We were up early this morning, well, earlier than usual.

The sun hadn't risen properly yet. The Matterhorn looked haunting in this twilight but we had no time to sit and admire it.

We were busy packing our suitcases. Our time in Zermatt was coming to an end.

We filled our boots for breakfast, eating more than usual. The idea was that we could survive without lunch for as long as possible.

We said goodbye to our beautiful boutique hotel and walked to the train station. We had an open return ticket so we could simply catch the next train out of Zermatt but with yesterday's heavy snow we were a little concerned that the train tracks had been hit again by an avalanche and we would be left stranded!

But shortly after  11am we boarded the train to Visp.

For the entire journey down the Mattertal valley Julie's next cause for concern was, "what if the train gets caught in an avalanche". She was on edge all the way, unable to enjoy the stunning scenery.

Once we reached Visp, the snow on the ground was almost non-existent so her anxiety about the flight now came to the fore.

We waited on platform 5 for the train Geneva Airport, arriving promptly from Brig. It rolled on, taking us back through Sion, Montreaux and pulling into Gare Cornavin, Geneva's main train station shortly after 2:30pm.

The airport was only another 5 minutes (or so) away. With our flight out tonight not until much later we had several hours spare, we decided to get off and see a little of the city.

We found the Rue des Alpes and walked down towards the lake, reaching the Jardin des Alpes, a small park with a large monument to Charles II, the Duke of Brunswick. He was a 19th century aristocrat and briefly the ruler of a small German state called Braunschweig.

He didn't have much of a connection to Geneva but he died here in 1873 and bequeathed his entire fortune to the city, asking in return for some of the money be used to build a mausoleum in his honour, in the style of the Scaliger Tombs in Verona.

It was an impressive monument. At its centre was a marble sarcophagus, circled by statues of prominent figures from the House of Guelph such as his father and grandfather.

It was such an over blown self-centred stroke of genius. In death he is honoured in the manner of a great ruler when in reality he lost his power over his Duchy in 1830 when revolution gripped Europe. His subjects declared him unfit to rule and his brother William took over the reigns.

Yet its Charles II who is immortalised.

We had done well lasting until now without eating anything since breakfast but we were getting hungry. Thankfully we didn't have to look far, because in the centre of the Jardin des Alpes was a restaurant called Cottage Cafe. 

The menu was a little restrictive for me and I ended up going for dessert. It was  French toast, perfectly arranged on the plate, like a Miro painting, served with a mango and raspberry coulis. 

From the Jardin des Alpes we could see the Jet d'Eau the city's famous water jet. We decided to have a closer look, walking down to the lakeside Quai du Mont-Blanc.  On a clear day Mont Blanc was visible from Geneva but today the mountain which stole the show was Le Môle.

It was merely a hill in comparison but it was no less an impressive sight.  

The water jet was a curious tourist attraction. They first propelled water high into the sky as fas back as 1886. Over the years they moved location and upgraded to a pump that could shoot five hundred litres of water per second 150 metres high!

We continued walking along the lake front, towards a bridge, which signalled the end of the lake and the begining of the Rhone. Passing the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel we turned to each other and both said "One day".

It had gone 5pm by now and time for us to slowly make our way back to the train station and to the airport.

Geneva had whetted our appetite. We feel a return visit is in order, perhaps to include a sojourn to Mont-Blanc.  One day.