Our Trip To A Local Movie Theater

We saw our first movie in a theater since moving to Geneva.  Switzerland is expensive and movies are no exception.  I read the series of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books by Steig Larsson.  I watched and enjoyed all three Swedish films in the Millenium Trilology.    We saw the new version starring Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.  I was surprised at how many big name actors were in supporting roles (Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Joely Richardson, Robin Wright).

When I first heard Hollywood was making a version, I was skeptical that they could remain faithful to the dark spirit of books, but still could not wait to see the movie.

We had no idea where to go see the movie.  We looked up movie times, listings and locations for Geneva. There are a fair number of movie theaters here. Thankfully, our friend Hokie had told us about a cool theater near old town, The Astor Film Lounge.

 

Courtesy of Astor Film Lounge

At a bit over $50 for two tickets, it was a little pricey. On the bright side, it was a bit fancier than your typical movie theater.  They gave you a complimentary drink, had stadium seating and a modern lounge where you could wait.

Although I didn’t order anything, I perused the menu while we waited for the movie to start.  You can order food and drinks from your stadium seat.  They had appetizer plates and Haagen Daas, but no popcorn. For a mere 4,140 CHF (around $4,500), you can have a nice bottle of wine, Chateau Petrus Pomerol 1987!

Surprising Vevey

Charlie Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life in Vevey.  You can easily see why.  It is a cute, calm, old town with breathtaking views and nice surprises.

 

 

 

The older area near the water is filled with belle époque era buildings.  They have covered the town in flowers.  There is a nice, lengthy lakeside promenade with many parks.  This makes it a perfect place to slow down, walk around and be pleasantly surprised.

This looks cool during the day

…and at night.

Definitely unexpected

 

The Museum of Alimentation (food) had an awesome vegetable/herb garden out front, definitely a nice surprise.*

 

Seeing kids jumping from the pool area into the lake was definitely surprising. Although if you saw the bridge jumping post, it is, perhaps, less so.

It would have been surprising if he had actually caught something.

 

A surprisingly good place to chill out,  we wished we had brought our suits.

 

 

This game was another surprise.  Please let me know if you know what they were playing.  It looked like fun.

 

It would have been surprising if we had jumped in the fountain.  We wanted to, but the kids wouldn’t get out. 

 

 

What?  You don’t see this every day?

 

 

 

Okay, the DeLorean wasn’t too much of a surprise, but the rest of the cars at the car show we stumbled into were.

 

* Nestlé is headquartered in Vevey.  They sponsor the museum and might have had something to do with the fork too.