After breakfast ….we organised the front desk, at the Ace Hotel, to print out the documents we needed for our India Visa Applications.
We headed off to Geneva (Switzerland) 40km away, and paid 3.80 Euro ($6.00) in toll to drive less than 6 km of motorway! Same on the return trip!
After negotiating our way through traffic in Geneva, avoiding the trams and riding down what we now think was a pedestrian mall, we arrived at the address for the India Visa Application Centre. We eventually figured out how to use the secret squirrel intercom system and got them to unlock the door. We proceeded up the dingy steps to the first floor and entered the offices. We were greeted by a young woman, who spoke English, but who was more interested in discussing her personal life on the telephone than actually being of any assistance. She only gave us the parroted information we could already access on the internet ourselves! She kept rabbiting on about Visas on Arrival and we tired multiple times to explain we were not arriving by plane, but riding our motorbike and we would be at a boarder crossing without any vista and our Pakistan Visa would have run out….so effectively we would be stuck in No Mans Land….. She eventually contacted someone in the India Consulate in Geneva by phone and he was no more helpful. The best suggestion they could offer is that we apply in Islamabad (Pakistan) ….not our idea of fun and not practical!
A little disheartened from the experience we pushed on to BMW ( Vince has been trying to organise a service and tyres for days with little luck as everywhere is booked out). When we eventually found the place it was 12.15pm and they close at 12.00pm until 13.30! Not our day today!
So we found a nearby place (the Merena Bar) to sit in the shade and have a drink while we waited! Once BMW opened we discovered they too could not fit us in for another 3 weeks….so we will got with plan B, move on to Switzerland and eventually get the service and tyres done in Austria in a few weeks time!
We had tolls again today…always my favourites …NOT! But I am now using the credit card rather than coins and that makes it easier…in fact I didn’t even need to get off the bike today! I worked it out and now we are back in France at our hotel we have crossed 13 borders so far….check the new page out under the Our Route Tab.
On the way home we stopped in at the “Old Town” in Annecy….the buildings reminded me of Venice. They were so close together that it sent the GPS into a spin and Vince ended up in a one way street ….going the wrong way! The locals alerted us but we could not turn around in the narrow street so just had to keep going until it widened….scary!
We went back there in the evening for dinner and it was magical….so romantic and beautiful. I gave a homeless person, with two dogs, some money and later I sneaked a pic of him but his freaky friend saw me and went off her tree ….luckily I can’t speak or understand French…the man concerned spoke up to her and said it was ok…so she eventually went away, but it rattled me a bit…guess that’s the risk you take when you take spy shots!
We went for s walk around the lake after dinner, and we met a German lady, Marlese, with her little dog, Speedy. A six year old English Terrier who had not been so speedy that morning and was showing his battle scars from a dog who attacked him. We had a bit of a pat which provided us with a fur fix….as we miss Cebar…our own dog back in Australia.