Sunday, July 7, 2019: Day 1; Arrive in Geneva

The day started for Maria before noon on Saturday when she boarded her United flight. She made a connection in Dulles before flying over the Geneva. She was supposed to arrive in Geneva at 7:40 am. However, weather delayed the departure in Dulles and she actually arrived at our hotel only about 20 minutes before I did, which was around 12:15 pm. My flight departed from IAH at 3:45 pm on Saturday and was on-time to Paris and then on to Geneva.

Upon arrival, I found Maria had already checked into the Palace Hotel and was in the room. It was a nice room overlooking Lake Geneva.

We were supposed have a room with twin beds. We instead were placed in a room with a double bed that could not be converted. This was disappointing since I had asked Maxine within the past couple of weeks to ensure ALL of my future trips were to request twin beds. She assured me this was done. The hotel desk said Tauck did not request a room with a twin bed. Anyway, the only way to get a room with twin beds was to upgrade to a Junior Suite...which we did. It is about 50% larger with a sitting room, twin beds and a larger balcony overlooking Lake Geneva.

While waiting for the upgraded suite, we each got cleaned up a bit from our overnight flights. After transferring our luggage to the new room, we decided to go for a walk in Lausanne. The only other agenda item for today was the welcome reception and dinner beginning at 6:00 pm. So we had about four hours to look around.

We walked several blocks until we found a couple of sidewalk cafes/bars. We decided to try "Happy Days". For the next hour or so, we chatted and enjoyed the nice weather.

Heading back to the hotel, we walked the medieval, shop-lined streets and passed a 12th-century Gothic cathedral with an ornate facade. We then just relaxed until time to head down to the reception.