Medicine, Museums, and Mountains

First things first: The Ramada in Basel has the most amazing breakfast spread I've ever had. That is all.

Secondly: We've now had a pretty thorough overview of Novartis's Animal Health division at their international headquarters. It was fascinating to see how the drugs are developed and tested to insure that they're labeling is correct- i.e. if it says that the drug has a shelf-life of 3 years, it's efficacy has actually been tested over the course of 3 years in all types of temperatures and humidities. We also got a tour of their research facility in St. Aubin. There seemed to be a rather large focus on parasites (Novartis manufactures Sentinel) and that requires a lot of very large bug colonies...including cockroaches. It gives me the willies just thinking back to it.

The next day we spent mostly in the city of Basel itself. It was a holiday, and apparently when the Swiss have a holiday, they do it right. There was nobody out and about and absolutely nothing was open. I don't know where everyone goes, but apparently not far from wherever they're living. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and had extremely good English, but I think there were a couple of things lost in translation. Like how Basel has no hills, only valleys, but really, it's very flat. Maybe by Switzerland standards Basel is flat, but we're all from Texas, so I think he got a few funny looks for that one. But the tour was actually very neat. The old buildings really are old because of Switzerland's neutral history in world wars- generally, if something new was built-up, something older was torn down to make room. For example, they had this intriguing fountain that was made of old mechanical parts from an old theater building that had been torn down, and the pieces all moved, spraying water in different directions. And apparently, Basel is home to 30 museums. 30! In one city! We got to stop by and see the Natural History Museum. Easily the highlight of this particular museum was when the beekeeper came and harvested some of the bees to make more room for a growing population (and more honeycomb). He opened the case right in front of everyone with kids getting in his way and everything, and offered a piece of raw honeycomb to anyone who wanted one. It was so cool, probably because something like that would never happen in the states.

At the end of the program, a group of us stayed in Basel for another day and a half. We got to do some shopping that we didn't get to do because of the holiday, but spent most of our time wandering around a really extensive protected park that had Roman ruins. Much of the descriptions were also in English, so you really understood what things were, and they had an amphitheater that was partly reconstructed, but most of the actual foundation and structure was found whole. Plus, it was another gorgeous day to spend outdoors...we always seemed to luck out on our travel weekends.

One of the girls in our group had a friend who was in Germany and graciously offered to drive us to our next destination: Lauterbrunnen, the land of 1,000 waterfalls (okay, it's only 72, but who's counting?). So far, I've only spent the one afternoon here, but it's one of the most amazing vacations I've ever had the pleasure of being on. It's situated up in the Swiss Alps, south of and at a slightly higher elevation than Interlaken. It's also much smaller and much less traveled, which was ideal. Our very first afternoon there we rode the gondola halfway up the mountain and wandered through the town marveling at the vistas that spread themselves around us. I think it comes from growing up in the south where the highest you get is a skyscraper in downtown, but mountains just hold an immense fascination for me. It was lovely just being able to wander and take in the scenery and really appreciate the opportunity we've gotten in this trip. And I get to go to sleep with my window open in a loft bed and falling asleep to the sound of 72 waterfalls. Paradise, indeed.