Friday, March 6, 2015
CERN
On the first day, we visited two of the experiments at CERN: ATLAS and the original Syncro-Cyclotron. The presentation at the SC was among the coolest I've ever seen. They projected on the SC itself. It was amazing.
We then went into the wooden globe outside of Reception, whose inside is oddly similar to the inside of the Alain head in Mission to Mars.
We also visited plenty of other places, like this one:
On the second day, we did two totally amazing things: we went 93 meters underground to visit CMS,
And we made cloud chambers (which I will hopefully have pictures of soon).
Also, it started snow-hailing. Switzerland weather, man.
More details on CERN to come as I remember them. It was an information overload.
...with the sound of music!
For our second and final day enjoying Switzerland, we had a and early start, leaving my favorite hotel and person (Gilbert, is his name) ever. We love Gilbert. I'm going to write Gilbert a thank you letter.
For lunch, Maggie and I searched around for food and successfully found a sushi place. This place has the most delicious sushi I've ever had in my life and if I never get to go back for anything else I want to go back to that sushi place.
On the way to Geneva, we stopped in Bern, the Capitol city of Switzerland. It is apparently the second happiest place in the world to live and costs almost as much as London. The food was very, VERY expensive. Very.
The name of the town has sometime to do with bears. Bear, Bern, I mean, it's similar. The city also has a really cool clock and a a statue of someone eating children, which has been aptly nicknamed "Darby."
We then proceeded to wander around until we were able to go into the Einstein House. We learned:
1) Einstein was a player,
2) His house was very small,
3) He made his most important discoveries in Bern, and
4) He had a child before he was married that no one really knew about (sadface, poor baby Einstein).
Finally, after we finished, we all traveler to our hotel in France, which was insanely sketchy and smelled of cigarette smoke and dead things.
The hills are alive...
After hour obnoxiously long drive to Switzerland, we finally got to spend some time doing interesting things. In the morning, we spent an hour in Lucern, during which we got Swiss Army knives, chocolate, and investigated European McDonald's (which is surprisingly expensive for the not so surprisingly same "food"). Afterward, we boarded a boat to travel to the highlight of the day: Mt. Rigi.
The train up the mountain is one of the steepest in Europe, and also slightly disconcerting. It's not that I don't trust the thing, it's just that it's SO CLOSE TO THE EDGE. But regardless, it offered some really great pictures.
On top of the mountain was cold. Very cold. With lots of clouds and snow hitting you in the face and my ears hurting because of the pressure change. It was pretty, trust me, but I didn't really get a chance to enjoy it as much.
The ride down was in a gondola, featuring a few sketchy drops. We fit approximately 50 people in it. And took a selfie.
We take a lot of selfies.
But the REAL highlight of my trip was our hotel: the Alpenhof. The family that owns the hotel is the sweetest group of people I've ever met. They are incredible cooks, and we did not go hungry once. Each meal was to die for. The hotel itself is exactly what I would have expected from a ski lodge, the ice cream is amazing, and the view is even better. If you get a chance to stay there, do.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Another pun of the day (sponsored by Vishnu...again.)
The 20 Swiss franc bill has music notes on it.
Another name for a bill is a note.
The bill itself is a pun.
Change is nature.
Three things of note happened today:
2. We drove through the Swiss Alps.
1. We stopped in Beaune, France, found a Romanesco Broccoli/Cauliflower, and had ratatouille. (IT WAS SO GOOD MINE WILL NEVER LIVE UP TO IT.)
3. I took a ceiling selfie.
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