Return from Nyon: Day 172

A cold and sombre day, my trip finished and heading home, visiting Geneva briefly on the way.

Due to snow on the high Alps, I will not be able to continue my journey further south on the E2 and GR5 until July. It was time to return home until then. A sombre experience as I had a funeral of a close relative to attend. People of my generation, the "Baby Boomers", are starting to die, their loss creating holes in our lives. My turn will come and I worry how my wife and I will end our days. One or other of us will be left alone in the world, possibly incapacitated with some long term illness, reliant on others. My walking is both a pleasure (most of the time) and a means of keeping fit and able for as long as possible. 

In such a melancholy mood, I walked down to the jetty where ferries cross Lake Geneva from Nyon to where the GR5 continues in France on the other side. Today the boats were not running, maybe due to the weather. A cold wind was blowing. Retracing my steps to the railway station I caught a train into Geneva hoping to see a few tourist sights. As a youth I had been impressed by the giant fountain in the lake by Geneva. It featured in the opening credits of a spy series on television called "The Champions". It starred three people with super-powers, who worked for a UN agency called "Nemesis". I was disappointed it was not in operation today (the fountain that is) maybe too much wind. The floral clock which the "My Switzerland" website spoke of was underwhelming, so I tried to find the "Old town". What I found were narrow streets and tall buildings which were a little claustrophobic. The cold wind made St Peter's Cathedral's interior seem attractive. As it was John Calvin's home church, decoration was restrained, the Roman Catholic artwork was removed in the Reformation. After meditating a while I visited the archaeological excavations beneath the building. Amazingly, archaeologists have unearthed a series of earlier Cathedrals dating back to the 4th Century, and from before that the burial of a chieftain from the time before Christ. Cannot imagine how they managed a dig beneath the existing Cathedral.

St Peters Cathedral.

After a sandwich lunch another train took me to Geneva airport for a flight to Gatwick. A lengthy delay for my bag to appear meant a race to catch my train which involved going down a stationary escalator, that suddenly started moving in the wrong direction! I felt like a cartoon character racing to reach the bottom as the escalator moved upward. Maybe an allegory for trying to beat old age, although in this case I reached the bottom of the steps and the train to London.