First days at CERN, Crozet and Geneva

My first attempt to do a blog, so please bear with me.

Halil and Tatiana are graduate students from Princeton, working with Prof. Chris Tully (my sponsor here). They had to get up early on a Saturday morning to greet me at the airport and show me around. I'm sure they had many things they would rather be doing, but they were extremely nice and very helpful. Don't know how I would have managed without their help. Behind them is the view from my hotel, the Bios Joly in Crozet, France.

The view from the hotel. Pictures don't really do justice to the mountains. Must be my shaky hands.

The front of the hotel, which sits on the mountain side (I think it is Monts Jura). My room is at the top in the center. I have a little terrace where I can sit and listen to the diners speaking in French below me. That's my rental car, a Volkswagen Polo. Nice little car. Gas is $8 a gallon, so stop your whining!

Arriving on a Saturday was a bad idea, because I could not get access to any of the experimental areas. All I had was a visitor's pass, no radiation badge or safety training, so I couldn't go into the experimental areas. It didn't care much on Saturday (although it was a beautiful day) since I was exhausted from the flight.

Pouring rain on Sunday, but then it cleared around 4 pm so I drove into Geneva. Had no idea what I was looking for, but I did find this lovely park.

This wall looks too new to actually have been built in 1536. But it has lots of cool statues and carvings on it.

People playing big games of chess and checkers.

Made my way down to the waterfront (Lake Geneva). One of the big attractions there is the Jet d'eau, a fountain that shoots water 295 feet in the air.

This walkway lets you walk under the bridge, so you don't have to cross a busy street.

A clock made from flowers. Darn tourists kept standing in front of it, so I couldn't get a full shot.

Stopped at a cafe by the waterfront for some pizza and my first beer in mainland Europe (note that I had been here at least 36 hours by then!). Pizza was fair, beer was tasty. Only cost about 30 dollars for a small, plain bar pie and one beer. Yes, what they say about Switzerland being expensive is true.

In my next post I will tell you about my Monday midnight shift on the beam line!