CERN!

Finally!

I don't even know where to start.  All I know is that I need to go back!  There wasn't enough time to absorb all of the exhibits.  Plus, the physicists don't really hang out with the tourists all that much.  I am trying to get into a class at the end of the month.  Not much luck yet.

Still, my head is swimming with ideas and I've been spending most of today playing around with them. 

Geneva was great.  The weather was beautiful.  The train ride was long, but I got to see so much of the country on the way that it was worth it!  I guess I took the long way - via Olten and then down to Geneva.  Olten is practically at the top of the country, so my trip made a Swiss triangle between Locarno and Geneva.  Next time, I think I'll go through Italy, which is more direct, but takes as much time because you go over the mountains instead of around them.

I checked into my hotel, which was very close to the train station and within walking distance of the Old City.  They 'upgraded' me to a room with my own bathroom -woohoo!  In the penthouse!  An odd little place, but I called it home:

With a nice view of Genovese rooftops...

It was quite cozy.  I had seen the Jet d'Eau from the train anyway, and I was very happy to have a shower all to myself.  I arrived early enough to walk around a bit in the Old City, which was beautiful.

I found some gargoyles!

And then had some delicious mussels and white wine at a place called the Pig's Foot.  The mussels were really good.  I didn't try the trotters.

And then began the CERN immersion.  Like I said, I need to go back.  I think I imagined that there would be physicists crawling around every corner of the place, eager to answer questions at a moment's notice, showing off their 2-d hologram experiments to anyone who wanted to see them.  But they keep the physicists and the tourists pretty well segregated.  I did get lost on my way to the visitor's center. It's easy to do because the place is mostly a conglomeration of warehouses and portable trailers with numbers that don't make any sense at all.  And just as I was about to start taking pictures, my camera batteries died!  What luck!

Halfway into our tour, I remembered that my phone took pictures, so I was able to get some shots.  But really there hadn't been all that much to record anyway.  The tour was mostly videos and a powerpoint about the ATLAS project, which is the experiment closest to the Swiss CERN facility.  It was very interesting, but we didn't get close to any of the big machines. And we stayed above ground the entire time.  It's mostly shut down at the moment, anyway.  I think they're going to turn it back on in March to smash some more protons together and see what happens.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to catch with my phone:

Rrrgh.  Pictures too small!  This is the outside of the ATLAS building.  It has a mural of the detector painted on the side of the wall.

The CERN Globe is made entirely of wood and houses a neat planetarium-type show, as well as a space upstairs for special events.

Monday is going to be dedicated to pestering my way into the class at the end of the month!  I'll be sure to charge my camera batteries next time!!