Geneva, Switzerland: “What happened to Us?”

 First, thanks to all from far and wide, who reached out to see whether or not I was able to get on the plane due to a one-letter misspelling of my middle name.  This time, the “I” did not have it! To be honest, fixing my ticket took less than a minute—it was waiting on the line with the people in front of me who clearly had bigger issues than one rogue letter.  It’s a good thing that we were at the airport 3 1/2 hours before the flight—just in case.  I was ensured that the problem was fixed for our return flight which means I will start to worry the day before we leave for home instead of two or three days before. 

While the majority of this vacation will be spent on the wine cruise, our tour operator, AMA Waterways included three days before the cruise in Geneva, Switzerland. Neither my sister, brother-in-law nor I had ever been to this city, the second largest in Switzerland. Bob had been here once for business, but since arriving yesterday, he said nothing looked familiar.  It is probably because none of our tour thus far has included office conference rooms. 

The past few days have been lovely. The city, nearly completely manageable on foot (With the appropriate supportive shoes, of course) is far nicer than I had imagined. Lake Geneva is gorgeous, the city boasts of having the highest fountain in the world and the longest park bench. And the chocolate isn’t too shabby either.  Today, we toured an archaeological museum under the city’s cathedral and I returned to ninth grade by re-learning about the Protestant Reformation and the role John Calvin, an adopted son of Geneva, played in it. As this is the watch capital of the world, we visited a watch museum, but as it was the end of the day and I personally only rely on my Fitbit and cell phone to determine the time, I found it a bit overwhelming and wound up spending a good portion of the visit checking my emails. 

I also had a major “AHA” moment during the last 24 hours at both our group’s  “meet and greet” last night and at this morning’s bus and walking tour around the city. WE ARE OFFICIALLY OLD. 

Less than three years ago, Bob and I had hiked with relative ease (truth be told, him more than me) in the mountains of Norway…and we were not only ok, but we had a tremendous time the whole time. In fact, we only needed one dose of Ibuprofen every day (me more than him). Those days are gone. 

Today, I looked hard at my fellow travelers, all of whom are around our age or a bit older and thought, “Brothers and sisters, I have arrived.” I witnessed three things that opened my eyes to this revelation:

1. Our outfits. My fellow travelers and I had clearly visited the same stores for our vacation “uniforms.” Nearly all of our jackets looked like we had just come from either the LL Bean or Eddie Bauer factory outlets. Like me, foot comfort appears to be key, and it showed in our shoes.  I don’t think we would have been allowed on the bus if we weren’t wearing Hokas, Allbirds or a comfortable pair of Stride Rites on our feet. There was even one woman with a pair of hiking polls, even though there were no plans to leave the city!

2. We have become followers: It was all too much to see 42 sixty and seventy year olds, laden down with listening devices around our necks, struggling to keep an ear-piece in one ear while craning those necks to make sure we didn’t lose sight of our respective guide, whose arms were held high holding up placards for us to follow. In sum and in short, it wasn’t a pretty sight. 

3. What we were saying.  This morning, there was great deal of confusion as to what touring group each of us was to be part of, which was for the most part based on the color of our luggage tags provided by the tour company.  While it was far from rocket science, we were all asking each other, “Are you in the red group, the blue group or are you part of the “Gentle” walking group?” Which tour guide is for the blue group?” “Which bus is for the red group?” (This was not an issue as we were all on the same bus)

And so I have been asking myself all day, “WHAT HAPPENED TO US?” What will be next?  Will we be asking our poor guide whether the Swiss or the French give senior citizen discounts? Or whether any local restaurants off “early bird” specials? Or whether prunes can be added to the breakfast buffet? 

Tomorrow, our listening devices will make a return appearance around our necks and we are headed to a local castle—all in one bus.  Hopefully this will reduce the morning confusion.  On Thursday however, we are taking two buses to the ship and I can only imagine the level of mayhem that is in store for us.  All I know is that I’m on the red bus and I’m not saying a word about the lack of prunes at breakfast.