I’ve now been in Geneva for a week. I came here for a two week stint following my trip to Italy. This visit is less about vacationing and more about kinda being back into the work routine – albeit from a distant location.

As the crow flies, this is actually not all that far from my Piedmont, Italy stays. As Lufthansa flies, you have to first go to Munich and then fly back. Strange, but that’s what I was able to arrange.

We have an office here in Geneva and I am simply working out of this office for a couple weeks. The primary motivation aside from the interest in seeing one of our European offices was to see some of the area nearby on the weekends. The 7 hour time difference makes the weekdays a bit of a challenge, particularly if meetings back home are in the afternoon there. That means they are at night here.

I’m doing a short term rental rather than a hotel. I have a private room with bathroom in an apartment a couple of stops from the main Geneva train station. The picture below was taken from the patio just off the shared dining room. Nice.

The Geneva water spout gives some sense of where the center of everything is. It’s not too far away. But then, with public transit being what it is here in Geneva, you can get anywhere pretty easily.

As cities go, Geneva isn’t all that big. I think someone told me it was just over 200K people. As you can see from the photo, there aren’t many big tall buildings in the city either. I was told that is by design (and probably ordinance though I’m not 100% sure of that one).

Despite being as small as it is, the city is extraordinarily expensive. In fact, by what I understand, it’s among the most expensive cities in the world. Even the most basic of lunches with something to drink are over CHF 20 which would put it over $22. Generally I’ve found food to be on the order of double what it would cost in the US. Have dinner in a decent place and it’ll be over CHF 50.

I’ve had a mix of weather since getting here. The weekend I arrived it was cool and on again off again rain. Today, a week later it’s pretty similar. In the mean time during the week it was very nice. Sunny and drier. I’ve been surprised at how humid it’s been here. And with little if any air conditioning, it can sometimes be stifling inside buildings. Woe is you if you end up stuck inside a restaurant instead of out on their terrace. By comparison I guess we’re used to frigid indoor temps in the summer.

You can see in the photo below how nice the weather was during the week. This photo too was taken from the patio at my apt rental. If you look close, that’s not a white cloud but is instead the snow capped peak of Mont Blanc. At least that’s what I’m told by the owner of this place.