Last week I made my first foray into traveling outside of Denmark when my class took a trip to Germany. This past Friday, my friends Kerry, Lauren, Erica and I left Denmark again to spend the weekend in Switzerland and France. All of the other traveling I’ve done has been with my family or some sort of organized program, so this was my first time traveling with friends on our own!
We booked the trip pretty late (try 5 days before we left) so we didn’t get great flight prices, but we decided a weekend trip to the Alps was worth it. We planned to fly into Geneva, Switzerland on Friday, spend the afternoon there, then take a bus to Chamonix-Mont Blanc, France and stay there until Sunday morning. When we got to the airport in Copenhagen and learned our easyJet flight was delayed, we were bummed that we wouldn’t have as much time in Geneva. The good news was that the delay was only an hour, and when we got to Switzerland at around 5pm we were able to push back our bus to France until 10:30pm.
Erica, Kerry, me and Lauren standing in front of Lake Geneva.
We spent the next five and a half hours roaming around the oldest neighborhoods of Geneva and eating dinner. Our first stop was the Jet d’Eau, the famous fountain in the middle of Lake Geneva that’s one of the highest in the world! When we got down to the lake, which the city is built around, we confusedly searched for a few minutes. We assumed it would be pretty easy to spot a large fountain shooting into the air. Using one of the four different maps we got from the tourism desk at the airport, we found the spot where the fountain was supposed to be and confirmed that it definitely wasn’t on. Disappointed, we decided to keep walking and try to catch a glimpse of the fountain if we had time on Sunday.
One of the fountains in old city- so European!
Kerry, our official navigator, led us into the old city, and we spent the next few hours roaming around sightseeing and buying chocolate! We came across so many beautiful little fountains in the winding cobblestone streets. Before heading to dinner, we casually wandered back near the lake—and I spotted the fountain! We were SO excited that it was finally on and tried to take lots of pictures. The sky was pretty gray and cloudy so the water from the fountain blended in, but we were just happy we got to see a sight that Geneva is known for.
Finally got my picture in front of the fountain!
We ate dinner OUTDOORS because it was 80 degrees in Geneva—we’re all used to a high of 60 and constant clouds and rain in Copenhagen! I would have liked to spend a little more time in Geneva (we didn’t get a chance to go to CERN, the site of the world’s largest particle accelerator) but we had to rush back to the airport to catch a bus to France.
The fountain at night.
The trip to Chamonix took about an hour and a half. When we arrived at our hostel at midnight, we were greeted by a group of Brits wearing face paint, glitter, and bizarre costumes. We thought they were celebrating a local festival or something, but we found out the next day that they were just heading to a bar that was having a huge party. We didn’t get a chance to check out that bar since we all passed out almost immediately so we could get an early start on Saturday.
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The forecast for Saturday was cloudy skies and a strong chance of rain, but we didn’t let that stop us from planning out a full day. We got breakfast at a quintessential French bakery at 7:30am—I had my first pain du chocolate since eating one on a flight to France years ago and feeling sick to my stomach for the rest of the day. Thankfully, this pain du chocolate was light and delicious.
This is the sight we woke up to.
Our first stop was the Aiguille du Midi cable car that takes you to the top of a mountain right next to Mont Blanc. When packing for this trip, I had looked up the weather for Geneva and Chamonix and had seen that it was going to be pretty warm- 80s in Geneva, 60s/70s in Chamonix. However, I hadn’t thought about the fact that we were going to the top of a mountain. As we boarded the cable car, I looked at the whiteboard next to the entrance and saw that the temperature at the top was -4 degrees Celsius, or about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. I was wearing sneakers, jeans and had attempted to layer up by wearing a t-shirt, cardigan, flannel shirt, and rain jacket. Basically, I was COMPLETELY unprepared, but I couldn’t miss this opportunity to go to the top of a mountain in France. The views from the cable car as we made the journey up were stunning—this was my first time in the Alps, and I couldn’t actually believe I was seeing all these mountains and glaciers.
After the clouds parted, we saw the view from the top of the Aiguille du Midi!
Proof that I made it! And that I’m freezing.
When we stepped off at the top, I knew I was in trouble. The temperature definitely felt below freezing, and coupled with the wind and fog it was pretty miserable. We were definitely disappointed that the clouds prevented us from seeing Mont Blanc. We still spent as much time up there as we could, and it was cool looking down to see the town of Chamonix and the rest of the valley. I did reach a point where I had to sprint inside to get some hot chocolate and buy some gloves—it started snowing! I’m glad we made the trip up, and I hope to return to Chamonix in the future to finally see Mont Blanc!
This is where Mont Blanc is supposed to be…
where is Mont Blanc?
We made our way back down to the bottom of the mountain, stopping at the halfway (and warmer) point to take some pictures with the scenery and some donkeys! We refueled in town by grabbing sandwiches for lunch, then headed over to the train station to take a train up to the Mer de Glace glacier.
All of us in the Alps!
Every year, a new ice cave is excavated so you can walk inside the glacier. After a 30 minute hike down to the entrance during which I only fell down metal stairs once, we walked into the glacier. Colored lights lined the walls of the ice cave so you felt like you were in a club, and the cave even included an ice kitchen, ice bedroom, and ice bathroom!
Rave cave.
Ice kitchen.
Inside a glacier!
By the time we made it back to the top of the glacier and onto the train, we were exhausted. To remedy that, we had an afternoon snack of crepes! I chose a pear, chocolate and whipped cream crepe, Kerry and Erica got ones with bananas, almonds, chocolate, and ice cream, and Lauren got a savory crepe with goat cheese and ratatouille. Our crepe break gave us the energy to walk around the town and shop until dinner.
Erica’s crepe- they were delicious.
For dinner I had to have another typical French dish- fondue! Lauren and I shared a pot of cheese fondue that was very tasty and very filling. We were all wiped out from our long day, so after dinner we headed back to our hostel to sleep.
Even better than The Melting Pot.
On Sunday we just woke up and took a shuttle bus from our hostel back to the Geneva airport. Our flight was right on schedule this time and we made it back to Copenhagen in the early afternoon. The only thing that could have been better about the trip was the weather on Saturday. I wish I had done some more planning of what to do in Geneva so we could have tried to see CERN, but our day in France was perfect. This weekend I’m heading off on a trip to Belgium, so I’m looking forward to eating even more chocolate and seeing new cities!