Day 31 Florence

This morning I had an 8.45am ticket to the Galleria Accademia and I'm glad I did. There was hardly anyone there which made viewing the statue of David  much easier. I didn't realise it was so big. I thought it was more life size. I wandered this place for a bit then left.

Next I walked down the street and discovered this big green and white building with a huge queue. Google told me it was the Duomo. I bought a ticket online and headed into the cathedral. It is massive inside! Much plainer than some of the cathedrals I've been in but it is much nicer I think. I went downstairs to the excavation site where they have excavated some tombs. It was interesting to see the underground crypt area.

Next I saw this bell tower & read that my ticket included it so in I went. I didn't actually expect to be able to climb to the top but I could! Man it was sooo physically challenging! It was extremely narrow (less than 1m wide) and steep. It was 1 path for both up & down. There were 4 levels and at each one, everyone arrived competely out of breath. 82m to the top with amazing views. I headed back down and went to the dome entrance.

So apparently I had a skip the line ticket but the security guards were not allowing this and everyone had to line up in the same line. I waited 25mins before going in then started the LONG climb up. 493 stairs, narrow like bell tower, in some cases both up & down had to pass each other (requiring lots of body contact) and everyone arrived at the top competely stuffed. 92m up this time. I made it at 12pm as the bells across Florence all started ringing. The views were again spectacular. Then I headed back down. It was actually harder gong down as I was so worried of falling ( the steps themselves were narrow too so feet placement was crucial).

Next I walked to the Galileo Museum. No queues outside, very few people inside. It was interesting to see all the ancient globes & telescopes.

Then I found a restaurant for lunch. I decided to give the Italian pizza a go (not normally being a fan). I ordered a porcini mushroom, truffle cream, parmesan flakes & mozzarella pizza. It was nice although VERY oily and the toppings only covered 2/3 of the base. I'm definitely an Aussie style pizza girl. Gimme toppings galore!!

Lastly I went to the Leonardo da Vinci museum.  Again no crowds and not many people inside. Here they have built a large number of the machines Da Vinci designed in his notebook. It was fascinating to see them and some you could actually use.

 This one below is a tank.

Then I collected my luggage and headed to the train station to get the train to Pisa.

After arriving in Pisa I walked the whole shopping street to reach my hostel. Lots of shops! There is even a marijuana shop! After checking in I went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the dark. It was amazing. The tilt is so significant! I'm amazed it hasn't competely fallen over! Tomorrow I'm climbing to the top (no elevators??) and wandering around the town before heading to Rome.

Day 30 Venice

This will be short as it is late & I am very tired. I got up at 4am this morning after only 4hrs of broken sleep to catch a flight to Venice. I got the bus into the city and checked my luggage into the luggage storage facility at the train station. I had very little plans so I aimlessly wandered the streets and canals. I saw St Mark's square, the rialto bridge and bridge of sighs amongst other things. Some of the alleys were a little creepy for my liking and I absolutely would not have made out back to the station without Google maps on my phone! Sooo many twists and turns, bridges & canals. So confusing! I window shopped, discovered Venice has a thing for masquerade masks & glass and ended up buying a leather handbag and leather wallet. I had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water but much to my dismay, my carbonara was terrible. I was disappointed as I was expecting some awesome pasta. I wandered all afternoon before catching the train to Florence.

In Florence I went straight to my hostel and my room. It is a very big but very nice place. I had spaghetti ragu in the restaurant which was amazing.

Tomorrow I am exploring Florence by foot before heading to Pisa late tomorrow afternoon.

Day 29 CERN

Today my cousin's husband put me in contact with someone at CERN (he used to work at CERN). Josh, the CERN guy, arranged for me to do an underground tour of the site where he works. There are several experiments that run at CERN and his is in France, called the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS). There are 2 others, ALICE & ATLAS, which both run in different parts of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Each experiment studies different things. ALICE, for example, looks at the particles when heavy ions such as lead are smashed together. CMS study the collisions between protons and it was this site they discovered the Higgs Boson particle in 2012. The track is 100m below the surface and 27km long. The original input the make the proton beam is hydrogen gas. That's it, simple hydrogen. It goes through 4 accelerators, each with their own track, before it is fast enough to enter the LHC. The particle beam chamber is only about 20cm round but the entire casing at the detectors is 5 storeys high! The beam is surrounded be superconductor magnets that are cooled to 1.9 kelvin (-271c). It takes 1 month to cool the magnets from room temperature to this temp! I learned that what we tell students is wrong. We tell them that the smallest particles are electrons, protons & neutrons. Well protons and neutrons are made up of even smaller particles called quarks! Protons are made from 2 up quarks and 1 down quark which give a proton the charge of +1. Neutrons are made from 2 down quarks and 1 up quark which gives it the 0 charge. Plus there are quarks called strange, charm, top and bottom. Funny names! So, when the proton beams collide the particles formed in the collisions fly out everywhere. The detectors are massive and have a variety of different types of detectors and layers for each one. Each detector is made for specific particles and there are also some calorimeters (measure energy) to catch particles. Computers then collect the data and can produce graphical displays. Each partical has a signature that the team can use to identify it. Photons make no track and just show up in the calorimeter while muons go through all layers to the outer layer. Nutrinos are buggers and rarely show up, identified by a gap in the data. Josh also showed me the data area where all the cables from the detectors go into and all the cables from there go up to the control room. I have never seen so many cables in my life. If any 1 cable is dislodged or completely pulled out, the entire data collecting system stops. The LHC has only been running 3 times since it began operating in 2008. Each time it runs is for 2-3yrs. Then they shut it down for upgrades. It will be shut down next year for 2yrs. Sitting this time the researchers work on analysing the data & do maintenance, repairs & upgrades. It was so incredibly interesting to learn about this amazing piece of machine. It is a true marvel! If you ever get the chance to visit, you really should.

Photo of the magnets in the tunnel. There are 1500 of these!

The inside of the beam tube. The proton beams run in opposite directions.

The inside of the detector model. The gold/brass bit in the middle is what Josh works on

One of the graphical displays that can be produced from the data showing the tracks of the particles. The red one going to the edge is a muon.

This interactive display is a large case of a liquid substance and you push a button to inject particles into it. The particles show up as they collide with the particles in the substance. You can actually SEE the particles in real life! They are no longer invisible things! I took this picture after we injected electrons. 

This is a sample of the detector Josh works on. It is a ginormous chunk of brass basically which the particles collide with. 

This is the inside of a linear accelerator which is the first stage of accelerating the proton beam.

A near life size model of the detector in the tunnel. This one is just for show and not made of the real stuff. It is still very impressive!

A map of the whole site. We were right at the very top of the track at CMS whereas the rest of the accelerators & detectors are concentrated in the lower half of the track.

Day 28 Chamonix Mont Blanc

Today, on advice from my visit and aunty, I booked a bus to Chamonix Mont Blanc in France. I didn't wake up early enough for a morning bus so I took a bus at lunchtime. It was a 75min drive from the airport. Ob arrival I went straight to the cable car that would take me up Mont Blanc to a height of almost 4000m. There they have amazing views, lookouts, restaurant etc. Unfortunately the ticket lady advised me visibility was zero and showed me the live webcam view. I didn't want to waste €62 so I moved on. I went wandering through the streets looking in shops for a while then made my way to the train to go to the glacier.

This is a 20min train ride (old fashioned rack train) uphill into the mountains. From there you take a cable car almost straight down to a platform near the glacier. From there you walk down the steel mesh pathway to the ice cave grotto. Along with flat paths, there are 420 steps to go down. The cave is stunning and good right into the glacier. I don't know anything about it though as all the info boards were in French. It definitely has a blue hue to it and it is incredibly bumpy inside. Unfortunately there was a big school group in there and they were being shits, yelling & mucking around. I headed back up to the cable car. 420 steps. Boy was it tiring! I was so hot & sweaty by the time I was half way! I took the cable car back then the train back to the village.

After that I went walking around the town. The weather cleared up a little so I could see the summit for the Mont Blanc cable car. Its a long way up!!

I window shopped some more then went hunting food. I really wanted to try raclette but every restaurant refused to serve 1 person, instead requiring a minimum of 2 people for raclette. I was rather disappointed. The downside to solo travel is people discriminate against you because you are alone. My choices were down to pizza & burgers. I chose a burger. Beef, bacon, lettuce, tomato, camembert & honey sauce. It was actually amazing! Then of course I finished with a crepe. Nutella, banana & coconut. Mmm!

Then I got the bus back to Geneva and now I'm in bed preparing for my trip to CERN tomorrow 😀

Day 27 Worst day ever

Today I got up early and headed back to the train station at 8am. I saw a train leave just prior to checking out with Zermatt in the destination. I got my hopes up. The man at the train station crushed them. Yes it says Zermatt on the train but it is stopping at Visp. I went back to Visp with another lady who lives in Zermatt and is trying to get home. We talk to the prone there and they tell us they will have more info after 10am as the teams should be out in helicopters assessing everything by then.

Lily and I went across the road to have coffee. I had a mango & banana chai latte. Very good. At 11.45am we went back and spoke to the ticket desk. While in there news comes through of another landslide across the road or train tracks. She tells me there is virtually no chance of getting to Zermatt today. I'm devastated. Beyond devastated. Zermatt is one of my top bucket list destinations and to miss out when I'm so close is very upsetting for me. Tyre lady gives me a refund for the ticket to Zermatt and I purchase a ticket to Geneva instead. I have to go 1 day early since I have no other choice.

I got to Geneva around 2.30pm and find my hostel. Fortunately they have space for tonight and I can keep the same room for the now 3 nights. I went out and walked around the city for a bit, exploring & window shopping.

Then I made my way to a restaurant for dinner. It is known to have the 'best fondue in Geneva' and since I couldn't have the fondue in the igloo in Zermatt as planned I went here. I got 200g fondue and a huge basket of bread for $32 AUD. Yep it's expensive here. I haven't had cheese fondue before and it was pretty good. A lady told me most people don't like it the first time cos of all the wine in it. I thought it tasted funny! I ate all the cheese and only 1/3 of the bread.

Then I made my way back to my room. I'm finally washing my clothes in a washing machine instead of the sink and I'm watching CSI Miami in Italian.

Day 26 Stein am Rhein & travel to Zermatt

Michelle told me I has to see this like town called Stein am Rhein when I was in Switzerland. So I boarded a train this morning and headed out there. It's 2 trains and 1.5hrs away but I was apparently in for a treat. Upon arrival I found my way to the old part of town. It was stunning! The buildings are so old, wooden old, and lots of them are painted. Unfortunately I found out that most shops don't open on Monday's so I was only able to go into 6 shops (1 bakery, 1 cafe, 1 supermarket & 3 shops). It was amazing. I found the most beautiful colored and shaped pasta in one shop.

Then I got the train to Zermatt. This would be 3 trains & 5hrs across the country. All good until I got to Visp. I went to board the final train to Zermatt. Train closed for now, you have to take the bus. Ok fine, I get on the bus. Start driving & get 7 mins down the road & the driver does a u-turn. What the??? He tells us the road to Täsch is closed & the train is also closed due to rock falls onto the road. We returned to the train station and waited. He then tells us there is no way to get from Täsch to Zermatt today & he doesn't know if the road from Visp to Täsch will reopen tonight. I don't know who the 2 people who actually read these blogs are but if you know me well, you can guess how I am feeling.

After 2hrs they told us the road is closed for the night. Apparently there was an avalanche and rock slide. They also told us all hotels in Visp are full. Our best chance was to take the local bus to a nearby town called Brig and try for a hotel there. About 6 of us did and 4 of us found a room at a hotel across from the train station. €82.50 later and I'm in a room with no idea what tomorrow will bring ☹

Day 25 Snow Hotel & travel to Zurich

Today is my last day in Norway & Scandanavia. I woke at 7am after having an average sleep. Bette then I've had in some hostels though cos as least its quiet! I wasn't cold at all which was awesome. I went to the showers & for ready then met the Aussies for breakfast. In a clear day you can see a fjord outside the window. This morning it was snowing. A lot! We ventured out to reception after breakfast you check our transfers then headed nvm to the warmth of the lounge. There we stayed until I left for my transfer at 9.45am. My bus took me to the airport where I am flying to Oslo.

Then I had a 5hr wait before I flew to Zurich. It was a LONG wait when you have not had much sleep! I went to a food market and got a burger and Pepsi. $50. Hmm. I really do not like that you pay sooo much extra on top of the advertised price!

Anyways, the flight to Zurich was 2hrs and went smoothly. I found my way to the train and got to the Zurich main station. Walked to the hostel and now I'm in bed. I'm completely exhausted. Took me 14hrs to get her and I haven't slept well for almost the entire trip. I'm going to need a holiday when I get back to recover!