Trip to Geneva

We had a 7 hour wait in JHB airport; the Iberia check-in counter opened only after about a 4 hour wait, so we spent a bit of time in a Pizzeria where they’d run out of cheese and ham. We watched check-in counters 88 to 92 for hours, until the Delta airlines monitors were changed to Iberia.

Iberia airlines gets 10/10 for punctuality, but low scores for everything else. No frills it is. On the JHB-Madrid flight, we were seated near the front, peering into the business class section. Our children wanted to know where the TV sets with DSTV were. “This flight sucks,” Chloe remarked when we pointed to the single screen at the front of the cubicle. There were 4 flight attendants for 400 passengers; getting some water for Jaime, who wasn’t feeling very well, was impossible. Madrid airport is magnificent with it’s wavy wooden slatted ceiling and porcelain tile floors. We didn’t have long here before catching the flight to Geneva.

The scenery coming into Geneva is magnificent, green fields with trees, lakes and pretty houses. After disembarking, we were greatly relieved to find Michelle, Philip and the two boys waiting for us. The Swiss were pretty casual about passport formalities, and we then went through to the French side where we could fetch our rental car, an Opel Zafira which comfortably fitted us – 2 adults, 3 children, 4 large suitcases and 5 smaller backpacks. Phillip and Michelle could guide us through the streets of Geneva and take us to the small French resort town of Les Gets, situated in the Alps about 40 kms from Mont Blanc.