So, I don't think I've mentioned it over here, but this year I got the opportunity to participate in a study trip at work. We were a group of 13 people who got to basically pick a European country and go visit libraries and other relevant stuff there. Only Europe, because the higher ups apparently worried about costs - so we ended up picking Switzerland. Because. Trust me, it makes total sense.
Anyway, we went the last week of november (word of advice: don't wait that late - it's not fun fighting your way to the airport after the first genuine blizzard of the winter (at least my train ran, just slowly).
So, we got to Svitz, landing in pretty gorgeous (and ridiculously expensive and clean) Zürich, where we were staying for the first few days (in a hotel that used to be an inn and is mentioned as early as 1291).
Sadly, we were just that bit too early for the big Christmas markets - they all opened the weekend after we went home. But they had already put up some decorations in Zürich - different streets had different styles, all very elegant -
and I might have fallen a bit for the tree at the central station, what with it being completely decorated by Swarovski.
Anyway, we spent our time productively - visiting university libraries, national library, people doing Internet of Things and stuff - in Zürich, in Bern, in Basel (we got around, oh yes we did). Also, a museum or two. Museum of Communication in Bern is worth a visit, just saying. And in Basel we had some time not accounted for, so I ended up going to the Basel Paper Mill museum all by my lonesome - it was lovely and had a fascinating exhibit about the history of paper, writing, printing and stuff, as well as being an actual functioning paper mill. If you ever get to Basel, go visit!
Of course, Basel had other pretty things - like this gate tower thing, which I'm not entirely sure what was (part of an old city wall?), but it was pretty.
Anyway, after the Basel day some of us decided to indulge in some (ridiculously expensive) traditional Swiss cooking.
Okay, so it's strictly speaking the cheese fondue that's traditional, but I'm not a fan of cheese, so I went for the meat version. The people I was with had the cheese version. With mountain herbs. And at least one of them spent so much time laughing that I'm still wondering exactly what those herbs were...
Anyway, we eventually left behind our Zürich hotel and caught an evening train south to Geneva, where we spent the night at a tiny, dull hotel, before rising bright and early and catching a train to go here:
Okay, yes pretty mountains, but then you turn around and look:
CERN!
Where we got to see the internet. Sort of. And library relevant stuff about open access and information storage and stuff. And other stuff. Like this:
Because this is what the brightest minds of our generation get up to, of course.
Okay, honestly? There's not really that much to see at CERN. It mostly looks like a somewhat worn-down industrial neighbourhood from maybe the 50s? 70s? Which is pretty much what a lot of it is.
Mind you, we did get to get a tour of this place:
Where apparently some of the researchers are working on anti-gravity. Which as far as I understood mostly involves figuring out which way anti-matter actually falls.
And then we went to the airport and flew home in a tiny plane, making Denmark the third country I had been in that day. (Since CERN is located in both Switzerland and France).
And now I badly want to go back to Switzerland, just to go see all the stuff I couldn't, because this was work - like the HR Giger Museum (if I dare), and the Science Fiction Museum. You know. Stuff. Might have to save up for a few years first, though.
(Not exactly fannish stuff, but it'll have to do. Back to you,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
calvinahobbes.)
Anyway, we went the last week of november (word of advice: don't wait that late - it's not fun fighting your way to the airport after the first genuine blizzard of the winter (at least my train ran, just slowly).
So, we got to Svitz, landing in pretty gorgeous (and ridiculously expensive and clean) Zürich, where we were staying for the first few days (in a hotel that used to be an inn and is mentioned as early as 1291).
Sadly, we were just that bit too early for the big Christmas markets - they all opened the weekend after we went home. But they had already put up some decorations in Zürich - different streets had different styles, all very elegant -
and I might have fallen a bit for the tree at the central station, what with it being completely decorated by Swarovski.
Anyway, we spent our time productively - visiting university libraries, national library, people doing Internet of Things and stuff - in Zürich, in Bern, in Basel (we got around, oh yes we did). Also, a museum or two. Museum of Communication in Bern is worth a visit, just saying. And in Basel we had some time not accounted for, so I ended up going to the Basel Paper Mill museum all by my lonesome - it was lovely and had a fascinating exhibit about the history of paper, writing, printing and stuff, as well as being an actual functioning paper mill. If you ever get to Basel, go visit!
Of course, Basel had other pretty things - like this gate tower thing, which I'm not entirely sure what was (part of an old city wall?), but it was pretty.
Anyway, after the Basel day some of us decided to indulge in some (ridiculously expensive) traditional Swiss cooking.
Okay, so it's strictly speaking the cheese fondue that's traditional, but I'm not a fan of cheese, so I went for the meat version. The people I was with had the cheese version. With mountain herbs. And at least one of them spent so much time laughing that I'm still wondering exactly what those herbs were...
Anyway, we eventually left behind our Zürich hotel and caught an evening train south to Geneva, where we spent the night at a tiny, dull hotel, before rising bright and early and catching a train to go here:
Okay, yes pretty mountains, but then you turn around and look:
CERN!
Where we got to see the internet. Sort of. And library relevant stuff about open access and information storage and stuff. And other stuff. Like this:
Because this is what the brightest minds of our generation get up to, of course.
Okay, honestly? There's not really that much to see at CERN. It mostly looks like a somewhat worn-down industrial neighbourhood from maybe the 50s? 70s? Which is pretty much what a lot of it is.
Mind you, we did get to get a tour of this place:
Where apparently some of the researchers are working on anti-gravity. Which as far as I understood mostly involves figuring out which way anti-matter actually falls.
And then we went to the airport and flew home in a tiny plane, making Denmark the third country I had been in that day. (Since CERN is located in both Switzerland and France).
And now I badly want to go back to Switzerland, just to go see all the stuff I couldn't, because this was work - like the HR Giger Museum (if I dare), and the Science Fiction Museum. You know. Stuff. Might have to save up for a few years first, though.
(Not exactly fannish stuff, but it'll have to do. Back to you,
calvinahobbes.)
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