Okay, so I must admit that I expected to see the Alps and huge green fields and rolling hills when we entered Switzerland, and that was not my first impression of Basel. Granted, once we got a chance to explore Basel, it is a pretty cool town, though was over-priced. I've got to say Kudos on the hotel though. I've never stayed in a hotel that nice before, and to have a room of my own was an extra bonus. Very luxurious.
When we went to St. Aubin to visit Novartis, I got to see more of what I was expecting for my admittedly romanticized version of Switzerland. The drive over there was very beautiful and makes me want to retire there. Of course I'll have to learn German or French first...one step at a time. The people at Novartis were awesome. It was interesting to hear about everything that goes into making a product and they were just so laid-back about everything that the whole experience was nice. They were also very open to questions and open to input from us, which was much appreciated. Plus they paid for our hotel rooms, so that puts them high in my books. *grin*
On wednesday we flew to Berlin where we met up with Olaf to begin the last leg of out journey. Today we went on a bike tour of Berlin which I was a little intimidated of at first as it's been a while since I've ridden a bike, and never in a city but it went fine and was quite interesting. One of my favorite parts of the entire trip though was visiting the Berlin Zoo this afternoon. We got a "back-stage tour" so to speak by one of the vets that works there and he was just fantastic. One of the first things we got to do was feed (and pet) a pair of rhinoceros (?) which was an awesome experience. They are such huge animals but just wanted to get a scratch and an apple. Then we went to feed the hippos which were so cute (especially the babies) and apparently like to have their mouth washed out by a giant water hose. I also learned that hippos can't swim but simply walk along the bottom of the river. Interesting. I also learned that moray eels have an extra full set of jaws that actually move up to the regular mouth and pull the food down to the stomach. Crazy. After the vet had to leave we wandered around the zoo some more and we spent quite a bit of time in the cat house. Those animals are absolutely breathtaking and I've never been in a zoo where you were able to get so close to the animals (being about 3 feet from a full grown african lion is quite the experience). Just awesome. Great day overall.
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