Day 3 - Atoms Collide

Today was all about the visit to CERN.

The trip there wasn't without mishap, as George had waaaay too much fun in a tunnel, dipping the clutch and letting his cutom exhaust roar. Sadly, the clutch gave up the ghost halfway through and he exited the tunnel with smoke billowing from the rear of his car. I waved him over and we all stopped (all bar Bod who was leading, but he stopped a little further on).

After waiting as long as we dared without missing our guided tour of CERN, we tried George's car once more and it seemed OK so we all set off after him, only to come across Bod's car also expired by the side of the road... He'd make the classic error of stopping the car but leaving his lights on and his battery was flat! After a battery swap with Andy, all seemed well and we carried on only to discover George's expired Atom a few miles on. It was terminal and we didn't have time to stop, so we carried on to Switzerland, arriving at CERN after a quick pit stop to relieve bladders and collect sandwiches.

I was one of the first to get to CERN and went inside to organise things for the group with minutes to spare... A couple of cars arrived late for the lecture which opened the tour, but that was fine - A French physicist with a sense of humour gave the lecture, which didn't really tell us anything new, but justified the enormous expense of running this research centre.

I had been told that we were not going to be allowed underground for the tour, but there would be a minibus taking us to various sites on the 24 km ring that makes up the particle accellerator.

I was wrongly informed, and at the end of the lecture we were told that we would be one of the very last groups allowed underground to see the detector. 

Pigs in shit were never any happier than me right then.

So we got onto our bus and off we went... First to the place where they put togther and service the conduit for the accelerator, which was huge and fascinating, but not the highlight.

We arrived at the detector and... were told that the lift was broken and that we wouldn't be able to descend the 100metres down to the machinery.

Pigs on linoleum could not have been more disappointed. 

There was a possibility that it might be fixed before we had to get back to reception. So we were shown around a bit and were all on tenterhooks waiting to see if we would actually make it down to the  accelerator itself. We'd been shown a lifesize picture of this vast 30m high piece of kit and so knew what we would have seen if the bloody lift had been working. You would think that a place which holds Europes finest collection of scientists and engineers would have been able to make a bloody lift work, but it seemed unlikely.

At the very last minute, our physicist guide announced in a very quiet way that the lift had been fixed and that we would indeed be going underground!!!!!

After being fitted with hard hats, we began the descent. And after wandering through corridors of concrete 7 metres thick we finally arrived at the detector. IT WAS AMAZING! Everything I expected and so much more. Huge, and clever, and complex, and literally awesome, it was a sight to behold. I could have stayed there for ever, but after about 15 minutes, our time was up and we had to return to the surface. What an unbelieveable experience.

Afterwards, we posed the Atoms colliding ouside the globe at CERN and then headed off for our next overnight stop in Chamonix.

We were staying at the Faucigny. George showed up in a Yaris rental, so at least the group was all together which was excellent.

After a quiet meal at the sports bar in town, it was off to rest for tomorrow's playing in the mountains...