GR20 - The Grande Randonnée of Corsica: 2012-09-23

Munich & Oktoberfest

Mike's Bike Tour of Munich was good, felt rushed at times. I'd recommend but possibly look for a smaller more personal tour first. One day touring Munich wasn't enough but at least I had good weather.

Glockenspiel.

River surfing at a park in Munich (Eisbach).

A look from inside the Hofbrauhaus.

Augustiner beer tent.

Inside Spatenbräu beer tent (not certain, but my best guess as to where this pic was taken).

Lowenbrau beer garden

Standing with the Paulaner horse drawn beer cart from the parade.

Outside Hippodrom beer tent.

Opening day of Oktoberfest.

Atop the Olympic Tower at night.

Oktoberfest was good beer with horrible weather. Large crowds of people from all over the world; the best time I had was waiting in line to sneak into a beer tent. All in all a good time, not sure if I'd go again without tent reservations.

Geneva & CERN

The tour at CERN was broken into two parts for me, the first began by unintentionally walking by a guarded gate and into the main campus. After 30 minutes of walking around with my large and increasingly heavy duffle of camping equipment I thought it best to give myself up and make my way back to the front of the campus. This "self tour" was uneventful and simply involved walking around buildings that seemed common above ground, not the Star Gate or holodeck technology I was hoping for.

The second half of the tour began at Building 33, the Registration Building and was simply comprised of two short films punctuated by a walk to the Atlas detector facility. May sound boring and could have been more involved, but I had a great time and most certainly impressed.

Video from inside the Globe of Innovation.

Atlas detector

Inside the Globe

Outside the Atlas control room.

Geneva was interesting with several old churches. In particular the cathedral of St. Peter.

Link to Geneva and CERN pics, via Picasa.

Chamonix R&R

Having arrived in Chamonix with more time than I planned, I ended up doing all the tourist stuff I could handle. The cable car ride to the observation deck near the summit of Mont Blanc and the glacier tour was enjoyable. I have reservations about recommending the glacier tour, which seemed like a tourist trap and isn't more than a 2 minute walk along a man made horse shoe cave into a once impressive glacier. The pinnacle of the tour is at the crux of the tunnel when you meet a couple individuals selling pictures with a giant Saint Bernard dog for six euros.