h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I appologise for any typing errors in this entry. I'm using a European keyboard and some of the letters are in the wrong place.

The last couple of days have been really quite good fun. As I mentioned in my last entry, we did go for that swim in the river on Tuesday afternoon to cool off. The water was extremely cold and I was more than cool by the end of it; I was borderline hypothermic, my toes went numb, my fingers turned blue and I was having fits of shivering for about an hour afterwards until my core temperature returned to normal. On the plus side however, we did manage to get some good photos of each of us throwing ourselves off one of the diving boards which will probably find their way onto the group website.

After the swim I crossed the river to have a look round some of the prettier parts of Geneva. The Rough Guide says that there isn't all that much to see on the Rive Droite, the North Bank of the Rhone (where we're staying) and they're more or less correct. There are some nice shops and restaurants on the main streets, but nothing special. Most of the "tourist attractions" are in and around the Old Town on the Rive Gauche.

I went and took a look at the Jet d'Eau, a thirty metre fountain on the South Bank. It was originally a pressure relief system for the city water supply; that function is now redundant, but Geneva kept the fountain because they think it looks pretty and it makes the tourists buy postcards. Nevertheless it is quite impressive and I took a few photos.

After that I walked along the South Bank for a while, found way into the Old Town and lost myself for a while in the narrow winding streets there. I visited the Cathedral, climbed up the towers and took a few pictures of the wonderful view from the top.

In the evening the boss took the whole group out for a meal. Once again we went to the Old Town and ate in a lovely outdoor restaurant there. The food was really good (though a bit expensive) and the ambiance was nice too. They even had musicians playing while we ate. Afterwards we blundered into a music festival and amused ourselves listening to a Swiss band doing cover versions of eighties pop music. It was all a bit strange, but good fun nonetheless.

Yesterday was another full day of lectures, but we've begun to pick and choose which ones we go to now. We skipped the last lecture of the day and went for coffee instead. Yesterday evening we ate in a Mexican restaurant on the Rue de Mont Blanc on the Rive Droite (I did say there were some nice restaurants didn't I). We went back to the music festival, but weren't impressed with the band who seemed to be a playing French Ska music with a healthy dose of accordian thrown in for good measure. We wandered along the river for a while and had a drink in a café, then crossed back over the river and sat drinking and talking in a bar for a couple of hours.

I think I've changed my mind about Geneva over the last couple of days. Spending time in the Old Town helped. But that said I think I've seen all I want to now and I'm looking forward to moving on tomorrow.

Today is the last day of the conference. My girlfriend gets here today and I'm looking forward to seeing her. I'm not sure if I'll get chance to write anything more until I get back to Bath, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to say once I do.