The City of Light

Ah, Paris. I got back this morning after an overnight train ride. The trip was much needed and much appreciated! It was awesome to see the city in person. I've seen pictures and heard stories of Paris but it's amazing to have actually been there and experienced it myself.


I arrived early Friday morning. I walked to the Louvre (because it was the closest and easiest to find). I strolled the grounds and enjoyed a lovely sunrise. I went into the museum and walked around the various galleries for a couple hours. I had a nice baguette for lunch and returned to the museum for another hour or two.


After exploring the museum I headed down the Champs-Elsyees to the Arc d'Triomph. As I approached the arc the traffic got noisier and nosier. It really is a congested round-about! I went under the street to the get to the arc itself. After walking around the base I thought it would be fun to get on top of it. So I paid the fee and walked the hundred or so steps up to the top. The view was quite stunning! It was also a great place to see the city's layout and plan several routes throughout the city.

After descending the arc I headed for the Seine and the Left Bank. Next stop: Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower to the Americans). That structure was giant; bigger than I expected it to be. The area beneath the tower was all a bustle with people in lines to go to the top and street merchants. I decided to go to the top at night so I could see the lights. After see the tower and feeling ready for a break I decided to find a hotel. I strolled around the neighborhoods adjacent to the tower and found a nice little hotel with a classic little French lady at the front desk.
"Bonjour!" said the cute little raspy voice in a perfect French accent.
"Parle vous anglais?" I responded.
"Oui Monsier!" she said with a pleasantly large smile.
And with that I had a room. So I headed up and took a well earned nap.

As twilight fell I headed out for some dinner. I found a nice little cafe on the way to the Eiffel Tower. After a notably long French dinner I headed to the tower. The lights were spectacular! I decided to head to the top of the tower. So I went to the south pillar and took the stairs to the second floor (it was cheaper and way less crowed than the elevator on the north tower). After reaching the second floor and ambled about for a while then took the elevator to the top. Talk about a breath taking view! It was a little windy and cool on top but well worth it. Then after an hour or so of strolling the area around the tower I headed back to the hotel and promptly went to sleep.


On Saturday I walked along the Left Bank of the Seine to the Musee D'Oursay. This houses impressionist, symbolist and other more modern art (than the Louvre). It was a very nice museum with a lot of wonderful galleries. I spent three or four hours there and then proceeded to Notre Dame. It was a much larger cathedral than I had expected. Also much brighter stone. Anyway, I went inside and walked around the inside and took a seat in the nave and watched other tourists pass by. I think I dozed off a few times as well because I was still really tired and it was so dark and soothing in there.


I headed out to walk around the city some more. I stopped at a street vendor selling crepes and enjoyed one on my way to Pompidou Centre. This area was quite entertaining. There were musicians, artists and entertainers. It was really fun to watch. After I strolled around some more taking in the city sites eventually making it back to the train station for the night train back to Frauenfeld.


So that sums up the trip pretty concisely. I'll be leaving for Salt Lake tomorrow morning. So see you all soon!

-B
Pediestrian extraordinaire

The beat goes on...

The beautiful valley of Pfyn!

Well, it's been a couple days since I posted last. I haven't been in the lab for a while and that's where my only Internet access is. So here's a quick recap of the past few days.

UPDATE on the crashing ceiling in the lab: It wasn't too bad; only a few slats came down and it was fixed straight away. Turns out it was from some only water damage.

Saturday was spent strolling in the morning and then driving to Austria with Wilf to walk with a guy about IDFB stuff. After we got home we spent a lovely evening cleaning and re-arranging Max and Suoma's garage! Sometimes it feels like I never left Salt Lake. O ya, and we moved a table down the sidewalks on wheels because it wouldn't fit into the back to Max's car.

The streets (aka strasse) of Pfyn.


Alp Horn. Come on... I am in Switzerland!

- - - - - -

So, on Sunday I went to church at the Frauenfeld branch. Fortunately there were some missionaries (from Utah of course) who translated the meetings for me. After that I had lunch at one of the families homes. After lunch we went to Santis, a mountain either in the Alps or very close, I never could get to the bottom of that. The view was spectacular!! I can't believe how amazing the landscape is up there.

Looking at the summit (2500 m) of Santis as seen from the gondola.

Monday Wilford, Max and I travelled to Plohingen, Germany to visit with an old down and feather machinery veteran. We spent a few hours talking and, of course eating. From there Wilf took a train back to Frauenfeld because he had to catch his flight home the next day (which due to daylight savings time being early this year he missed his flight). Max and I then continued north to Julich, Germany (about 2 hours north of Frankfurt). Here we spent the night and toured an isotope lab the next day.

On the way home from that trip we got a call from the ill-fated traveller, Wilf. He wanted us to take a small detour and visit another down/feather manufacturer who was upset with some results. That made for another very long day. Not to mention the man smoked like a chimney (he enjoyed 3 cigars during our 2.5 hour meeting; I did not). After removing to fresh outside air we continued our journey back to the apartment. But since Wilf was still in town there was more work to be done and I didn't get to bed until after 2 a.m.

Today is a calmer day. I slept in until about 10 and enjoyed a leisurely morning followed by a large Swiss lunch. They sure do feed you a lot over here. I'm working in the lab today and maybe a bit tomorrow.

On Thursday night I'll be travelling to Paris for a little vacation from the vacation as it were. I will be there probably until Sunday after which I will fly home Monday. This may be my last post since I may not get back to the lab and have free time to post but not to worry every thing's great and I'll see you all in a few days.

Peace out.

-B
"Rocket Man"

Business as usual

Well the weekend has arrived! What will I do this weekend? I don't know yet. Hopefully I'll be able to stroll around town and get some pictures.

Well since my last post we've had more visitors to the lab here. Lots of food was had by all. It was a treat to have visitors that spoke English. I'm growing weary of German.

Something fun that I'm looking forward to is a trip to Paris next week! It will be cool to see some of the famous sites there.


This is a picture of the lab (Fill Power & Opening)



Here's another view of the lab

Side Note: As I was typing we heard a crashing sound at the back of the lab. Everyone ran to see what it was. Turns out part of the ceiling (in the very rooms that I was posting pictures of) fell down!! You might be able to see the beginnings of where it happened in the pictures above. You can kind of see a little sagging in the ceiling.

Here's the front office

Here's a view from the apartment where I'm staying. It's pleasant little farming community

Here's my bed

Well that's about it for now.

-B

Greetings from the land of Switzer!!

So if you haven't checked out my other blog you may want to as it may be different. I may choose one blog or the other exclusively eventually but it's been a few days since I've tinkered on the computer so I need the geekout for a bit.

Anyway... I arrived safely and tired on Tuesday at about 7am local time (11 pm Salt Lake time). When it was all said and done I didn't get any real sleep for a good 30 or so hours. Needless to say I'm still quite tired. Max and Wilf picked me up and we took a quick tour of Zurich and drove to the lab in Frauenfeld. It's quite a nice little lab and I'll post some pictures later.

The next day we drove to Germany to see Frau. Kengott of Hoenstein Inst. She is quite a talker (although I couldn't understand any of it). That reminds me...I'm sick of German I miss English. I got to drive on the autobahn; that was fun going over 100 mph (170+ km/h).

Below are a few pictures of the trip so far. The first is the Alps from the plane right before we landed. The sunrise was spectacular!! The second pic is me standing on the steps of the venerable IDFL Europe lab. And the third is a rest stop in Germany. The rest stops here are amazing! They have shops, gas, hotels, etc. at almost each one! And they're like ever 10 km or so.

That's about it for now. Good to see English as I type: soothes the brain. Until next time!!

-B
(The one they call foreign)

Europe Tour 2007

This site was set up as a contingency to the other one I created for the trip. It's all dependent on internet connectivity for which blog I'll post to.

Check back soon! The saga begins March 6, 2007... From Switzerland.