The Number Field

In school, the teachers keep a record of all the things that Roman has done or learned, called his Learning Journey. Parents are invited to contribute to it as well. This post and the next are slightly edited versions of what I wrote about our recent trips.

Over the October half term break we went to Switzerland. We started out in geneva, where we visited the Palace of Nations, which has an interesting giant chair outside of it. It was a special open day for a United Nations anniversary, so we got to explore and see lots of exhibitions and demonstrations about our world. We also took a water taxi ride and watched the giant water jet, visited the International Red Cross Museum and the CERN visitor center, where I told ELena and Roman all about the giant tunnel where scientists smash atoms together.

After Geneva, we drove to the center of Switzerland to enjoy the famous Alps. We took an elevator up inside a mountain to see ten waterfalls that start out as snow on the top of the mountain. It was dark and really loud inside! We went for a hike through the valley of the waterfalls, but had to share the trail with herds of cows for part of the way. On a different day, we took a hike up over a high mountain pass—it was a long, difficult walk and everyone was happy to get back to town!

One of our most exciting outings was a trip to the highest train station in Europe, called the Jungfraujoch or the “Top of Europe.” It was so bright and cold up there, and all of our heads got a little bit woozy because it was so much higher than where we were staying. There was snow up there, so Roman and Elena were very happy throwing snowballs across the glacier. We also went to Bern and saw the temple and lots of interesting statues in the streets, but did not see the famous bears in the bear park. We visited castles in Thun and Gruyeres, where we learned a lot about the history of Switzerland. Thun also had a beautiful river and shopping area on an island, while Gruyeres is also the home of a famous cheese factory and a large chocolate factory—we went on tours of both, and ate lots of tasty samples. It was a busy trip, but we did a lot of things and learned a lot.