December 29, 2024 At the “Rehab Center”

Geneva, Switzerland

Happy Day Before the Day Before—

Thanks for all the kind words about our health situations. I am fine and Mike is a lot better than he was on the 26th. Almost back to normal.

But all of this changed our travel picture: We are still in Geneva but at an upscale “resort” located about 20 minutes from Geneva’s downtown. It’s important to remember that Geneva is a really small city, with a population that is less than half that of Oakland. But it is the home of the highest number of international organizations in the world, making it a global city. And of course it is a large financial center where lots of wealth management takes place at non-publicly listed banks and private banks, and there are also a lot of foreign-owned banks as well. Given my vast knowledge (or lack thereof) of the financial world, I can only say that it sounds a lot like money laundering and non-taxable funds, and that every time we are here we are struck by the cost of living and the obvious wealth in the region. The larger metropolitan area has a population of a little over 1 million.

And Switzerland has time and again decided against becoming part of the European Union. And despite many different reasons, most people say it’s because Switzerland is “too rich and too stable to want to join.” Instead, Switzerland has some kind of “special relationship” or “special status” which seems to work for Switzerland, and I assume that it works “well enough” for the EU. But I’ve heard other reasons as well: the Swiss can call elections on issues several times a year and some worry being in the EU could constrain that form of direct democracy; immigration concerns related to peoples’ free movement within EU countries and the impact on wages; Switzerland’s funding within the EU would force it to pay more than it would get back in services and programs; Switzerland doesn’t see itself as having a security problem given its geographic location; and Switzerland’s desire to be independent and neutral.

Anyway, back to our situation. We are now comfortably ensconced at our rehab center (aka La Reserve Hotel and Spa), a luxury resort that is about 20 minutes from downtown (by train or car). It’s located on about 10 acres of landscaped property on the shores of Lake Geneva. There are two restaurants (one is Michelin star) and one additional lunch place that is in the health spa. There are two pools (one indoors), lots of spa treatments (or so I am told), and diverse sports options. Obviously being winter (and pretty cold—between 30 and 40 degrees), I assume many of those sports options are only for the hardiest. La Reserve has a safari theme (get it “La Reserve!”) so all the art/paintings and photos hanging on the walls are of animals in the wild. And throughout there are other indications of this theme, like on the glasses and the leopard patterned carpeting. It’s a bit dated in the plan and furnishings (not at all poorly maintained; in fact everything is impeccable; but the design is sort of 20-years-old and the hotel isn’t that up-to-date technologically, but they compensate in other ways).

For example, after returning to our room last night after dinner, during turndown they coiled all of our many electronic cords that were dangling everywhere, with little leather “straps” to make them neat. And at my computer was a little packet that held a cloth to clean the screen of my computer!

We arrived mid-afternoon yesterday after visiting with Elizabeth (Mike’s sister-in-law) which was the reason we were stopping in Geneva and why we come pretty much annually. She’s really been under the weather (some kind of bug) for more than a week but seems to be on the mend, but not yet up to her normal state. We had a chance to catch up and drop off gifts for the family, but didn’t linger so that Elizabeth could rest. We had hoped to have some time with Emma/Hem and Finn (niece, husband, and son) who live in London but who had been skiing in the alps over Christmas, but we all crossed in transit. Emma will be staying on in Geneva so we will try to connect in the next day or so.

Oh yes, the weather… Whatever app you look at for the weather in Geneva it shows bright sun… but it is quite overcast. Perhaps that is winter sun here in Geneva. At least no rain. I’m using the day to catch up on work and prepare for next Maui trip and interviews. It’s sort of a good transition moment—no need to do any touring as we’ve been to Geneva so many times… so it is a very very pleasant and probably much needed R&R with great food and pleasant surroundings.. and we are sort of ignoring this wildlife theme… even a Christmas decorated glass elephant… still rather strange.

Let’s see… the other photos above include the giant chess and checkers games (about 10 sets) outside the restaurant Kiosque des Bastions where we had dinner (but only ate a few bites because of stomach concerns) on Friday night…. One more shot from Le Trein Bleu … just because it is so damn photogenic… and the tree with Xmas messages on the streets of Carouge (where Elizabeth lives and where Julia and Emma grew up). For those interested, Carouge is a little hamlet at the edge of Geneva proper. It used to be its own town but is now a district of Geneva. It’s quite quaint and supposedly modeled after Nice, but many Swiss say it is the “Greenwich Village of Geneva” because it has a lot of boutiques and artisan studios—but it is a very sanitized, romanticized miniature of New York’s Greenwich Village; In any case Carouge is quite sweet.

That’s it for today.
Oh, the other change in plans is that we will now fly home from Geneva, several days earlier than we would have had we been in Sofia.
See you stateside in 2025.

Fern

PS – Will write again, for the foodies among you, after we try the Michelin star restaurant and if we do anything interesting beyond lounging around here.