I must have said it a dozen times before but in the past eight years I have travelled a lot with my blogging pal, Boo.

Poland, Hungary, France, Lithuania, Greece, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and more.

Four to eight days per trip is our normal period of travel together but our most recent jaunt didn’t last too long, barely 48 hours in total.

5am Start

As explained in a previous post, Geneva Jaunt, Boo invited me to Switzerland for the weekend.

I snapped up the opportunity as apart from a couple of tiny principalities like Monaco and Vatican City, I had managed to scratch off most of Mainland Europe that I have hanging on my office wall.

Finally Scratched Off!

The main problem was that Switzerland, smack bang in the middle of the post was unvisited.

It was time to scratch off that little gold section, so I booked my tickets and asked for the time off work.

Fast forward to Thursday evening and I was having a minor meltdown.

I couldn’t locate a specific pair of trousers, my suitcase scales or my adaptor plug. This wasn’t anything that couldn’t be overcome but sent me into an anxiety attack that took a few hours for me to get out of.

In Starbucks

In the meantime, I packed the rest of my holiday list, charged my electricals and triple checked my passport.

Now, when it comes to airports, I feel the overwhelming need to be there multiple hours before my flight departs.

In The Thunderlift

Due to be leaving at 1150 from Luton, I rose at 0500, showered packed my final bits and I was on my way by 0600.

This seemed quite early, however my sat-nav prechecks advised of roadworks that would add a bit of time onto my journey and I didn’t want to be rushing.

On Board Waiting for Take-Off

Sadly (or more so, fortunately)  those roadworks never materialised and I arrived at the pre-booked parking area at just before 0700.

This meant I had nearly 5 hours before take-off, so I settled in for the long wait.

Off We Go

Firstly I headed for baggage check-in as I had arranged for special assistance given that my knee injury really hasn’t improved and I struggle to get around large places.

Once my suitcase was handed over, I hit the Starbucks where I got a venti caramel ice latte and sat down with a brand new cross-stitch I wanted to do.

Up and Away

I passed about 90 minutes just stitching and people watching which I always find fascinating. Around 0900 I went through to the special assistance team who would navigate me through the airport.

Whilst sitting in a wheelchair can seen a bit demeaning. the airport now takes over a massive space and I would really struggle without help.

Wonderful Scenery

The one downside to having assistance is that I don’t usually get a chance to look around duty free or any of the shops.

Don’t get me wrong; if I asked for them to stop and take me around, I am sure they would. However I know they are very busy and there are other people who need help so I just don’t like asking.

The Alps

This means that by the time I am pushed through security and passport control, I usually hit the ‘holding’ area with a couple of hours to wait.

I don’t have a massive issue with this as I am much happier when I am where I need to be, with time to spare as my anxiety doesn’t kick in.

Going Through The Clouds

In this case, I sat in the area with a lovely 90 year old lady who was flying home to Aberdeen after spending time with her family in Cambridge.

We sat and nattered for an hour, talking about past adventures as I stitched away. She was absolutely adorable and I was sad to see her leave as she was wheeled off a good hour or so before I was.

Lake Geneva?

Eventually I was collected and taken down to the tarmac where I was put aboard a thunderlift and taken up to the aircraft door.

The flight was half empty and I luckily was sat in a row of three all by myself. We took off as scheduled and with a flight time of 1 hr 40 minutes, I knew it would literally fly by.

Swiss Landscape

Again, I sat stitching whilst listening to some music and before I knew it, the Captain was announcing our descent into Geneva.

I had managed to get some photographs of the alps as we were passing overhead and a little of Geneva and the lake as we landed onto Swiss ground.

Touchdown

When you get special assistance, you are usually left until the very end of disembarkation before being collected. This was the same in Geneva and I was collected by a lovely young lady who ushered me through passport control onto collect my case.

She told me she was originally from Colombia and was in Switzerland where she was learning languages. We had a good conversation as we went through the airport and by all miracles, my case was the first onto the conveyor and she grabbed it.

My Waiting Thunderlift

Boo was arriving on a different plane around an hour after me, so there was no point in going into the City alone and subsequently paying for two taxis. I sat and waiting at the arrivals lounge and watched people coming and going.

I was even more surprised to see dogs milling around in the areas as this is a definite no-no in the UK.

Just Brilliant

Unfortunately Boo’s flight was delayed considerably and I ended up sitting, relaxing and stitching for a couple of hours. Thankfully Boo finally arrived and we got a taxi into the centre of Geneva where our Hotel was based.

The Hotel Kipling was a small boutique type hotel with exotic decorations that harken back to earlier times; the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when travellers went on adventures to India and Africa.

Gorgeously Appointed

We had a twin room booked which was very bijou. Old book plates were framed and the furniture looked like packing cases and the strappy kind of chairs that were used in old expeditions.

The overwhelming colour scheme was burgundy, cream and gold.

Very Colonial

It was exceedingly classy and very comfortable. There was even complimentary bottles of water and bars of chocolate, which were very much appreciated.

As we had arrived quite late, Boo went online to have a look and see what restaurants were around close-by. She found an American style diner a few minutes walk away.

The American Dream Diner

We headed in that direction and found American Dream. We went inside and it was a bit like a TARDIS; much bigger than the outside showed.

In fact, it was on at least three levels; a Tiki Bar in the basement, then the restaurant and the next floor up sold all American products such as sweets, drinks and other consumables.

Huge Burgers

Perusing the menu, we both opted for a Cheeseburger; mine was a standard patty and Boo had the vegetarian option.

We chose to share a portion of cheese fries as the waiter advised the burgers were quite large.

So Creamy!

Add one Fanta Tropical for Boo and I went with a Vanilla milkshake which was topped with cream. That was pretty huge too, I have to be honest.

The burgers arrived and they were pretty large indeed. Add the fries covered in American style cheese sauce and I was pretty happy with my lot.

American Dream Diner

I have to admit, I couldn’t manage the whole plateful, it really was too much.

Walking back to the hotel, I was quite glad for the fresh air and a chance to walk off a little of the heavy food. We got back into the hotel and as it was still quite early, we opted for jammies, an episode of Ru-Pauls drag race and a soft drink.

Ru-Paul Time

Oh and I obviously did a little bit more stitching!

Stay tuned to hear all about my Saturday in Geneva, coming soon.

Till next time.,

SPSG xxx