Vielle Ville/Old Town (5/8)

Was the visit to the U.N. just yesterday?  Amazing! It seems like last week.  This has been a full day! After café au lait and a croissant, I followed directions toward the Vielle Ville, but ended up walking a bit out of my way. This was a good thing, in that I arrived at the Plaine de Plainpalais, a large park with limited vegetation, but the first thing I saw was a HUGE skate park.  So, I dutifully took pictures for Brendan, and even watched a few of the young men do their tricks on skateboards and bikes. Brendan would LOVE this place!  It’s also a park where the Flea Market is held, and where it looks like someone has set up for a circus. Interesting. There were also some interesting climbing structures for younger kids.  I really liked the creativity with which they’d been designed.

From there, I made my way to the Parc de Bastions. This is really a park, with beautiful trees and flowers, and benches for people to enjoy the outdoors. One building of the University of Geneva is here, and on the side of the building that faces the park, it looks like a university anywhere, with students sitting out on the lawn. There are statues in the park.  The guidebooks point out the statue of Henri Dufour, co-founder of the Red Cross. But when I saw the status of Jean Piaget, I knew I’d found the right statue. Oh, yeah, there was a tribute to Rousseau, as well, but I’d rather think about “St. Jean” and developmental psychology, after teaching him in “kidvid” classes for years. In that park, as well, is a wall of tribute to the Reformation, with statues of key figures who played a role in that movement.  Unfortunately, it is being renovated, or maintained right now, so it was hard to see much of it.

As I left the park, I was able to walk straight into the Old City. There is a wall that still encircles the Vielle Ville, and once inside, everything becomes narrow and twisty, with cobblestone-like pavement and older buildings. I really enjoyed the views – charming cafes, carved doorways, arches, old architecture. It was easy to find the Cathedral, which is where I was headed. One side of it is gothic; the rest is comparatively plain, but there is a tall steeple. I spent quite a bit of time inside the church, partially because it is so beautiful, and partially because there is a lot to see.  I climbed the tower – a narrow, spiral staircase – up to the bell tower, and then on to the top, where there were magnificent views of Geneva. The beauty of this city is simply overwhelming. After climbing down (carefully), I went into the gothic part of the cathedral – the chapel of the Maccabees. That chapel alone had so much to look at, from tiles on the floor to stained glass windows to an organ to carved wood pews.  It was amazing!

From there, I headed to the archaeological museum under the church.  I thought, oh, well . . . I’ll spend a few minutes here and then head on to the next place. Was I ever wrong! Each visitor was handed an audio device to provide a guided tour to the archaeological work that has been done under the cathedral. The museum was so well designed and organized that it was comparatively easy to understand what had been done.  Archaeologists have been able to document three or four different cathedrals built on the site since Geneva was founded.  Before that, the site was used as a sacred site for people living on the hill overlooking the lake in 50-70 B.C.. In fact, there was a tomb of a person from that civilization – clearly visible in the excavation – located under the altar of the current cathedral. I forgot to mention that this cathedral became a Protestant church at the time of the Reformation, so there’s a long Catholic history associated with the church before 1517. I was most amazed by tile floors – beautiful tile work from many centuries ago – that was still visible. There were also baptismal pools used when baptism was done by immersion, and then when that practice yielded to the sprinkling of water, the pools disappeared and the smaller fonts appeared. Part of what was interesting about the audio description was the point made several times that the “facts” presented by the excavations have needed to change as more knowledge is acquired with subsequent excavations. I was really amazed at the history underneath the cathedral, and perhaps even more, at the way it was presented so it was accessible to the lay person.

My intent had been to spend most of the afternoon at the Museum of the Reformation, which is right next to the cathedral, but I didn’t get there until 3:30 PM. That left me only an hour and a half before closing time. I did my best – and I may go back tomorrow.  We’ll see . . . It was oddly organized, which made it less easy to learn from. Anyway, it has been years since my world history classes in middle school and high school. I had forgotten the issue of selling indulgences. Also, I didn’t realize that Geneva was so central in the Reformation.  Calvin was here, as was Knox, and a number of others.  What I had not realized – and I’ll bet someone taught it to me years ago, was that the invention of the printing press coincided with the Reformation, such that the thinking could be spread quickly, along with copies of the Bible. In fact, there was a temporary special exhibit with a big Gutenberg press that was being demonstrated for visitors. (After my visit to the Paper Museum in Basel, I only glanced at this one to make sure it worked like the ones I had seen.) The museum follows Christianity – actually, Protestantism – from the Reformation in Geneva in the 1500s through to the present day.  I started just glancing at things because I knew closing time was near, but in the room housing the 20^th century, there was a big map of the United States, and on it was a screen changing quickly, to show the different kinds of Protestantism practiced in the U.S.. Coincidentally, the screen flashed “Unitarian” as I was looking at it.  I also saw “Baptist,” but that was all I could see. There were also pictures of Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, and others who came after, as well as Billy Graham, and the Crystal Cathedral.  I didn’t have time to see what the museum’s intent was, although I assume it was to illustrate how Protestantism has varied in the U.S.. Just to make sure they got it all, there was an acknowledgment of Creationism. I wish I’d had another hour, at least, to get a better understand of what the museum was attempting to present, especially in the more recent centuries.

By the time I left the museum at 5:00 PM, I was exhausted and hungry.  Given the geography and my agenda, I hadn’t stopped for lunch. I walked toward the lake, and found myself in the high-end shopping area. After wandering around a bit, I stopped at a crêperie and had a crêpe filled with cheese, ham, spinach and a raw egg that cooked with the crêpe. Wow! Did that ever hit the spot!!!! Yum!

Thus renewed, I wandered into the English Garden, along the lake, and saw the flower clock – a Geneva landmark.  Unfortunately, there were no flowers – only earth ready to be planted – but the outline of the flower beds was there, as was the clock. The views from this side of the lake – across from where I had walked on my first afternoon in Geneva -  are also spectacular. It’s a good thing I have a big SD card, because I’ve been taking a lot of pictures!

I walked back to the hostel via Mont Blanc Square – another beautiful, little park, right on the lake bank. The statues are amazing and I don’t know any explanation for them. Yes, once I made it to the hostel, I put my feet up.