They Weren't Kidding About the Fireworks

Last week started out with some crazy weather, lots of heat lightning, then crazy downpours and super strong thunderstorms.

Did definitely provide some awesome skies though

and rainbows on multiple days - this one was actually a complete rainbow and we could see both ends, but couldn't back up far enough to get a picture of it

By Friday though, the weather had cleared up, so a bunch of us from work decided to go for some drinks on one of the boats along the lake downtown

These are some of the barges with fireworks on them, already setting getting set up for Saturday night

The sunset from the boat

Alright...now we get to these crazy fireworks.  There was much discussion last week about the best places to watch the fireworks.  It isn't really a matter of them being visible, it's where you can actually get a spot to stand to see them.  This is about 9pm, an hour before the start time, and the crowds along these pedestrian walkways are filling up.  I ended up getting to somewhere about the middle of that bridge going across the river. 

Looking over the crowd to the lake, seeing the collection of fireworks boats

Then things got a bit insane.  This is a bridge...and it is completely packed with people.  Everyone who intended to stand there were having to stand as firmly as possible not to get pushed over by people trying to walk past us (we weren't just standing in the middle of the road...there were some barriers up and there was a line of people 2 or 3 deep standing against it)

It was about quarter to 10, and the crowd of people still trying to walk is getting a little restless.  Nobody is going anywhere quickly, and I'm getting a little curious as to what is going to happen once the lights turn off and the fireworks start.  But then...I have no idea why...but the crowd that was trying to move quickly disappeared...and all that was left there were those of us happy to be standing.  We all looked around totally unsure of how that was even possible to happen so quickly.

And then there were fireworks...for a SOLID HOUR.  Don't worry...this is just about 3 minutes of some clips.  The featured country this year was Portugal, so the theme of the fireworks was something about explorers and conquerors...so the music varied through all sorts of different genres and the fireworks to go along with it.  There's a short clip in the video when we got to space exploration...very exciting.

I seriously don't think I've ever seen that many fireworks in one place.  And oddly the show was really entertaining for the whole hour, I was a bit curious how much you can actually vary a fireworks show to be interesting to a crowd for an hour.  But the 70 franc "good seats" were long sold out, so I assumed it had to be something pretty special.

Sunday I spent a large portion of the day working on a research project I'm doing with some students and a professor back at school.  Hard to complain when this is the view from my desk.  The way the sky changes in the evenings as the sun sets is breathtaking.

By Monday the carnival rides and things were all being dismantled and loaded back up on the trucks they came in on.

Lunch at Baby Plage

There's also a cool playground there made mostly out of reused bicycle tires

And now we're back to gorgeous unobstructed lake views.  The Fêtes de Genéve was fun, but I can understand now why people are also glad when it packs up and leaves.

Hard to believe I've almost been here a month, and I'm off to Rome this weekend to meet my former NYC roommate and another good friend as they begin their Italian/Austrian tour, and then off to Vienna next weekend for about 6 days to meet them there and show them around!