Day 56 Calvin, C of E and Chicken

Geneva really is a beautiful city. What’s more on a sleepy Sunday morning after the excitement of the commencement of Euro 2008 we found the city to be very quiet and peaceful. We began our day with a visit to the local Anglican (English Speaking) church. After being outsiders peering in, on some of the most enormous and magnificent cathedrals around the world, it was nice to sit in a normal service and to just be part of the congregation. The people seemed friendly and warm and the curate in charge reminded us a little of the Vicar of Dibley

Geneva is famous for many things but for some the city remains synonymous with one name – John Calvin. Calvin the pastor, academic, theologian and statesman was in many ways the intellectual heart and mind of the reformation. It was Calvin who mentored John Knox who then went on to take the reformed faith to Scotland. So, for a Presbyterian Minister, a visit to Geneva had to include a visit to the old town of Geneva, which is dominated by the church where Calvin preached. Not surprisingly it was an impressive, if not very plain, building. The reformation museum next door was less impressive from the outside, as you could stand if front of a life sized John Calvin cardboard cut-out and place your face in the gap to have the “ This is me looking like John Calvin” photo. Yuk!

To be honest the most interesting part of the visit was climbing the 19th century bell tower to see and hear an incredible Carillon and look out over Geneva’s cityscape and beautiful lake. We have discovered that in most places climbing the tower, or whatever happens to be the highest point, is always worth the view.

With advice from the net (Where to eat in Geneva?) we were back in the old town for dinner at a French Café/Restaurant. We read that the fried chicken was good. What was unusual was the fact that they only had one dish on the menu – half a fried chicken and potato wedges. We confounded the waitress a little when we broke tradition and instead of ordering two fried chickens and wedges – we ordered one and salad. We discovered that when a restaurant has a dish that is so good, you probably only need one dish on the menu. We might add that it was packed with students and other fellow lovers of budget food.

We ended the day with a long twilight stroll around the lake, past roller bladders, bike riders, tourists, local families out enjoying an after dinner walk, boats, the famous Jet d’Eau (which shoots the water an incredible 140m into the air), private Swiss banks and flashy restaurants.

The Church of England, Calvin and fried chicken made for a very pleasant Sunday in Geneva.