Saturday, July 14, 2007

Bike ride...Confignon to Lake Geneva

Where's Waldo..?
(Hint: Click on the photo and then inspect carefully for a faded "sunflower".)

There he is!
The Geneva Canton's bike trails make it easy to reach the main city and/or any number of quaint villages using pedal-power.

From our home exchange in the village of Confignon it is only about 7km into town -- not nearly enough to make Jolene's legs happy (i.e. tired) enough to rest for the remainder of the day. So... we always go to Geneva by heading the opposite direction, crossing the Rhone River at least twice, passing through several sunflower fields, backtracking at up to four times (Case's "nose" for direction doesn't always agree with the bike trails' planners'), and finally happening across the town almost by accident about the time Jolene wants a snack and Case is ready for a nap. For us, I suppose, it is this sort of experience that separates "travel" from "touring".
Lake Geneva's waterfront fountain, or Jet d'Eau, erupts over 140 meters skyward at 200km/h. Water droplets take a full 18 seconds to make the round trip from nozzle outlet back to the lake.

Case thought the engineering history of this attraction was of interest:

With a tonne of water aloft at any moment...
a stiff breeze from the right direction will bring a soaking.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well said.