Geneva

July 17, 2017

After breakfast, we loaded up for the short ride to the Holiday Inn at the airport. We dismantled and packed our bikes and walked over to the Coop grocery store at the nearby mall for, finally, an inexpensive meal. There was a fantastic selection of ready-to-eat meals and it seemed that many office workers bought lunch here too. Then back on the tram to go out to CERN. I should mention here that when you stay at a hotel in Geneva, you get a card giving you free access to the local transit system.

I decided to try something new with my lunch. Rivella is a Swiss soft drink (I didn't know that when I chose it) and I quite liked it. I don't care for most soft drinks but this one was sweet than most and I'd buy it again.

CERN has two free exhibitions and they were worth visiting. It would have been even better to take a tour but those are limited and must be booked two weeks in advance...

The Globe at CERN houses the Universe of Particles exhibition. The other exhibition, Microcosm, is also very interesting (and more specific to what they do at CERN), but isn't in such a unique building.

"Wandering the Immeasurable" is a steel sculpture designed by Canadian artist Gayle Hermick. Its 37 metres of steel ribbon are "laser cut on the outside surface with 396 discoveries in their language of origin. Each shows a scientist's name and the year and nature of his or her breakthrough in the field of physics, astrophysics or mathematics.... Electroplated on the inside surface of the sculpture, these same discoveries are represented with scientific symbols..." (from the CERN website)

We went to the Coop Restaurant back at the mall for a reasonably-priced dinner. Unlike most other restaurants, this one closes at 7 and we were almost the only ones there at 6:30. I opted for the salad bar which is priced by plate size, not weight. Definitely one of the better values in this expensive city.

5 km, ascent 65 m, descent 23 m

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Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 1,082 km (672 miles)

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