Travel Award: Trip to Cern
From the 17th – 20th February 2020, my brother and I went on a QM Physics trip to Geneva, Switzerland.
We arrived in the afternoon in Geneva and went to Hotel Central to pack away our suitcases and freshen up. After a few hours leisure time in the shopping area around the hotel, we went to Café de la Navigation, a rustic pizza restaurant with some great food!
On Tuesday, we visited CERN, the world class research facility with the famous Large Hadron Collider. This was definitely one the highlights of the trip. Here we learnt about both the history and its peacetime value to unite scientists around the world after World War 2, and the inner workings of CERN, about the Nobel prize winning experiments and the delicate conditions required to allow these ground-breaking experiments to succeed. We were also talked through the main parts of the particle accelerator and how the accelerator worked – as well as the painstaking process to remove and fix parts.
After this inspirational trip, we went on a narrated cruise on the exquisite Lake Geneva, on which we were told about the foundations of the different architecture, such as the old UN building and the pier. That evening, we tried the famous Swiss delicacy, cheese fondue – it was fabulous!!
The day after, we travelled 2 hours to the beautiful old town of Bern and went to the Einstein Museum and Einstein’s house. It was so inspiring to find out about the motivations
of the genius, as well as discover more about his life and Jewish heritage in Switzerland and America. After a wonderful Swiss lunch and a bit of time spent in The Old Town of Bern, we travelled back to Geneva to Bowling Meyrin where we had a great time! It was a fantastically enjoyable end to the long day.
Thursday was our final day, we started off travelling to the History of Science Museum, set in a beautiful picturesque park overlooking the lake. It had various interactions and artefacts explaining the workings and history of pulleys, electricity and even the evolution of glass eyes! After that we went on a guided tour of the UN Palace of Nations, an amazing experience where we learnt a lot about current and past peace keeping schemes as well as the wonderful gifts and rooms given and designed by lots of different countries before travelling back home to the U.K. that evening.
Switzerland was an amazing experience for both of us and one we will certainly never forget. We learnt so much about physics and the history of science and Switzerland as well as seeing possibly some of the most beautiful views on Earth.
We would like to give our thanks to our wonderful sponsors of the QM Alumni, without whom we would not have been able to go on the trip. We would also like to thank the Physics department for providing the opportunity to experience this trip which has inspired us and expanded our love of the sciences even more.
Manveer and Harjeet Wilkhu
