sun, on the outskirts of old town was not the worst way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Calypso Sauce - This came with a Prawn and Crab salad I ordered from room service and I almost licked the bowl that it came in. The salad consisted of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes (They got picked out, I am not team tomato), radishes, red onion, pomegranate, some pink wispy salad thing (should probably find out the actual name of that), Prawns, crab and passion fruit. Now, my brain has never really gotten around the idea of fruit in a salad, unless its fruit salad, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked how these ingredients worked together.

Between the places visited, the food, the hotel, the beautiful country and the (mostly) friendly people, my trip to Geneva has earned itself the favourite holiday destination award. If the above isn't enough intrigue you into visiting, the view of all of the beautiful mountains you absolutely have to see in person should help you at least consider a visit. A couple of things to bare in mind if you do....

1) Buses - Just because your uber drove you to a location one way, its doesn't mean the bus taking you back, is necessarily going to be travelling the opposite direction..lol. My sister and I found that out, when we boarded the bus back to the hotel on the opposite side of the street, to where we jumped out of the uber, only to end up at the end of the line without ever passing our hotel. Thankfully, a very kind lady saw the confusion on our faces and between her and the bus driver, helped us to establish where we'd gone wrong and what we could do to rectify it. The buses run super on time and there doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic anywhere, the complete opposite to London. We didn't get a chance to ride a train or tram, which is a shame.

2) Cleanliness - Geneva is possibly the cleanest city I've ever seen in my life. No rubbish on the floor, very few cigarette butts (they have a lot of designated smoking bins). The toilets are immaculate, even in all of the public places we visited. They're all self cleaning.

3) Crossings - Be sure to be cautious with this one. Even when the green crossing man appeared,  traffic could still flow. My sister almost got clipped by a tram. Also, a couple of the places where you might be walking have mini roads where cars can drive through, so just be wary of that.

I know people are normally sad to be going home from their holidays, but I am genuinely gutted to not have spent more time in this beautiful country. Thankfully the knowledge of a new episode of GoT by the time I land tomorrow, is keeping the tears at bay. I could easily see me coming back to chill for a long weekend sooner rather than later and if Theresa doesn't sort out brexit, I'd be more than happy to move here. This trip has been an eye opener to a different way of living and one of the best experiences of 2019 so, Thank you Geneva.



I'll be adding the entire album to Pinterest and my Facebook page shortly so keep and eye out๐Ÿ˜Š

Have a great day, remember you are a unicorn and don't let anybody shit on your rainbow ๐Ÿ’•

6 comments:

  1. I totally get not sharing a room - it makes perfect sense to me, and I wish more people would coop onto it.

    You guys looked to have a lovely time! Thank you for sharing :)

    - Nyxie

    https://nyxiesnook.com/describe-your-life-before-recovery/

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  2. Maybe we should start group for people that understand not sharing a hotel room ๐Ÿ˜† Thank you hun it was amazing ๐Ÿ˜

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  3. Beautiful! You make me want to travel!! Thank you for sharing all the details, I love learning about new places. Ok, off to daydream about Geneva now :)

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    1. Thank you so much, I'm happy you liked it ☺️I want to travel as much as possible. It's definitely worthwhile visiting☺️

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  4. Beautiful pictures! I love my sister, but I definitely understand the "not sharing a room" thing!

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  5. Thank you ☺️I'm glad so many people get it ๐Ÿคฃ

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