[travel] My Wishlist

[mattbell]

I want to make the last part of my trip more people-focused, as the typical sightseeing activities don't impress me that much anymore.  "Oh look, you have a medieval castle and a 100m high cathedral in your old town, that's nice.  Yawn."  I have been scheduling *atypical* sightseeing activities, which mainly consist of extremely impressive sights or ways of quickly digging in deeper into a country's culture.

I have a 3-week unlimited railpass and rough plans to hit up Berlin, Amsterdam, and much of Scandinavia, but the train service in Western Europe is so good that I can basically get as far south as Spain in an overnight train from northern Europe.  So basically things are very flexible and I can quickly show up almost anywhere for almost zero incremental cost.

i am curious if any  of you can hook me up with the following:

- Any physicists at CERN who might be able to show me around the LHC. 
- Anyone in the art/tech scenes in Vienna, Berlin, or Amsterdam.
- People working in alternative energy, energy efficiency tech, or other related fields in Western Europe. 
- BASE jumpers in Switzerland or Norrway
- People you know who live in Western Europe that I would hit it off really well with, either locals or expatriates.
- Advice on the most impressive sights you've seen in Europe..  (I already have seen a lot in prior trips, but hey, if there's something that blew your mind, let me know what it was)


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Comments

[amysun.livejournal.com]

Well, you might have already done these, but:

Swiss Alps. My favorite is the Matterhorn (Zermatt), but others prefer the mountains above Interlaken. One of my favorite sights ever.

Fjords in Norway. I took the train from Oslo to Bergen, which is a nice ride, and then there's all kinds of stuff to do on the fjords once you're out there.

For more city-like stuff, I did really like Berlin and didn't spend enough time there. Also going to a tapas bar in Spain is fun and incredibly yummy. I also really enjoyed Lisbon, Portugal and environs.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Alps - yes. Loved them. Spent 5 days in Interlaken.

Fjords... it's on my list of things to check out.
Berlin is on my list too.

Spanish tapas were lovely. There are a couple of good tapas places in SF too. I also really liked Lisbon. It was a bit shabby in a very charming and beautiful sort of way.

Thanks for the recs.