"Orlando's worlds" - Kennedy Space Center

The best  in Orlando is undoubtedly the visit of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. This is a must do. The special guided tour took us to the main launching pad. This pad is where most space rockets to the moon and space shuttles took of. As the guide said it, this is the only place where humans left earth to land on another heavenly object. Quite impressive!

The shape and details of the pad are very specific - nothing is left to chance. There is even a complex system involving lots of water meant to stop the noise from making the platform shake! There is liquid hydrogen, if I remember well, to fill the huge tanks at the side of the shuttle.

We even got to go below the launching pad... We see the two holes through which most of the fuel is evacuated upon lift off. The ground there is completely burnt. It also gives an even better sense of the sheer size of the pad.

This is the hangar where the shuttles and rockets are prepared, before being dragged to the launching pad. NASA likes to say that it is the largest single-store building in the world! On the right is the command room. This is where the countdown is done.

At the Kennedy Space Center, one gets a good sense of the different rockets and space crafts. Usefully, the Christmas tree helps with the dimensions.

On the contrary, the capsule of Apollo XIV is rather small. With the building of the International Space Station, there is now more space in space for astronauts to move around. The movie about life on board the Station was revealing, but it certainly did not motivate me to become a space walker. Afraid of heights, try walking in space with the whole earth moving below you...

The tour also took us to a reconstructed control room.

Lastly, I had to put a picture of a sample of moon's soil. Next objective: planet mars ?

"Orlando's worlds" - Island of Adventures

Island of Adventures is a huge adventure park with water rides, scary rides, a Jurassic park, and a whole lot of other fun activities. Yet, THE main attraction starts behind these gates: the Harry Potter world.

The entrance of Hogsmeade clearly states that you must respect the spell limit. It must indeed be powerful spells that make snow stay on the rooftops, even when exposed to the Florida sun! So you enter the village and find many houses and shops as described in Harry Potter. You can find all sorts of funny, scary, noisy, smelly goods, the most important one being the magic wand - but they are all made in China...

The post office is also worth a visit. There you can of course send a parcel via "owl" post. It is certainly an overnight service... 

There is also the restaurant (called the three broomsticks), but there the chefs certainly do not know the right spells to make your fish and chips tasty. And this spell must not be the most difficult one to master... It is now time to ride the Hogwarts Express...

...to get to Hogwarts. And there the magic is obviously even more amazing.

Opening the doors, the corridors recreate the ambiance of the story so well. The paintings look so real, yet like in the book (and the movie) the portraits move and talk to each other. Very impressive.

And then it was time to meet Dumbledore! Or was it his hologram - to this day, I am still not sure... A little bit further we got to meet with Harry, Hermione and Ron.

One of the most important "object" in the Harry Potter saga is the sorting hat. There it was probably determining who could proceed further inside Hogwarts.

The path leads finally to the Fat Lady, the portrait which guards the door to Gryffindor, or rather in our case, the door to the magical ride. We get to sit on our broomstick and off we fly and follow Harry Potter for a magical tour. The combination of 3D effects and "real" scary effects (the roaring dragon and the spitting spiders) makes this ride an unforgettable moment. Well done!

"Orlando's worlds" - sea world

Third world seen in Orlando: "sea world". This one is probably the one that requires the least explanation. Pictures should suffice. So here they are with few comments.

The pirates show with seals was quite funny, especially when it turned out that the kid chosen to interact with the seal could not speak a word of English... The trainer/translator managed to save the show and get back to the storyline. The seal was happy to get an extra serving of fish...

The killer whales made a big impression - or rather a big splash.

The dolphin show was probably the most athletic, with the highlight being the dolphin surf! The dolphins seemed to have even more fun than the humans.

The underwater viewing platform was probably the best place to observe them, swimming and twirling. I was surprised to see many marks and scratches on their skin. A keeper told me that it was due to dolphins biting each other, as a way to communicate.

OK, so not everything at sea world was about show and high speed. This huge octopus found a nice relaxing spot between a starfish and a sea anemone.

 The sea horse was graciously moving up and down.

 The jellyfish was trying not to get entangled with his neighbors.

Let's keep the best for last. Here a huge manatee, quietly floating. Such a peaceful animal... yet another endangered specie. This is the largest animal that I still had not seen - I wonder which one took that spot now...

Philadelphia

To start with the obvious - although not well known outside of the USA - Philadelphia was the first capital of the country! Yes, from 1790 until 1800, it was the capital, while Washington was being built on a swamp... OK, it was only for a meager ten years, but still! Philadelphia had also been the most populated city in the US.

Today, tourists are guided through the "Constitutional tour" to discover the highlights of the last colonial days and the first independent days. Philadelphia has its own White House, actually just its foundations, because the building was destroyed in the 19th century. There is the Capitol, and the Supreme Court. All look like traditional, yet unimpressive, buildings. There is the Declaration House, where the Declaration of Independence was written. A little bit further, we come across the Independence Hall, where the Declaration and the US Constitution were signed. And I should also mention the Hollywood-look-alike "Signer's Walk", with a plaque for each signer of the Declaration of Independence. Still in the neighborhood, the first two banks of the US. All the powers in this town!

One of the most well known object is the "liberty bell". It has to be said that this bell was not made of the best iron.... and broke several times. One of the last time it was broken was a few years ago, when a visitor used a hammer to hear its sound. Since then, approaching the bell means going through airport-style security checks.

The independence also means having a new flag. The legend has it that the first flag was sow by Betsy Ross and it looked like the one below.

All in all, it seems that the city remains in admiration for Benjamin Franklin. He features on most public places, old or modern. His old house, compound and post office, as well as his resting place are part of the tour.

Philadelphia also hosts several museums, including the one dedicated to Rodin. The pieces were great, but unfortunately not well presented. The light was mostly bad. Still it is necessary to show Rodin's masterpiece: the Gates of Hell. To admire the details, one solution: go to Philadelphia.

Finally, I have not spoken much about American food - for obvious reasons - but let me make an exception here and mention the famous "Philly's cheese-steak". Of course, it is not high cuisine, but it is good nonetheless. Especially when it is made and eaten at Jim's Steak.

Being late with this blog, I thought - although it might not be appropriate - that I would put this picture of Adventure Park in Wildwood, on the New Jersey coast. Since the picture was taken, the hurricane Sandy passed nearby and it is very much possible that this park was flattened out... 

American election night

 After months of political campaigning, lots of corrosive TV ads, and three high-level debates, it was finally time for election day. It started in the apartment block, where the concierge asked if I was going to vote - and was a bit shocked when I said "no". It continued in the bus, with the driver repeating at each stop to remember to vote. However, I did not see the long lines of voters.

It proceeded in the evening with an "election night" in a local theater with a lively crowd of Americans, 90 percent Democrats, as is typical in Washington DC. The main news channel was CNN, which seemed to me to be a bit slow in announcing the results. Maybe it was more cautiousness, in light of the mistakes made in previous elections. 

The results came in state-by-state, as the voting closed according to each state's practice. The big moments where went CNN was making projections. Each state coming in blue, the color of the Democrats, was greeted by loud cheers, while the red states, the color of the Republicans, were almost booed. Still there were many yellow states, which were too close to call. In between the announcements, there was music, food and drinks. All in all, I thought the crowd was quite civil.

Obama and Romney needed to reach 270 electoral college votes to be elected. After every projection, the numbers reached by candidates would be adjusted. After winning several swing states, such as New Mexico, Nevada, Wisconsin and Iowa, CNN announced after 23pm their most anticipated projection: BARACK OBAMA re-elected President, since he had won Ohio. Cheers, claps, hugs, champagne. It was party time !

It was then time to go to the White House and celebrate with the American people. Quite a good crowd, mostly young people and students. Here again, happiness and togetherness were the key words. No exhuberance, maybe because of the very cold evening... 

After this long and difficult campaign, the work of putting America back on track awaits the President. Good luck to him, good luck to America. Shall I finish by God bless America...

Boston

Boston gives the impression of an enjoyable city, with a mixture of "old" and new. Let me concentrate on the "old". Boston is proud to be the home of many "Firsts" in the United States: first public park, first public school, first university, first library, first subway/metro, first integrated church (where whites and blacks could pray together), oldest baseball park... Then, upon asking when these firsts happened, you get reminded immediately how young this country is, how little history there is. The metro clearly has an old feel to it.Still Boston played an important role in the American Revolution, and the walking tour called "Freedom Trail" gives a great account of this role.

Boston is closely related to the Kennedy dynasty. No wonder that we got to see a lot of Kennedy places, including his memorial and the "domain" on Cape Cod. In town, the walking tour included a stop at the restaurant where John proposed to Jacky.

I suppose a must in Boston is to visit Harvard. It gives a strange impression, again of this mix between the "old" and the new. Let's start here with the new: the tour guide pointed to the dormitoriums and places where Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Ban Ki-moon, Matt Damon, and John Kennedy used to hang out in Harvard. There are around 20000 students annually. I was quite impressed that, even though tuition fees are very high at around 50000 dollars a year, many students pay a much reduced amount, thanks to the huge university endowment. Still only around 7 percent of those who apply end up studying there.

As to the old, Harvard was founded in 1636. The tour guide (a female) was very precise in recollecting when women were first admitted at Harvard, first given a full Harvard degree, or got the position of President. But, when asked about the admission of black students, she could not give any answer... We got to hear some other interesting stories though. One relates to this statue of John Harvard - apparently the third most photographed statue in the US after the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. Among the three errors on this statue, the most unbelievable one is that the statue does apparently not depict John Harvard himself.... Indeed, all the drawings and portraits of John Harvard were distroyed in previous fires of the library, long before it was decided to build a statue. There are many theories about who the statue is, but one thing is certain - it is not a John Harvard.

The other interesting story was about the Harvard Library, named after Harry Widener. This Harvard alumni was wealthy and went on a book-buying spree in Europe in the early 1900s. On his journey back to America, the ship he was travelling in sunk - he was on board the Titanic. All the books were lost too. His mother - wealthy as well - then offered to build a library in memory of his son. She attached three conditions: 1) the exterior walls of the library must not be moved, otherwise the money she gave Harvard would go to the city of Cambridge, 2) there needed to be a room in the library where the ghost of his son could go and read books, and 3) every student at Harvard needed to learn and pass a swimming test, because she believed that had her son known how to swim, he would not have died... The last requirement was discountinued after this rule was judged discriminatory against physically-challenged students.

Let's finish with a little quizz. Look at the picture below and try to guess which two-word famous expression it illustrates...

You got it: time flies !

Switzerland - best of??

On certain special occasions, you have to show the best of your country to visiting dignitaries. That's what happened in early September when we held a work meeting in Montreux. This is probably the most scenic (well actually the second-most, after Geneva) place in Switzerland, with the lake, the vineyards, the mountains. Obviously, the weather was fantastic - some of my colleagues even swam in the lake.

Then, Switzerland is mostly associated with chocolate, excellent chocolate. So there we go and visit a chocolate factory, Cailler. The factory is more than 100 years old and still making profits - although not as much as in some recent years, because of an unfavorable redesigning of the packaging. We all learn about the history of chocolate, its content, and we wee a small production line.

Of course, the tour finished with a stop at the shop. Some colleagues almost compete to buy the most chocolates. It is certainly good for the economy!

Besides chocolate, Switzerland also has the best cheeses, with "Gruyere" being right there at the top. So, there we go to visit the Gruyere castle. After a guided tour, we have a small lunch where we taste the famous "Gruyere" cheese and listen to speeches by the local authorities. Good to hear that local politicians do speak English, have a good sense of humor, and manage to raise the level of their speech and make it appropriate for our international guests.

Then, on the way for lunch, still a typical Swiss moment with the throwing of the flag and the playing of the alphorn. I would say it is hardly possible to organise a more typically Swiss week-end than this. Still I must admit that I enjoyed it very much...

New York (not only for the US Open)

Back in New York, first things first, a stop at the 9/11 square. The Freedom Tower is almost complete, and the memorial site. Unfortunately, it is a very cumbersome procedure to be allowed into the memorial site. A closer look at the two pools will be for next time.

Of course, each time you go to New York, there are new things to see and to discover. This time, the highlight was the high line. It is a disused metro line, which runs above ground on the western side. It has been transformed in a pedestrian path, with gardens and stands. It runs through old and modern buildings, and it has certainly become a draw card. Indeed, neighboring apartment blocks mention that they are close to the high line. Furthermore, while walking there, we got to see a guy getting on his knees and asking his girl to marry him. Finally, we were interviewed by students from NYCU, who were doing a study on what locals and tourists thought about it. All in all, I have to admit that I still prefer the "ligne verte" in Paris.

The other visit was the Metropolitan museum. Of course, the arts, paintings, and pieces were very interesting and of high quality. The clearly chose quality over quantity, but it also meant that each section did not have much depth. Fortunately, there was also the bar on top of the museum, with a fantastic view of Central Park.

This year's US Open was a rollercoster: high up with the release of Monday's program, according to which Federer was planned to plan his fourth round match, and then down down, when it was announced that his opponent would not be playing after all. We were joking that this American tennis player was chickening out, but then we learnt that it was due to cardiac problems. It is difficult to accept, but indeed there are things more important than tennis. Since I could not take any picture of Federer, I hesitated who to put here. I opted for the eventual winner, Serena over Sharapova. And you should thank me that I am putting a picture and not a sound bite.

The second time at the US Open and there are still things to discover. One the ground, instead of the Hollywood stars, commemorative plaques for previous winners. It was easy to find the best one! And it seems that he could even get a new one with the mention of Trainer.