Geneva Part II

One way Kelly likes to get to know a city is by running in the morning.  Friday morning when he headed out about 8 am he was hit with a cold blast of wind and temperatures in the low 20s.  He ran towards a park near the river on top of hill.  After navigating the icy path to the top, he discovered only one other person and his dog in the park and ice everywhere.  He decided that it was too treacherous and too cold and he headed back after running for only about a half hour.  This was the path up to the park.

Running Path

We went to Denise's apartment where Kate was staying and were almost knocked over by the wind.  We decided to meet Jean-Michel at his latest project so he could show us around.  We thought being inside was a good idea.  It turned out his latest project was renovating the Price Waterhouse Coopers office in Geneva.  Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside, but this is the sign in front of the building.

The building uses water from the lake to heat and cool the building and it is very energy efficient.  It has been attracting a lot of attention and many people want to see how they renovated and furnished the building.  They used the theme of water and glaciers throughout the building in the flooring, walls, furnishings, etc.  After our tour, we decided to eat in the firm cafeteria instead of going back out in the cold.  We had an excellent lunch, with some Swiss praline chocolate for dessert.
We decided we would have to finally brave the cold and wind again to take a tour of the United Nations.  We were a bit early and were not allowed to wait inside, so we went to a small museum nearby called the Ariane. 

Ariane Museum

Lobby of the Museum

All of the columns of the arcade on the second floor of the museum were different. 

Close Up of Two Arcade Columns

It is a museum dedicated to seven centuries of glass.  We found an interesting urn filled with glass fruit-including blue bananas.

Blue Bananas

After we warmed up we headed back to the United Nations for our tour.  One person in the group had to show a passport and have his picture taken for an ID badge.  We elected Kelly.  We thought it strange that only one person in each group was required to show identification.  What about the rest of us?  But we all did get bright orange lanyards to wear during the tour.  The first building in the complex we visited first was built in the 1970s.  Unfortunately it looked very typical of the 1970s.  We saw some regular conference rooms.  Notice our lovely orange lanyards.

Large Conference Room

They tried to modernize the building by adding this painted ceiling in one of the conference rooms.  The artist was a contemporary artist, Miguel Barcelo, from Spain.  The stalactites were made out of lightweight plastic and then the ceiling was painted.

Close up of the Painted Ceiling.

Our favorite part of the United Nations was the Palais des Nations built for the League of Nations in 1929-1936 in the Art Deco style.  The United Nations received all the buildings and property from the League of Nations after World War II. 



These are the original outside doors from the League of Nations.  They are bronze and so heavy people had a hard time opening them to get inside.  So they took them off and decided to display them inside instead.

Adam & Eve Door

Bronze Door

The doors in the building had the combined English/French monogram of the League of Nations.  We loved the Art Deco interior in the building. 

League of Nations Monogram

Art Deco Light Fixture

UN Clock

One of the conference rooms still had the original murals and furnishings from the League of Nations.  The murals covered all the walls and the ceiling and were painted by a Spaniard.  The mural was an allegory about war and cooperation among nations. 

League of Nations Conference Room

The view outside toward the lake was also beautiful. 

View of Lake Geneva from the UN

Palais des Nations

That evening we had raclette at the apartment.  It tasted so good.  Jean-Michel said that the tradition in Switzerland is to drink something warm with raclette so the cheese doesn't ball up in your stomach.  They made a delicious herbal mint tea for us.

Ready to Eat Raclette

Denise and Jean-Michel had a cute little two-bedroom Geneva Apartment.  Kate's favorite was their red refrigerator.  Kelly thought it looked like an old-fashioned Coke machine.

Living Room

Kitchen

That evening we went to the ballet "Gloria" at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices.  It is  in the middle of the River Rhône and was originally built in the 19th century to be a water pumping and hydroelectric station. There are still two turbines in the lobby.  It was a really cool building mixing old and new and industrial.

View of the Lobby with Blue Turbines from the Back of the Balcony

The ballet was set to Handel's music, including the Hallelujah Chorus.  We really enjoyed it and Kelly tried to interpret it all for us afterwards.  Kate used her dance critique skills from school to tell us how predictable the beginning was.  They are both so smart.

Standing in Front of the Balcony Made of Wood

It was another wonderful day in Geneva and we had managed to avoid the wind and cold most of the day.