Daily Photo – Somewhere In Geneva

The mind plays funny tricks with old travel photos. It strips away the grand itineraries and leaves you holding ordinary scraps of memory.

Take this shot from Geneva, back in 2002. If you asked me for a detailed guide, I’d fail you. What I actually remember is a beautiful blur of aimless wandering, a nagging wish that my French was fluent rather than non-existent, and a brilliant little neighbourhood bar right across the road from our hotel.

Look closely at the quality and you are seeing the cutting edge of early-2000s consumer tech, or, more accurately, the cutting edge of casino promotion. We were armed with twin pint-sized digital cameras, courtesy of the Birmingham casino. They had run one of those loyalty schemes that felt like it required three million visits and a pint of blood to claim a freebie. In reality, it took thirty nights of dedicated, shameless commitment. Our routine was based on efficiency: we’d walk through the doors, collect our stamps, order a Coke at the bar, and vanish within ten minutes. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Back then, pocket-sized digital cameras were still an evolving novelty, a glimpse into a sci-fi future. Getting one for “free” – if you don’t count the month of nightly detours and the sheer volume of Coca-Cola consumed – felt like a good win. The interesting thing is that now we have programmes to recreate the exact look!

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