What to do?

 They longer we are traveling the more we have no special plan for the city we are exploring.  In Geneva I wanted to take a day trip to Gruyère and the nearby chocolate factory, a day trip to Mt Blanc and maybe the clock museum which sounded like a fun thing to do.  Especially since it highlighted the maker, Patek Pierre, of the most expensive watch ever made. 

Dan had on his list CERN which is the European Union Organization for Nuclear Research or the UN.  Doesn’t that sound like fun.  Ellen’s job to Google and figure out what is possible. Turns out the UN does not accept individuals only group tours but CERN is available on a Saturday for English tours on a first come first basis.  They open the registration window 2 hours before the tour but there are exhibits to view while waiting. So we opt for an early morning start as the train gets there at 7:55 am and they open for the 10am tour at 8am. Long story short we spend until 12 noon there. Turns out they are smashing protons the travel at the sound of light in a vacuum To help discover dark matter.  I suppose if you were a nuclear physicist this would be a great experience.   It is our first day of sun with no rain forecast so when we are done I suggested either a 3+ hour trip to Mt Blanc or we could do a 2+ hours trip to the Swiss wineries   We were going to do this stop on our way to the mountains but it will be much easier without our bags. 

The town I want to go to is Sion. Home to several wineries one open until 8 PM   So we grab a snack for the train and off we go. We get off the train and there is a close winery walking distance that closes early the late closing winery is a bus ride away. Let’s just say this was a different experience and not one that was anything like I thought it would be.  The winery was actually more like a Bev mo that had a few tables and offered tastings. The people in the shop did not speak English.  One of the workers had a smattering but it worked out when they understood we wanted to taste and we could just point to the menu. 

When we finished I was up to finding the second winery but we still had a 2 1/2 hour to get back to our hotel. So we bought a bottle of their local wine and no charge for all the tastings, and headed back to Geneva. There was also a local entertainment factor. One of the locals came in for a glass and attempted to strike up a conversation with us which was entertaining since we have no French German or Italian.   Always good to meet the locals.