Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Neolithic age meets the Nuclear Age - up the road from my cousins!


Yes this is wild. The Neolithic Age does meet the Nuclear Age up the road from where my cousins live.  And, I have the photos to prove it! 

To clarify:  The Neolithic Age, or the late stone age when agriculture evolved, is dated back to about 12,000 years ago give or take a century or two.  No problem so far.  


Fast forward 12,000 odd years to last weekend!  


That´s when we visited relations who live near Geneva on the French side of the Swiss-French border.  Their home is just down the road from CERN  - in fact, they pick up their breakfast croissants in the little bakery across the road from CERN. 


It would be very conCERNing for me if my, no doubt otherwise well read blog readers, (all 3 or you),  were left not knowing who or what CERN was.  They do Nuclear Research there, oh you know like particle physics, that kind of thing!   And they have a really cool circular tunnel about 20 miles in circumference, cool - when it is not hugely hot that is, in  which they swoosh particles of matter well over 100,000 times per second.  Yep. no typo there, that is 100,000.   So, you know, that´s the kind of stuff they do at CERN.   And to think my cousins get their baguettes for lunch right across from where this is all happening.  Stop and think about that for a moment.


(To find out more about CERN, you can learn about it on Wikipedia or check out the CERN website:   http://public.web.cern.ch/public/
In addition you could read Bill Byson´s excellent book A Short History of Nearly Everything which tells the stories of ... well ... nearly everything.  His books always include the juicy gossipy bits. - Gossip and knowledge, what´s not to love here!  Anyway, the good Mr. Bryson´s book has a chapter on CERN that´s worth a go over).


Now back to the Neolithic Age meeting the Nuclear Age, up the road from where my cousins live.  One evening we went for a stroll up the road.


On the brow of the hill I could see to the right this  working farm -  complete with ´agricultural odors´, no doubt the same odors ´enjoyed´ by the folks starting to keep cows and chickens etc  some 12,000 years ago!  






 And to the left I could see CERN.  Yes this photo with the big blue boxy business is not an IKEA warehouse, it is the back end of CERN.


In case you think I am making this up, I am including a third photo up close in front of the official entrance to CERN. 
  
 
Wow, to think I got my breakfast croissants right across the road! 
Über cool or what!  

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Gardens on top of Kensington Highstreet in London, et al

First, they ARE real pelicans, not plastic statues behind me.  Second, that was not a dramatic heading from moi; these gardens are really on top of a building on Kensington High Street in London.  They were a folly built back in the 1930´s.  A gorgeous folly and a very expensive one.

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They are presently owned by Mr. Virgin himself, Richard Branson.  It seems that as a young man he wanted to attend a function there but was not allowed in because he had no tie. So he went home.  A while later he receive a phone call from a lady to apologize to him for his not being admitted to the Rooftop Garden because he had no tie; then she went on`...by the way, would you like to buy the place?´   And he did.  I kid you not!






 Should you want to find out more about the Roof Gardens you can check out:
The Roof Gardens  at   http://www.roofgardens.virgin.com/en/the_roof_gardens.





























And you are asking why am I including this boring photo?  This ladies and gentleman, is the street level view of the building on which the gardens are situated.  See the photo below, where you can look up and see the trees.

From here on in, there are just nice photos from a day of wondering around London, albeit a wet cloudy day, so not always a ´sunny view`.



This beautiful fire place is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  A beautiful place to browse about.









Because of the rain, you may not recognize this photo is of Buckingham Palace.  This was weird for me; less than 24 hours earlier I had seen this same location on T.V. in Germany when it was packed with a full stage of world famous entertainers, the royal family and throngs of people celebrating her majesty´s 60th year on the throne.  Tonight all you could see was a few wet raggy tourists, including moi, a half a stage and throngs of Porta Pottis.

The door from Westminster Cathedral.

For the romantics reading, Prince William and his Mrs. came out through this door way on their wedding day.




Moi standing before Big Ben which is adjoined to the Palace of Westminster, a.k.a. the House of Parliament in England.


This is King's Cross Railway Station from where, on platfrom 9 3/4, trains leave for Hogwarts. As all Harry Potter readers know well.




Drats, I can´t turn this ´up ways´.  None the less,  I am including these few pictures on their side, as  I was only able to take a few photos at the  Palace of Westminster, a.k.a. the House of Parliament in Britain.


Full of history is this Palace of Westminster.  And lots of history, the sort of yummy history that is full of gossip and intrigue.  I wrote about my ´seeing´ St. Patrick here in my last blog post.