Wow, my feet ach just a bit now from walking around the whole of the Palexpo arena today at the Motor Show!
Saw some pretty cool concept cars, and sat in random ones (not the super expensive ones though..) but to be honest, after a while it all blurs together.
There was a cool games area, with Nintendo Wii's and DS's and Playstations all with driving games running, and an F1 simulator thing I'd liked to have gone in (but long queue). Best bit was having a go on the Segways though!! Very funny, and now I want one, unfortunately there is the small snag of one costing 10,000 swiss francs (~ £5,000).
Pete and Russell seem to be having fun so far though! They spent the day in Geneva whilst I was at work yesterday, and then we went to Bains de Paquis for fondue in the evening, which they were both surprised by how good it was!
Now looking at two days in Chamonix, hopefully we can find a hostel tomorrow night to save driving back and forth! (which was a change of plan somewhat..) Also looks like there's going to be really good weather up there this weekend, which is fantastic! More on that in the next blog post I guess!!
Friday, 13 March 2009
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Hallo aus Berlin!
Ok, so second part really from the previous post... I've been in Berlin the last couple of days!!
Arrived Saturday morning with Anne, Alex, Michi and Simon, met Nina at the airport, then Merlin and Jonathon later at the hostel/train station respectively. We went to the Reichstag building (parliament) and up to the roof-top glass dome which you could walk up inside, and cool 'cause it was free! Had really good Indian food that night too.
Sunday was our main day being touristy, with free walking tours in the afternoon around the main sights to see, and the stories and history that go with them. I thought they were really good, and I think I learnt some more about Berlin and the Wall, even if most of it I don't really remember all that much.. Still, it was interesting, and we had a fun guide, for my half of the group anyway; we split up over two different groups.
So then Monday we went up in the TV Tower, even though there wasn't much of a view at all, I was still able to find the main buildings in the city apart from the Reichstag, as it was just a bit too cloudy to see that. The rest of the afternoon, we walked along a random canal near there and the Town Halls, then went to the Judisches (Jewish) Museum which was open late, so we spent quite a lot of time in there. That was also really interesting, but in the end far too much to see. The main thing for me was the architecture itself; the building was shaped as a zig-zag, so was fairly easy to lose track of time and surroundings. I think a lot of thought was given to the exhibition and the building though, and I really enjoyed looking round it. Very thought-provoking too.
I think that was pretty much it, landed back in Geneva this afternoon, and now have bank and car insurance nearly sorted (hopefully done by tomorrow) and shiny new number plates on my car. England on Thursday, wooooohooo!
Arrived Saturday morning with Anne, Alex, Michi and Simon, met Nina at the airport, then Merlin and Jonathon later at the hostel/train station respectively. We went to the Reichstag building (parliament) and up to the roof-top glass dome which you could walk up inside, and cool 'cause it was free! Had really good Indian food that night too.
Sunday was our main day being touristy, with free walking tours in the afternoon around the main sights to see, and the stories and history that go with them. I thought they were really good, and I think I learnt some more about Berlin and the Wall, even if most of it I don't really remember all that much.. Still, it was interesting, and we had a fun guide, for my half of the group anyway; we split up over two different groups.
So then Monday we went up in the TV Tower, even though there wasn't much of a view at all, I was still able to find the main buildings in the city apart from the Reichstag, as it was just a bit too cloudy to see that. The rest of the afternoon, we walked along a random canal near there and the Town Halls, then went to the Judisches (Jewish) Museum which was open late, so we spent quite a lot of time in there. That was also really interesting, but in the end far too much to see. The main thing for me was the architecture itself; the building was shaped as a zig-zag, so was fairly easy to lose track of time and surroundings. I think a lot of thought was given to the exhibition and the building though, and I really enjoyed looking round it. Very thought-provoking too.
I think that was pretty much it, landed back in Geneva this afternoon, and now have bank and car insurance nearly sorted (hopefully done by tomorrow) and shiny new number plates on my car. England on Thursday, wooooohooo!
Up-LIFT-ing
So, this is a little later than planned, but more on that next.
Last Weds-Fri I spent my time in Geneva at the Lift09 conference and I have to say I had great fun there!
Weds was taken up with workshops, so I went to the Web of Things in the morning session and then 'What can we get out of the lift community for the other 362 days of the year?' in the first afternoon session. Another I wanted to go to in the second part of the afternoon was fully booked, but was videoed so I intend to catch up later.
Thursday and Friday were both talks, which I found really varied and interesting. Some were more than a little bonkers, such as carnivorous robotics and one woman's story about when she walked around Australia. Others were about such things as 'metromantics' (an idea I rather liked) or a project in Cameroon for women to find husbands online. The big finale on Friday evening was Vint Cerf from Google, who invented the protocols for TCP/IP and is one of the reasons we even have internet. So, basically an internet/geek demi-god.
Met with a fair few people too, was nice to recognise and talk to people at different points, and I played on the Atari in the breaks (hehe) - although Pong was pretty popular actually.
It was a really interesting time, and I'm going to apply for a student ticket next year to see if I can go again, which would be awesome! It's a very inspiring place to be/event to be part of.
Last Weds-Fri I spent my time in Geneva at the Lift09 conference and I have to say I had great fun there!
Weds was taken up with workshops, so I went to the Web of Things in the morning session and then 'What can we get out of the lift community for the other 362 days of the year?' in the first afternoon session. Another I wanted to go to in the second part of the afternoon was fully booked, but was videoed so I intend to catch up later.
Thursday and Friday were both talks, which I found really varied and interesting. Some were more than a little bonkers, such as carnivorous robotics and one woman's story about when she walked around Australia. Others were about such things as 'metromantics' (an idea I rather liked) or a project in Cameroon for women to find husbands online. The big finale on Friday evening was Vint Cerf from Google, who invented the protocols for TCP/IP and is one of the reasons we even have internet. So, basically an internet/geek demi-god.
Met with a fair few people too, was nice to recognise and talk to people at different points, and I played on the Atari in the breaks (hehe) - although Pong was pretty popular actually.
It was a really interesting time, and I'm going to apply for a student ticket next year to see if I can go again, which would be awesome! It's a very inspiring place to be/event to be part of.
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