DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

We've just returned from a wonderful visit to Geneva. We went to visit Catriona and James and their 3 lovely daughters. Catriona is the daughter of our friend Jackie, on Piers. Catriona and James live in a lovely French village just across the border from Geneva in Switzerland. Although it was cold, and the miserable winds, " les Beses" were howling, we were so comfortable in James and Catriona's home.  We sipped on an delicious Chateau Neuf de Pap from Catriona and James' wine cellar. Catriona made the most amazing cheese fondue that is served over potatoes. I'm still licking my lips!
Our Piers Island friends will remember James for his superb talk on Physics, Particles and the Large Hadron Collider(LHC),  that James gave to all of us last summer on Piers. James, a physicist, is the scientific writer for CERN, and all things particles. He gets to try to explain to us ludites what particles smaller than atoms are, and what the Higgs Boson is.
So no surprise, the highlight of our trip was a private tour with James of the Large Hadron Collider. James was amazing at taking the time to explain the workings of this mammoth particle accelerator. The LHC is in a tunnel 27 KM LONG , 50-150 meters below ground, all under France and Switzerland around Geneva.  The long tunnel is needed so that protons can get up enough speed flying around the tunnel to smash into each other. The particles from the collision are studied, and this is where the mysterious Higgs Boson will be hopefully identified.

Going underground with James was a bit like Alice going down the Rabbit Hole. We descended down a very long elevator shaft about 50 meters down. Not good for the claustrophobic. Then we entered a small tunnel with a yellow door at the end. As we ducked under this door, we entered a huge cavern where the gold plates of the accelerator-detector were facing us, several stories high. And just like the Cheshire Cat, James told us that some recent statistical anomalies found in the particle detectors may be the elusive Higgs Boson. It was all very exciting!

James explains the LHC

Through the Yellow Door 50 m down

The Beauty of the Detector

Inside the LHC

We spent our last night away with old friend Greta in her lovely French village, also outside Geneva. Because Geneva is so expensive, many people who work in Geneva actually live in France and just travel across the relatively open border. After a lovely visit with Greta, it was back out in the cold and on to the train for Milano. Because of the cold and snow in the Alps, our train was late getting into Milano and we missed our connection to Florence. We had to wait in the cold for 2 hours for the next train, and use up all my verbs and nouns trying to explain that  "dobbiamo avere un nouveau biglietto". We got back to our little villa at 11:30pm and felt very proud of ourselves for navigating the Swiss-Italian train routes. Now we're curled up on the couch reading under a blanket and waiting for this deep freeze to leave Europe. I had to go out and buy a "boursa d'acqua caldo" , or a purse of hot water, which we know as a hot water bottle.
Ciao for now!