#Genevaing
Jun. 16th, 2015 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryngLast day in Geneva. Well. Until Saturday. We're leaving this morning to explore a little bit of France - Lyon, then Dijon - but we'll be back in Geneva for the weekend because a) we're all flying out of Geneva and b) there's a big music festival here this weekend. Fete de la Musique, which just happens to correspond to the summer solstice. It should be cool!
We've been doing thing pretty chill here. Lady is finally feeling better, but we still have to take things slow. I'm okay with that, because otherwise I probably would have burnt myself out by now. I tend to go go go until I collapse and can't go a step further, which isn't good for anyone.
Lessee... we've walked around the city a lot and now I know this corner of it pretty well. We've toured grocery stores and stood by the lake and played chess on giant chess boards. The biggest thing so far was heading out to the Swiss-French border to see and tour CERN. I'm both very excited we got to do that and still a little disappointed that the tour was so... meh? I guess they get a shit ton of tourists, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but it would have been cool to see a little more of the place. For one, I knew we wouldn't actually get to see any of the LHC because now it's operational and that means no one goes down there - too much radiation.
They took us to where they manufacture the large tubes - I think - and mostly just stood us at one end of the factory and talked at us for an hour. I mean, it was cool!, listening to a Real Live physicist talk about how the LHC works, but a) he muttered, b) he spoke really fast, c) he spoke really quietly, and d) when we asked him to slow down and speak up, he ignored us. X.x But what I got from what I could hear and understand was cool. Then they took us to a little room that overlooked the control center, which was also cool. Got to see the large screens covering the walls and the long line of empty champagne bottles from their first successful run.
Although we didn't get to see much, I came away pretty impressed with what it took to both build this beast and keep it running. Also that it is fully funded by the EU taxpayers. It's a bit like NASA on steroids. And something the US would never ever do, which depressed me more than a little.
Okay, have to wake up all the sleepyheads so we can pack and clean, so that'll have to be it for now.
We've been doing thing pretty chill here. Lady is finally feeling better, but we still have to take things slow. I'm okay with that, because otherwise I probably would have burnt myself out by now. I tend to go go go until I collapse and can't go a step further, which isn't good for anyone.
Lessee... we've walked around the city a lot and now I know this corner of it pretty well. We've toured grocery stores and stood by the lake and played chess on giant chess boards. The biggest thing so far was heading out to the Swiss-French border to see and tour CERN. I'm both very excited we got to do that and still a little disappointed that the tour was so... meh? I guess they get a shit ton of tourists, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but it would have been cool to see a little more of the place. For one, I knew we wouldn't actually get to see any of the LHC because now it's operational and that means no one goes down there - too much radiation.
They took us to where they manufacture the large tubes - I think - and mostly just stood us at one end of the factory and talked at us for an hour. I mean, it was cool!, listening to a Real Live physicist talk about how the LHC works, but a) he muttered, b) he spoke really fast, c) he spoke really quietly, and d) when we asked him to slow down and speak up, he ignored us. X.x But what I got from what I could hear and understand was cool. Then they took us to a little room that overlooked the control center, which was also cool. Got to see the large screens covering the walls and the long line of empty champagne bottles from their first successful run.
Although we didn't get to see much, I came away pretty impressed with what it took to both build this beast and keep it running. Also that it is fully funded by the EU taxpayers. It's a bit like NASA on steroids. And something the US would never ever do, which depressed me more than a little.
Okay, have to wake up all the sleepyheads so we can pack and clean, so that'll have to be it for now.
