As promised, blog entries describing our Grindelwald, Switzerland vacation at the end of this last July. I propose to break them up into individual days - trust me, there are more than enough stunning photos to make even this breakdown nigh unmanageable.
...But first, before we move on to the main attraction/feature film, a word from our sponsor. Please fasten your seatbelts and observe all no smoking signs. In the event of a water landing, your seat can be used as a flotation device. And if you believe that, please also read our Florida Real Estate Prospects magazine tucked into the back of the seat in front of you, right behind the personal nausea relief bag .
LHC update:
Check out The Large Hadron Rap on Youtube! It's fun and instructional. Unfortunately, all versions of this video uploaded to Youtube (and there are several) all appear also to have the same sucky - er, "inferior" audio quality (one hopes the LHC will perform better). At least it has subtitles...
What else would you expect to have happen at the world's premiere accelerator except to have things accelerate? And they are: the crunch is on. Here's the schedule from a CMS perspective:
- This coming week two things are happening simultaneously: Cruzet 4 global run (I have three shifts), and CMS is being "closed" - that is, the plus and minus endcap rings are being pushed towards the center barrel rings, in preparation for magnet turn-on and subsequent 24/7 beam operations. And immediately after closure the forward detectors come out of their garages and get lifted up on raiser platforms and put into place. Last chance to fix stuff before we go prime-time! -that is, until the winter shutdown.
- Next week, immediately after completion of Cruzet 4, we start magnet-turn on procedures (shut your eyes and cross your fingers, arms, legs and toes) and then move into "CRAFT" - Cosmic Run At Four Tesla; i.e., full magnetic field.
- Immediately after that, we move into 24/7 operations in preparation for...
- September 10, when we've been told that full circulation of proton beams around the ring is expected for the first time.
Okay, back to our main attraction.
On Saturday the 26th of July we left our apartment in France and headed to the cabin we rented in Grindelwald, Switzerland. The fastest route would have been by highway; fastest, yes, but not very direct (took us all the way up to Bern and then south again), and certainly not the most interesting. We opted to go through the hills instead, and that proved to take far longer than even the Google maps had predicted. I must have taken a left turn at Albuquerque...The following map shows our route. Destination "B" is Gstaad, where we stopped for some lunch.
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On the way we encountered more than a few bikers - and thought of our friends back home, like RR. Here's some biking for you, R! No flat railbeds for you over here, we're all training for the Tour.
Here's a brief video of us driving through "Gsteig" on the way to Gstaad.
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I love saying "Gstaad", emphasis on the G. Fans of the Pink Panther movies like me know that it made an appearance in "Return of the Pink Panther". We had to detour there and swing by the Palace Hotel, which looks like an old castle.
Us gypsy Americans pulled out a picnic blanket and camped briefly under the trees out front, ate lunch and then moseyed on our way again. We were already pushing into B's nap time at this point...
The city of Interlaken is situated between the two lakes Thunersee and Brienzersee, and also stands guard at the entrance to the Lütschine valleys to the south.
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Above and beyond these valleys stands the majestic Jungfrau (more pictures coming from Day 3 of our trip). The Lütschine river has two tributaries that join at Zweilütschinen, where the valleys split. The "left" valley (as you drive south from Interlaken) is home to the Schwarze (black) Lütschine, which comes out of the mountains and passes through Grindelwald. The "right" valley is home to the Weisse (white) Lütschine, Lauterbrunnen, and Trummelbach falls, which we visited on tour in the summer of 2006.
We finally made it to our chalet, "Rocky Docky" (the white part in the picture) at Grindelwald Grund, around 3pm.
Here's a video tour of the cabin.
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While K and B both got their much-needed afternoon naps, I did a little exploring around town. The major scenic selling point for Grindelwald is the view of the infamous Eiger Mountain North Face, but of course you have mountains all around to look at (this is the "Fiescherhorn", peeking between two shoulders and capped with mist; it can only be seen from the ground in the town of Grindelwald),
and idyllic mountain villages (with that legendary "old world charm" - we got to eat dinner at a hotel restaurant patio overlooking the valley),
...and frothy glacial streams. Here's a movie of the Schwarze Lütschine that flows right past where we stayed. After thinking about it for a while, I decided the water appeared to have the consistency and color of soy milk. Chilled to near-freezing and then shot out of a narrow gorge (more pictures to come).
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Time for one last dusky shot with classic mountain weather:
More pictures of Day 1 are also available on our dropshots website. See you next time for Day 2! We went to the top of Europe.
Take care,
-PKBD
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