Terrafirma Travels

Left at 0915, after brushing the worst of the dust off the van, people already out posing for photos. It's a huge thing, blame Instagram. First half hour included an impressive circular climb out of the Interlaken valley. It's yet another beautiful day. A-maz-ing tunnels. Swept past Lake Lucerne, a beautiful light green with hardly a ripple. It's nice out today, again. We had to do a long loop north to get down to Andermatt because the direct routes through the mountains are still closed. It's Sunday in Switzerland so virtually everything is closed. Found a petrol station with a shop so got diesel and bread. Andermatt was a ghost town, and none too pretty at that. It used to be a central place for four alpine crossings, but now road and rail go past without stopping. We had our sandwiches in a scruffy car park all on our own. Should have made a flask. N took on the helm and set off up and round and up etc the '19' which took us through the Oberalp Pass which has...

A separate post in case of problems! Down from Schilthorn (the up ones are too big to load into Blogger!) Skiers from Birg Cable car arriving somewhere Cockatoo in Liechtenstein 

L started the day with a run, so early that it was still cold but the beautiful valley was deserted as sun caught the summit of the Jungfrau.  It was quiet apart from the rushing of the alpine stream.  We had a decent shower and walked 20 minutes to the local Lauterbrunnen railway station for a train that would take us 80 per cent of the way up the Jungfrau, then back down in a circular route by train and 20 minute cable car. All that for 92 swiss francs each.  The first leg was a very steep up to Kleine Scheidegg. The trains operate on a cogged track. We could look back down to Lauterbrunnen... and up to the North Face of the Eiger. Then there was another short train ride up to Eigergletscher, underneath the north face. We could have taken another train to the summit, for a huge sum of money, but it's all in a tunnel anyway plus  we had a magnificent summit yesterday.  We spent quite a while drinking in the amazing views at Eigergletscher, had a coffee and our...

What a fabulous day, thanks to advice from campsite man. Here's the view from the campsite... that's where we're going! Early start after porridge saw us on bus at 0909, 12 min ride up the 'cleft' to Stechelberg. The direct cable to Murren was not running, so piled into very crowded cable car to Gimmelwald and there immediately transferred en masse to the next leg to Murren. Felt like cattle. Cables are the steepest in the world. Watched the vertical rock face slide by. L not huge fan of dangling in the air at the best of times, and looking out at the rock wall was the worst of times. Decided to keep going right to the top, and come down more slowly. The density of people eased on the next legs but the density of helmets, suited skiers and snowboarders increased. Most got off at Birg, and we watched some setting off down the mountain. L reminisced about her skiing days. The last cable up to Piz Gloria at the Schilthorn peak was a double-WOW experience- a huge loop o...

Had a decent shower in the Novotel apartment before our first breakfast, then meeting the other Pantsocians in the local Trois Rois cafe for coffee and a second breakfast of croissants. Fond farewells were said.  We set off for Geneva station, for a train, metro and bus journey back to our lovely van still parked in Lausanne. When we arrived, we realised that its snug space under the trees had disadvantages. It was covered in dust, sap and bits of tree. We had a quick lunch and Nic washed off what he could with a basic hose provided by the site. Off we drove down excellent Swiss motorways towards the Jungfrau, through rolling green countryside, quite glad yo leave Geneva and Lausanne. Gradually the mountains rose before us, many still snow capped. As we got closer, the word wow was being overused. We drove down the last turnoff through crowds of pedestrians, tourists of all stripes, into our magnificent Camping Jungfrau sitting in the world's deepest cleft rather than a valley. Spe...

Miraculously, all 23 in the group arrived on time at the Science Gateway. After all the agonising about our left-behind passports and whether driving licences would be accepted ... they didn't do any ID check at all! Just gave John a box of lanyards. Prof Mario who works for UCL was our guide for 2.5 hrs and he did a fine job in the Centre, SPS Control room and ALICE detector. The Ring was operating so we could not go down or in, but only gaze from outside. Perhaps our biggest impression is no matter how clever the physicists are, the engineers are their equal. Their cafe is good too. Tram 18 took us all the way to the Old town where shady coffee & lemonade in the park was welcome. Cathedral of St Paul is suitably Calvinistic, this being the seat of the Reformation. Ice cream stop, larger than needed and a fiver each but what the hell. Strolled down Rue Grande, aptly named because the shops, galleries and wine bars are all v grand. I do mean down because the Cathedral sits on ...