Switzerland - A day trip

Okay, so Kazakhstan was cancelled but there is no rest for the wicked! I was asked to fill in for colleagues and go to the UN HQ in Geneva and talk to a meeting about the work we have been doing in Central Asia.

So Friday morning I was on the early morning Austrian flight to Geneva. It was a very nice flight in a Fokker 70 with clear skies. As we took off Austria was sitting in the sun down below.

Although I sat on the side away from the Alps I could see there was still plenty of snow on the tops of the mountains. On final approach to Geneva the town was clearly seen alongside the lake with the airport at the back and the UN HQ is the large pale coloured complex in the centre right surrounded by parkland.I was pretty early for the meeting so I took the chance to have a lesiurely breakfast at the airport coffee shop before heading off to the meeting. I also had a look at the airport itself. Quite busy and the runway is parallel to the mountains.

The UN HQ, the Palais des Nation, is an imposing complex of art deco-like buildings looking down onto the lake and a little bit away from the centre of town.

The view from the Palais des Nations down towards lake Geneva.

The whole of the front terraced area was being refurbished but the view across the facade is still still pretty impressive.

The main front terrace of the Palais des Nations.

The meeting was preceeded by a sandwich lunch with the delegates and a few high ranking diplomats. After the meeting I had coffee with the liaison officer and then headed back to the airport. The flight home was with Fly Baboo - a low cost swiss airline. The aircraft was an Embraer 190 . Looks like a small 737 with only 4 seats across and made in Brazil. A low cost airline perhaps but leather seats, and a crew of pleasant staff who served a constant stream of tea, cofffee, water, soft drinks and small sanwiches and fruit kebabs. Pretty good when compared to some other bigger airlines and most low cost ones!

Geneva airport was busy British, Swiss, Lufthansa, Etihad and easy-jet as well as fly Baboo on the ramp when we departed.

For the flight home I was on the "Alps side" and the view was magnificent.

We had departed early and were well ahead of schedule on what looked like a good evening......Then we had a long hold over Vienna due to rain and thunderstorms. probably about 30 minutes or more before we landed at about 8:15.

So, a good day out and an interesting location for work. Just now there is a long weekend here in Vienna and a chance to get ready before heading off to Sydney for a short 2 week break on Wednesday.