Breakfast at the Hotel Strasborg set us up for the day, then wrapping up against the chill we set off to explore Geneva’s city centre.  Starting with a long walk along the banks of Lake Geneva we viewed the Jet d’Eau, Geneva’s lakeshore attraction which spurts water 140 metres into the air.  Along from there is Bains des Paquis, Geneva’s city centre beach, not much happening in early January but we did find a small waterfront cafe for warming mugs of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.  Moving inland to the old town which was practically deserted on this bitterly cold January morning as we explored the small squares and cobbled streets.

Geneva is the largest historic old town in Switzerland and is dominated by St Paul’s Cathedral where we ventured indoors to take a look around.  Soon it was time for lunch so we warmed up with steaming bowls of vegetable soup in a small cafe that had a welcoming log fire to sit around.  Whilst we had been having lunch it had started snowing and the old town cobbles were now slippery to walk on.    We figured it was time to head to the newer part of town and pass some time window shopping in the designer stores.  In one square we found the remnants of the Christmas Market, a few little wooden huts open, their vendors trying to sell their wares in the icy cold weather.

We returned to the warmth of our hotel room to rest and freshen up then enjoyed a meal in one of the restaurants near to the hotel.

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