Departing Sydney on Wednesday 20 Feb 2019 bound for Italy, France and Switzerland. Stopping at Milan, Como, Turin, Nice, Lyon, Annecy, Geneva, Bern, Lucerne and Zurich. Departing from Zurich 2 Apr to arrive in Sydney on Thursday 4 Apr. Away for 43 days (40 bed nights).
We touched down in Sydney just after 0720. The final sector from Dubai was just as smooth as the previous sector into Dubai – but more than twice as long at nearly fourteen hours. The plane was pretty full and we were not afforded the same luxury of blocking adjacent seats such that Chris could lie down. Consequently, she didn’t get much sleep. Me, I can sleep standing up. 🙂
Arrival home
Having restocked my supply of Blue Sapphire Gin at the duty free, customs and immigration were a breeze and we were soon on the underground platform waiting to catch the train to Central to connect with one bound for Newcastle. Changing at Newcastle Interchange we collected Chris’ car at Victoria Street railway station (left there by Sarah on her way to work this morning) and arrived home at 1230.
I’ve collected data on various metrics for each one of our overseas trips as a way of helping plan for future trips. Here are some items that may be of interest to you…
Data points
Metric
Value
Trip duration
43 days
Bed nights
40
Distance walked, total
403 km
Daily walking average
9.4 km
Digital photographs taken
2,546
Contrary to our current crop of inept politicians we managed to bring this project in under budget returning with a surplus this financial year. Our budget was AUD 22.8K and we under-spent it by nearly 17%.
Total Expenditure by Category
Category
Percentage
Transportation
24%
Accommodation
37%
Food & drink
25%
Entertainment
5%
Everything else
9%
From previous experience, we were expecting Switzerland to be the most expensive country to visit and as the following table clearly demonstrates, this proved to be the case.
Daily Expenditure by Country (AUD)
Country
Duration
Avg
Max
Min
Italy
14 days
$165
$341
$99
France
10 days
$170
$240
$40
Switzerland
18 days
$249
$644
$36
Traveler’s weight change
Traveler
Value
Gregory
+1 kg
Christine
undisclosed
As proof that you don’t have to travel overseas to find scenes of natural beauty, here is a picture snapped from the train today as we were passing through the Central Coast.
Woy Woy from the train
The backup photographer
Chris is the primary photographer using a proper camera and so is rarely seen in images as she is behind the lens. When she was otherwise distracted, I was able to grab a short series of images using my iPhone. Can you spot the theme?
We used an iPhone app for our self guided tour of the old city. We discovered this app in Geneva and found it to be a useful tool. It uses the GPS location data from your phone to guide you along a route with audio that kicks off once you reach the required destination. You can download each tour as a package when on Wi-Fi so you don’t have to use mobile data as you wander around the city. There were two walks and a run listed for Zurich. We settled for the old city walk. 🙂
Colourful flags on old city walk
The walk starts and ends at the railway station and traverses about 9 Km. Again, the weather was perfect for this activity but there was a haze that washed out the skies. Chris was sure her images from our last visit here in 2012 were a lot sharper.
Almost looks like Newcastle
A ferris wheel had been setup near the waterfront of Lake Zurich.
Riding the ferris wheel
Chris grabbed some photos as we looped over the top of the arc that would not be possible otherwise.
A view along the River Limmat
When we got to the Fraumunster Church that contains the stained glass panels by Marc Chagall, we were disappointed to find it temporarily closed. We have seen these magnificent panels on our previous visit and so this was not devastating but it would have been nice to visit with them again.
We completed the walking tour and had a salad with a nice bottle of wine in our apartment watching the ABC news and pre-budget speculation on iView.
A visit to the zoo
Our final day in Zurich was spent at the zoo. We left our apartment and took the tram into the railway station and then walked to a nearby shop which was supposed to store our bags for the day while we visited the zoo. But when we got there, the proprietor refused to accept our bags. Chris had made the booking on-line but the shop keeper said he was not getting paid by the on-line system and so he was not going to take our bags. This was annoying as we had waited till the store opened and then had to drag our bags back to the railway station and store them in lockers there paying for the service – again. As we rode the tram out to the zoo, I was drafting an e-mail asking for a refund. I expect pigs may sooner fly.
Waiting for Godot
The zoo was a strange mix of old and new. The site is compact, with residential housing just over the fence, and sits high on the hillside overlooking Zurich. The older sections felt like the Taronga zoo of old with cramped cages and pits with bars. The newer sections were bright and vibrant with lots of educational aspects for young children.
Yellow-banded poison dart frog
Golden Lion Tamarin
Which way home?
A recent addition to the zoo was a new enclosure for the koalas which looked like a crude facsimile of the Sydney Opera House with sail-like roofing. When we visited, the koalas were being fed and the crowd seemed transfixed by the commentary of the keeper who went on and on in Swiss German for as long as we were there. Even the koalas looked a little bored – but then again, they always seem that way to me.
We left the zoo and made our way back to the railway station, recovered our bags and then caught a train to Zurich Airport.
Leaving Zurich Station
We checked in and then reclined for an hour or so in the Emirates lounge before departing Zurich nearly an hour behind schedule bound for Dubai and then for home. The flight was not full and we were able to block the two middle seats in the centre row (of four) and Chris was soon asleep lying across the seats. I continued with season three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
I am writing this update in the Emirates lounge in Dubai. Our trip from Zurich was smooth as silk in an Airbus A380. Our final sector to home is also on an A380 and it is sad to see that this wonderful aircraft is being decommissioned around the world after just a little over 20 years of service (and being replaced by more fuel efficient wide body planes like the Boeing 777).
Kerrie Nolan has exceeded our expectations in organising the weather for this trip. Aside from Annecy, every stop has been blessed with perfect travelling conditions, blue skies and lots of sunshine. And she has been efficient too – as we were sitting in the lounge in Zurich waiting to board the plane, the rain started and the tarmac was soon awash with water.
I will be providing a final update once we reach home with the usual trip data points and some fun pictures.
Thanks for all your comments and interest in our travels. I hope you enjoyed our updates, which aside from our visit to CERN, I’ve tried to keep short and informative with some colour and movement.
We’re looking forward to seeing you all again very soon. 🙂
We were unaware that Switzerland moved to daylight savings time at 2 am on Sunday morning 31 March. Fortunately, my iPad’s clock was set to the correct time zone and the alarm went off as you’d expect. However, as we were packing, we discovered our watches did not agree with our devices – which caused some consternation and mild panic. After some checking on the interwebs, we discovered the reason for the discrepancy, reset our watches and dragged our bags to the early morning bus taking us to Zurich.
The sun was just at that perfect angle and the air was still. When I started over the Rathaussteg Bridge heading to the bus, the following image jumped into my iPhone camera. Auf Wiedersehen Lucerne.
Chapel Bridge, Water Tower and Mount Pilatus
The transit to Zurich was scheduled to take an hour but for some reason it took only forty five minutes. Perhaps the traffic was thin due to sleepy headed Swiss folk getting their time change wrong. Lessons learned and opportunities for improvement – never use a cuckoo clock as an alarm clock. 🙂
We took a tram to our accommodation and then, after leaving our bags, grabbed some rental bikes and rode across the city to the Lake Zurich waterfront before riding to the Kunsthaus Zürich (Museum of Fine and Contemporary Art).
Steeple of St. Peter with the Fraumunster Church in front
We have visited Zurich before; in May 2012. We spent five nights here at that time and went on a number of day trips away from Zurich into the mountains and surrounding areas. We did the regular touristy things during that trip and so were free with our selection of things to see and do on this trip – except that we had to visit the Museum of Fine and Contemporary Art – again.
Stairway to …, Museum of Fine Arts
We reprised Chris’ “best painting in the room” competition and by this time I was getting pretty good at guessing what Chris would pick. It didn’t help and I still lost 37 to 23. The selection of old masters is extensive and despite the fact we’d spent a day here on our previous visit we did the same again, and it was just as good as I can recall the second time round.
Wheat field with Cypresses – Vincent van Gogh
Tomorrow, Monday, all the museums will be closed and we are planning on going on a walking tour of the old city.
On Saturday, the principal town squares of Lucerne were packed for the weekly market. Chris went out in search shopping excitement while I was working on the blog update from Mount Pilatus. The weather was perfect and the sidewalks were choked with alfresco diners enjoying the sunshine and blue skies.
View to our accommodation from across the River Reuss
In the afternoon, we joined a boat cruise on Lake Lucerne and listened to a lively commentary (in English) while doing a lap of the lake.
Lake Lucerne boat cruise 1
Lake Lucerne boat cruise 2
Lake Lucerne boat cruise 3
As we were approaching the wharf near the end of our cruise, I was bonked on the head by a wayward selfie stick. It didn’t really hurt but it did spur me on to grab a picture of Chris and myself enjoying the last of the boat cruise and the perfect weather and stunning scenery – and it was also the first selfie of this trip. 🙂
Lake Lucerne boat cruise selfie
Tomorrow we depart Lucerne by bus for Zurich; our final stop on this trip.
As reported in my previous post, Pilatus (Mount Pilatus) overlooks Lucerne and with the weather forecast proposing only -3 deg. C at the summit and blue skies, we set off with scarves, jackets, gloves and beanies excited to see some proper snow and ice.
Other than walking or climbing, you reach the summit (Pilatus Kulm) either via cable-car or via the world’s steepest cogwheel railway. Unfortunately, there was still too much winter ice and snow remaining and the railway was not yet open (in a few more weeks) and so we ascended via the cable-car route.
Annotated map of the Mount Pilatus
[table caption=”Plan of attack for Mount Pilatus” width=”600″ colwidth=”75|250|100|175″ colalign=”center|center|center|center”]
Sector,Transit between,Transit time,Difference in elevation m (feet)
1,Kriens – Krienseredd,10 min,546 (1\,793)
2,Krienseredd – Frakmuntegg,15 min,390 (1\,280)
3,Frakmuntegg – Pilatus Kulm,3.5 min,716 (2\,352)
[/table]
Sector 1 going up 1
Sector 1 going up 2
At the end of sector 1, Krienseredd, we left the cable-car. This is an intermediate stop with restaurants, picnic areas and numerous walking trails leading away into the forest. After having a look around and taking some photos, we rejoined the cable-car for the next sector.
At the end of sector 2, Frakmuntegg, you have to leave the cable-car and change for the fully enclosed and larger capacity “Dragon Ride” gondola which only transits sector 3 to Pilatus Kulm every fifteen minutes. Like Krienseredd, Frakmuntegg offers restaurants and wonderful views both up and down. Aside from the walking trails that lead away, there was evidence of ski lifts and toboggan runs being shutdown for maintenance at the end of another season.
Frakmuntegg Icy Interlude
The final sector to the summit is brief but breathtaking – and stepping out onto the observation deck, once leaving the gondola, was awe inspiring (given Chris and I have limited experience with snow and ice).
Pilatus Kulm with Hotel Bellevue
And so we just horsed around for a bit…
Ice Queen Topping
The Jester juggling three ice balls
The Jester has one remaining ice ball
We observed a number of paragliders setting up and then launching themselves into the alpine skies after just a few steps down the slope behind Hotel Bellevue. (In the image above, you can see the canopy of a paraglider on the snow as the control wires are being sorted out.)
Paraglider 1
Paraglider 2
Paraglider 3
Paraglider 4
From Pilatus Kulm, a nearby peak called Oberhaupt can be climbed, using steps – no pitons or ropes required 🙂 other nearby peaks were still closed. From there I was able to take a panoramic photo of the 360 degree view from the top.
We enjoyed lunch with an equally attractive view while listening to a trio of alpine horns and, then later, a duo of piano-accordions. The only things missing from the cultural overload was a cow-bell medley and some Swiss folk dancing.
Attractive view – Pilatus Kulm
We decided to beat the afternoon rush and departed just before 3 pm (the last gondola leaves at 4:30 pm and there was still a lot of people at the top).
Chris was ever alert for scenic pictures on the way down too.
Sector 3 going down – view to Lake Lucerne
Sector 2 going down 1
Sector 2 going down 2
Sector 1 going down 1
We arrived at Kriens and were waiting for the bus to take us back into Lucerne when I realised we hadn’t used any of our warm weather items and that it actually seemed warmer at the summit and in no way was it -3 deg. C. This just goes to show that weather forecasts are never completely reliable – except for the part about the blue skies.
PS – We had to filter more than 230 images to prepare this post – digital film is wonderful. 🙂
Our transit from Bern to Lucerne was via a regional train that put our red rattlers to shame. While Lucerne is actually lower than Bern, (422 m above sea level compared to 540 m) getting there involved travelling up and over some attractive mountain passes that looked like picture postcards from Heidi.
Along the way, something unique happened – our tickets were inspected (or rather glanced at)! I am actually a little disappointed that it happened as I had planned to include in a future blog update the observation that up to that time, none (zip, zero, zilch) of our expensively acquired travel tickets had ever been checked (total cost in Switzerland till this time was AUD 379).
Arriving at Lucerne rail station just after 1 pm, we dragged our bags a short distance to our accommodation right on the waterfront. Nice work Chris!
Another room with a view – Lucerne
Looking towards Lake Lucerne, the Chapel Bridge and the octagonal water tower can be clearly seen. The Chapel Bridge is a covered wooden footbridge spanning the River Reuss at a diagonal. Named after the nearby St. Peter’s Chapel, the bridge is unique in containing a number of interior paintings dating back to the 17th century and is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world’s oldest surviving truss bridge.
View from our window towards Lake Lucerne
Looking in the other direction, across the river past the Jesuit Church, Pilatus can be seen. Often referred to as Mount Pilatus, this is a mountain massif overlooking Lucerne and is composed of several peaks, of which the highest (2,128 m (6,982 ft)) is named Tomlishorn.
View from our window towards Mount Pilatus
We set off to enjoy the afternoon sunshine and explore our new surroundings, starting with a walk along the waterfront.
Boats at rest – Lake Lucerne
Boats in motion – Lake Lucerne
The Lion Monument (Lion of Lucerne) is a rock relief hewn in 1820–21. It commemorates the Swiss Guards massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
Lion Monument – Lucerne
The Lion King – Lucerne
Running through the old city is the Museggmauer, an old city defensive wall featuring nine towers, four of which can be climbed. Alas, we missed them being opened by one day (1st April)! Some of the towers and a large section of the wall can be seen in the following image taken from the terrace at Château Gütsch, an upmarket hotel and restaurant located across the river and up a steep climb traversed by an inclined elevator.
A section of Musegg Wall – Lucerne
Château Gütsch also provided some great views of the city and part of Lake Lucerne.
Lucerne from Château Gütsch terrace
Continuing our walk, we found the point where Lake Lucerne turns into the River Reuss, behind a weir constructed between 1859 and 1861 to regulate the level of the lake.
River Reuss – Lucerne
Called the Reuss Weir (Needle Dam), the flow of water from Lake Lucerne is manually adjusted by the removal and insertion of timber panels (needles) creating an adjustable wall.
Reuss Weir – Needle Dam – Lucerne
The town hall clock provides a colourful time reference across the old city.
Town Hall Clock – Lucerne
With tomorrow’s forecast predicting good weather for Mount Pilatus, we decided that would be our next adventure destination.
Chris had booked tickets on a bus from Bern to Montreux and we travelled in elegant sophistication in the front seat, upstairs arriving at the Lake Geneva shoreline just after midday. Again, the weather was perfect and Chris was enthralled by the picturesque vistas, making the most of capturing as many photos as she could. For the record, our trusty Canon camera stopped working during our visit and I switched to using my iPhone. (The Canon has subsequently been repaired.)
There isn’t really much to say in describing Montreux’s waterfront – it’s absolutely gorgeous. It was difficult to filter out the best images for this post but here is a representative few…
Attractive view – Montreux
Montreux 1
Montreux 2
Montreux 3
Montreux 4
Montreux 5
Montreux 6
While Deep Purple’s association with Montreux is well known, Queen (and Freddie Mercury in particular) were frequent visitors. They recorded the album “Jazz” (1978) there in a recording studio constructed inside the casino rebuilt after the infamous fire described in Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”.
The replacement gambling house – Montreux
Called Mountain Studios, Queen loved the atmosphere and the music that it helped create and purchased it in 1979. The studio remained in their control until several years after Freddie Mercury’s death (in 1991) when it was sold. It has now been converted into a charity museum / exhibition “Queen: The Studio Experience”, with the Mercury Phoenix Trust being the beneficiary. You have to enter the casino to be able to view the exhibition. Aside from Queen (and individual projects by members of Queen), the studio also recorded albums for David Bowie, AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop, Chris Rea, Yes, Rick Wakeman and Emerson, Lake & Palmer and others.
The exhibition comprises many display cases with artefacts from Queen’s history with numerous video loops (complete with headphones) and lots of printed material. The studio control room has been left intact and (mostly) operational. The mixer console has been modified leaving ten active fader controls that allow real time mixing of four Queen tracks. Instructions via video screens are provided by Brian May and Roger Taylor, the latter who suggested that the drums really need to be pushed to 11.
Mountain Studios mixer console
I did my best at “Fat Bottom Girls”, the cheeky fantasy track from”Jazz” – and Roger was right – loud drums do sound really good. 🙂
Remixing ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’
Freddie Mercury had a chateau in Montreux and loved the privacy and seclusion it provided – away from the scrutiny of paparazzi and eager fans. During the final stages of his illness, Freddie lived in Montreux where, together with the other members of Queen, he worked on and recorded songs that would be assembled as their final album “Made in Heaven” released in 1995, several years after Freddie’s passing.
A life sized statue of Freddie in a characteristic pose stands on the shoreline looking out onto Lake Geneva.
Freddie Mercury at the edge of Lake Geneva – Montreux
We enjoyed a salad while sitting on some rocks looking out onto the lake. A few metres away a mountain stream terminated at the lake’s edge.
Lunchtime view at the edge of Lake Geneva – Montreux
Montreux is famed for an annual Jazz Festival, which this year runs for two weeks from 28 June till 13 July, and as beautiful as Montreux is, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the place with the crowds this event is sure to attract.
For our return trip to Bern, we were Robin Hood’d * by the SBB (the Swiss Travel entity) with tickets costing more than four times that of the bus (AUD $124 vs. AUD $31). No wonder you see lots of pack packers waiting at bus stops! [* steal from the rich tourists and give to the poor Swiss]
Spoiling the attractive view – Montreux
I am pleased to report that our experiments into whether smoke and water are immiscible were successful. Our conclusion is that these components are not well fitted; one is a liquid and the other a gas. While it is possible for the gas to be dissolved into the water with the input of energy in the form of agitation, this was not the outcome of our experiment. Due to their disparate phases and difference in density, the smoke is observed to settle on top of the water.
Tomorrow, we leave for Lucerne – our second last stop before heading back home.
Departing Geneva by train, we arrived in Bern just after noon. Somewhere along the way we crossed a line of cultural divide. In Geneva, French is the principal language; signs are in French & English and announcements are in French (with occasional English subtitles). As the train was pulling into Bern, the announcement was in German. The signs are in German and there are no English subtitles. Even the architecture looks German; well at least according to my untrained eye. Having spent a week in Munich and with visits to Frankfurt and Berlin at other times – this place looked more German than the other places we’d been to in Switzerland. But the weather was perfect – so what the hell!
We took a bus from the station and were soon unpacking our bags in a third floor apartment overlooking the main street in the centre of the old town. The apartment was an Airbnb booking and belonged to a lady who taught music and played cello & piano. We thought she’d just nipped out to get something from the shop because the rooms were not “private” like our previous Airbnb experiences. Her personal items were strewn everywhere (in neat-ish sort of piles) but she hadn’t made much (if any) effort to prepare for our visit. Making the most of the weather, we set off in search of adventure.
The Zytglogge (Clock Tower) served as Bern’s first western city gate from 1191 till 1256. The ornate astronomical clock with its moving figures was added in 1530. This tower was about 150 metres up the street from our apartment.
Bern’s Clock Tower (Zytglogge)
Bern has had a close relationship with the bear since its foundation. According to legend, the city owes its name to the animal. Consequently, bears appear everywhere; on flags, fountains and buildings. If you’re lucky you might also be able to catch sight of a real bear in a park built just for them and open to the public. Seriously, there are currently three bears in residence. 🙂
One of the three bears – Bern
The next day we walked to the zoo through a large park across the River Aare.
Attractive view 1 – Bern
We had to do some hill climbing to get there first.
Attractive view 2 – Bern
Flamingos at Bern Zoo
We rented some bikes and rode along the river for an hour or so – it was just perfect. I had a regular bike and Chris scored an electric bike. I tried it out and the motor assistance appears to be a function of how hard you push on the pedals. A light touch and you are pretty much doing it by yourself; a bit more effort and you’re off like a rocket. Great fun!
Deadly treadly ride – Bern
Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva, lived in Bern between 1902 and 1909 while he was struggling to gain employment before finally scoring a job as a clerk (third class) at the Bern patent office. They lived in a number of flats during this time. One (about 50 metres up the street from our apartment) has been preserved and is open to the public.
Einstein’s Flat – Bern
The old city has numerous fountains that are adorned with colourful wooden carvings. One of the most famous is the Kindlifresserbrunnen (Swiss German for Child Eater Fountain) and was created in 1545-1546. Kindli is a Swiss German diminutive for the German word Kind, meaning child. A literal translation of the name is therefore “Fountain of the Eater of Little Children”.
Kindlifresserbrunnen – Bern
The fountain sculpture shows a sitting ogre devouring a naked child. Placed at his side is a bag containing more children. While many theories exist to explain what the sculpture represents, I think it’s the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk.
Fie-Fih-Foh-Fum – Bern
Chris climbed the tower of the cathedral (Munster) for some great photos across the old town and the River Aare which wraps around Bern. Look at the ant-like creatures in the next image and have a guess what they are?
Munster courtyard and River Aare from Bern Munster
Kirchenfeldbrücke Bridge from Bern Munster
River Aare – Bern
Einstein Museum
Bern played a significant part in Albert Einstein’s life and the local history museum has dedicated a whole floor to him – and we spent a day there.
Albert wields his charm – Bern
Albert Einstein is perhaps the most famous scientist in history. He was a true “rock star” scientist, known around the world for his theory of general relativity, which revolutionised our understanding of gravity. Not surprisingly, he was awarded the Nobel prize, but it wasn’t for general relativity. It was for a completely different work he published in 1905, the year known as Einstein’s annus mirabilis, or “Miracle Year”. Einstein was living in the flat shown above when these papers were published.
Each one of the 1905 papers was a revolutionary work that changed our understanding of the universe. None of them were about gravity and they covered a disparate range of topics. Einstein’s most famous work wasn’t published until 1915 (on General Relativity). The four papers that helped reveal the genius of Einstein were:
Brownian Motion; which settled the debate over the existence of atoms, and laid the foundation for a new field of work known as statistical mechanics.
The Photoelectric Effect; which demonstrated the particle aspects of light, and led to the quantum theory of matter. (Awarded 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics.)
Special Relativity; which overturned a model of space and time that had stood for millennia.
Mass-Energy Equivalence; which connected matter and energy, and led us to a true understanding of the stars.
In 2005, I attended a number of lecture / demonstrations at Newcastle University with Daniel as part of the celebration of the “World Year of Physics” in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s “Miracle Year” and the subsequent advances in the field of physics.
Say no more – Albert Einstein Museum – Bern
We also visited the Museum of Fine and Contemporary art. The fine art selection was modest (limited) and the contemporary art more extensive than should be legally allowed in a democracy. I was spellbound(?) by the noiseless video of a woman walking along a riverbank in what looked like an out-take from Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks. Sorry – this crap doesn’t connect with me.
We finished our city walk with visits to a number of gardens and terraces where views of distant snow capped peaks were plentiful.
Attractive view 3 – Bern
Tomorrow we are going to visit Montreux for the day to conduct experiments to determine whether smoke and water are truly immiscible.
Our last full day in Geneva was spent walking the old city (again) and visiting the Maison Tavel (Tavel House), the oldest house in Geneva. Along the way was passed through the park adjacent to the University of Geneva containing many distractions for wayward students.
The Queen making her move
Attractive view – Geneva
Maison Tavel was built in the 12th century by the Maison family. In 1334, the house was reconstructed following a devastating fire. In 1963, the house was purchased by the city of Geneva and converted into a museum.
A detailed 3D model takes up the greater part of the Maison Tavel attic. Architect Auguste Magnin spent 18 years creating this imposing relief map of Geneva before the destruction of its fortifications in 1850 and subsequent transformation into the modern city we see today. The model is constructed entirely of metal. The houses and fortifications are in zinc, and the roofs in copper. Composed of 86 sections, it covers a surface area of 32 m². The “Magnin Relief Map” was presented for the first time at the 1896 National Exhibition in Geneva.
Lilliputian view – Geneva 1850
St. Peter’s Cathedral was build between 1160 and 1252. Alas, the interior of the Cathedral was demolished in 1535, when Geneva’s residents accepted the Reformation and destroyed all the altars, statues and most of the paintings in a rage inspired by John Calvin (a resident of Geneva at the time). The Cathedral superstructure and spire escaped undamaged though.
Spire of St. Peter’s Cathedral – Geneva
We were blessed with the very best of weather during our visit to Geneva and despite it being our longest stop (of seven nights), there remained much to do as we departed for our next location in Switzerland.
Lunch on our balcony – Geneva
More attractive views – Geneva
We depart Geneva for Bern, Switzerland’s capital, expecting more good weather and places to explore.
Travelling network setup
I thought it may be interesting for our dear readers to view the travelling network setup I have been using on this trip.
Traveltime – travelling setup
The four way power strip provides power to items 4, 5, 6 and 7.
1. Travel wireless router with switch programmed VPN tunnel
2. 1TB wireless hard disk with SD card reader
3. Water-resistant bluetooth speaker
4. Canon camera battery charger
5. Google Chromecast USB power supply
6. Four port USB power supply (4 x 1A)
7. Four port USB power supply (2 x 2.4A [iPads] & 2 x 1A [iPhones])
8. Micro-USB leads for charging other portable bluetooth devices
Arriving at new accommodation, these items are deployed in a suitable location near the existing network router and connected using a network cable (preferably) or wireless (otherwise).
Our portable devices (2 x iPhones, 2 x iPads, 1 x Dell laptop, 1 x Google Chromecast, 1 x 1TB wireless hard disk and 1 x Canon camera) are connected to a private wireless network provided by item 1 completely independent and isolated from any external networks.
I have configured item 1 to connect to our home in East Maitland via an encrypted virtual private network (VPN) tunnel routing all traffic such that it appears we are in Australia. This allows us to access internet content that may be otherwise blocked from Australia. This is the case for all ABC iView content and allows us to watch the ABC news, 7:30 Report or Four Corners, for example. This function is controlled via a switch on the side of item 1 and is turned on as required.
The Google Chromecast is plugged into the TV and allows us to stream content to the TV rather than view it on the iPhone, iPad or the Dell laptop. This works for all iView, Netflix, YouTube and other supported services.
The water-resistant bluetooth speaker (item 3) allows me to listen to ABC AM, PM and a number of favourite ABC and BBC podcasts while I’m in the bathroom (and anywhere else within our accommodation for that matter). It has great bass response and also makes my favourite tunes sound great even when I’m not in the shower. 🙂
It only takes a few minutes to setup this system on arrival and has proven to provide a secure and reliable internet connection for all our devices.
When I was in year nine at high school, I heard a radio programme on the ABC which deeply affected me. From the BBC Horizon series of science and technology programmes, it was called “The Hunting of the Quark” and was released in May 1974. The programme provided an overview of the current state of knowledge and research into particle physics. The description of the science and scale of engineering being undertaken at CERN in Europe in the pursuit of the elusive fundamental particles of nature filled me with a sense of awe and wonder that has never left me.
Fast forward some forty five years and I am still awe struck at the scale of the work undertaken at CERN and I am so happy to have been able to visit the largest science laboratory on the planet – even if only as a humble visitor.
At an intergovernmental meeting of UNESCO in Paris in December 1951, the first resolution concerning the establishment of a European Council for Nuclear Research (in French, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) was adopted. CERN is now generally referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics – but the acronym has long since stuck.
Our visit
CERN’s visitor centre is only a short tram ride north-west of the centre of Geneva and about 200 metres from the French border. Much of CERN’s equipment is distributed between Switzerland and France. The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is the second-largest machine in CERN’s accelerator complex with a circumference of 7 km. It is perfectly bisected by the Swiss-French border running as a diagonal across the central axis of the machine causing the particles in the two counter-rotating beams travelling at near the speed of light (300,000,000 m/s) to cross the border about 100,000 times every second. There are no hard borders at CERN for sub-atomic particles!
2004 was the 50th anniversary of CERN and to mark the occasion, the Universe of Particles permanent exhibition was opened along with a striking piece of art in the form of a metal spiral (perhaps depicting the path of a decaying particle). In the picture below the large brown dome contains the Universe of Particles – which unfortunately was closed for maintenance for the exact duration of our stay in Geneva. 🙁
Universe of Particles – CERN
On one side of the metal strip is a list of famous scientists, mathematicians and “natural philosophers” along with a brief description of their principal contribution to knowledge. On the other side is a series of equations, drawings and symbols starting with Euclidean geometry and finishing with the Standard Model Lagrangian which represents our current best understanding of how the universe, and all it contains, functions.
Leibnitz’ differential calculus and Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation
Einstein’s mass energy equation and Planck’s constant
In the basement of the visitor centre is another permanent exhibition that can be viewed without having to be on a guided tour. Called Microcosm, it provides an extensive and interactive presentation of the background into what CERN is looking for, how it goes about it and the machines it has designed and constructed to do it.
Microcosm – cutaway model of LHC particle beam guidance hardware
Microcosm – scale model of ATLAS detector hardware
Associated with Microcosm, there is an outside garden containing decommissioned hardware. The image below shows one of the acceleration cavities from the Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider.
One of 288 LEP superconducting acceleration cavities
With its 27 km circumference, the LEP collider was – and still is – the largest electron-positron accelerator ever built. The excavation of the LEP tunnel was Europe’s largest civil engineering project prior to the Channel Tunnel. Three tunnel-boring machines started excavating the tunnel in February 1985 and the ring was completed three years later.
LEP was commissioned in July 1989 and the first beam circulated in the collider on 14 July. In 1995 LEP was upgraded for a second operation phase before it was finally closed down on 2 November 2000 to make way for the construction of the Large Hadron Collider in the same tunnel.
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
Commissioned on 10 September 2008, the LHC exists to provide high energy particles for experiments, located at specific locations on the circumference of the LHC ring. ATLAS and CMS are the largest experiments.
ATLAS: AToroidal LHC Apparatus
CMS: Compact Muon Solenoid
MoEDAL: Monopole and Exotics Detector At the LHC
ALICE: ALarge Ion Collider Experiment
LHCb: LHC-beauty
LHCf: LHC-forward
ATLAS
Beams of particles from the LHC collide at the centre of the ATLAS detector making collision debris in the form of new particles, which fly out from the collision point in all directions. Six different detecting subsystems arranged in layers around the collision point, record the paths, momentum, and energy of the particles, allowing them to be individually identified. A huge magnet system bends the paths of charged particles so that their momenta can be measured.
The interactions in the ATLAS detectors create an enormous flow of data. To digest the data, ATLAS uses an advanced “trigger” system to tell the detector which events to record and which to ignore. Complex data-acquisition and computing systems are then used to analyse the collision events recorded. At 46 m long, 25 m high and 25 m wide, the 7000-tonne ATLAS detector is the largest volume particle detector ever constructed. It sits in a cavern 100 m below ground near the main CERN site. The following image shows the control room and maintenance buildings associated with the ATLAS experiment.
ATLAS experiment buildings
The guided tour
Each of our guided tours lasted two hours, in which we were able to visit two sites within walking distance of the visitors centre; CERN’s first particle accelerator, the Synchrocyclotron and the ATLAS experiment buildings.
CERN’s first particle accelerator – The Synchrocyclotron
The Synchrocyclotron (SC) built in 1957, was CERN’s first accelerator. It provided beams for CERN’s first experiments in particle and nuclear physics. In 1964, this machine started to concentrate on nuclear physics alone, leaving particle physics to the newer and much more powerful Proton Synchrotron (PS).
The SC became a remarkably long-lived machine. In 1967, it started supplying beams for a dedicated unstable-ion facility called ISOLDE, which carries out research ranging from pure nuclear physics to astrophysics and medical physics. In 1990, ISOLDE was transferred to a different accelerator, and the SC was closed down after 33 years of service. The building housing the SC has been transformed using clever audio-visual presentations showing the history of CERN and the basic operation of the SC with animated images superimposed over the machine.
On our first tour (Wednesday), we were fortunate to have a very enthusiastic theoretical physicist from China as our guide. As one of more than 10,000 scientists and technicians who work at CERN, he was very happy to patiently answer the most inane of questions and spoke with great excitement about the possibility of a new accelerator with a proposed circumference of 100 km. [Increasing the size of the accelerator ring reduces the energy losses involved in making the beams run around the ring – leaving more available when the particles are subsequently smashed together.]
On our second tour (Thursday), our guide, of Russian heritage, was less informative and somewhat dismissive about the likelihood of the 100 km accelerator ever being constructed.
The Higgs boson
On 4 July 2012, Daniel and I were sitting in front of the computer in my study watching a live internet streaming presentation from CERN during which both the ATLAS and CMS experimental teams announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 125 GeV (Giga-electron volts; 125,000,000,000 eV; a measure of mass used in particle physics). This particle was consistent with that of the Higgs boson, as proposed within the Standard Model based on the work of three therotical physisists during the 1970s. Robert Brout, François Englert and Peter Higgs proposed a mechanism that is now called the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism and which predicts particles having properties observed during the ATLAS and CMS experiments.
On 8 October 2013, the Nobel prize in physics was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter Higgs * “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider”. *Robert Brout passed away on 3 May 2011.
CERN and the World Wide Web
The first website at CERN – and in the world – was dedicated to the World Wide Web project itself and was hosted on a computer belonging to Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist working at CERN. Developed as a collaborative tool to rapidly disseminate information within CERN, the underlying software and communication protocols that enable the operation of the WWW was subsequently given away to the public domain. The fact you can read this blog on a browser on your computer or smartphone is due to the brilliance of Berners-Lee and his fellow CERN scientists layered on top of the underlying Internet network of distributed computing resources.
Saying goodbye to CERN
I’m pleased to say that no leptons, fermions, bosons, quarks or any other, as yet undiscovered, elemental particles were harmed during our visit to CERN as the LHC is shutdown for a two year period while its components are enhanced to produce beams with an energy of 7 TeV (Tera-electron volts; 7,000,000,000,000 eV). The LHC is scheduled to be back on line sometime during 2020.
With so much fascinating stuff to see and information to absorb it was hard to finally climb aboard the tram and head back into Geneva on Thursday afternoon.
Chris also enjoyed our visit to CERN
I’d like to say a special thank you to my dearest Christine for engaging patiently with me for two whole days at CERN. She gets the quark charm award; I expect I’m in line for the quark strange award, and you, dear reader, get the quark top award for making it all the way to the end of this post. 🙂
