Our last Day

Our last day started at 9.30 in the morning. We entered the coach which drove us to Kew Gardens. The garden was beautiful! In a workshop we got some information about pollen and pollinators. After the workshop we had some free time to discover the different greenhouses in Kew Gardens. Then we took the coach to visit the centre of London. Some of us went shopping at Camden and the other part preferred Oxford Street for their shopping tour. We reunited at the Inamo , a very good restaurant where we ate a lot of delicious asian food. Later we walked to the musical of London where we were supposed to watch Lion King. In front of the building we met three of our friends from Welwyn that we had invited one day earlier. It was a wonderful play. The atmosphere, the stage and the costumes were amazing. After a very long and tiring day we enjoyed the nightlife of London and we took the coach back to our hotel.

(written by Divya, Florian and Nicole)

Wednesday, 13th of September

We started the day at 8:30am. The bus picked us up in front of the hotel. We drove one and a half hours to Cambridge, where we began our guided tour around the village. We saw some universities and laboratories for example where the DNA double-helix was discovered. We had lunch in the main dining hall of the St. Peters University. Afterwards we visited a very fascinating lecture about naked mole-rats, which are very interesting for the pharmalogy scientists, because of their incredible abilities like resistence against cancer or their ability of living some minutes without oxygen. Later we went to a scientific labaratory, where we built a flute. After that we drove home again to our hotel where we ate dinner in our group room. It was delicious

Visit at The Young Scientist Centre

After breakfast we left the hotel and got on the coach that drove us right to The Young Scientist Centre. The impressive building was in the middle of London. At the Centre we were introduced to Dave and Jenna that explained us how a PCR-experiment works. We found out why and how some persons can taste bitterness and others can’t. It was amazing how that works! After lunch in a beautiful park we finished the experiment and finally found out if we are a taster or a non-taster of bitterness.

Later we went on the London Eye and had a great sight all over the city. It was definitely the Highlight of the day!

In the evening we walked through the city until we arrived at the quite special Rainforest-Restaurant. We had burgers in the middle of a “rainforest”.

The pretty exhausting day ended in our group-room where we watched the football match between Basel and Manchester United.

(Written by Annina, Sarugan and Jael)

A Day at Roche UK

On Monday, we got up early and headed north towards the Roche centre in Welwyn, where we spent most of our time today.
First, we were introduced by the Head of HR ( Mrs. Schumacher) and Diagnostics Department (Mr. Binnewies). Afterwards we did four workshops about different aspects of the activities of Roche in the UK.
Then it was time for lunch, where we met two local school classes. We had a funny lunch where we had to swap parts of a Lego man to get to know each other.
Together we had a workshop with the science communicator and TV presenter Simon Watt. Our task was to improve the human species with only our creativity, so there were no limits. It was pretty much fun to work with the English classes and the results were as funny as interesting.
At the end of our time at Roche in Welwyn the General Manager of Roche UK, Mr. Richard Erwin, closed the event with an enthusiastic speech.
After a group photo we departed with the English classes to Tewin Bury Farm, where we had a delicious barbecue and lots of fun together.
Then it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and went back to the hotel, where we spent an evening together.

(Written by Marek, Daniel and Julian)

An eventful Sunday

Sunday was an eventful day for us. In the morning, we visited the Imperial War Museum and got to experience the British side of the first and second World War.

Then we went to the London Bridge Station and got picked up by an old double decker bus next to the Shard. The bus took us on a tour around London along with some very delicious, traditional English Afternoon Tea. However, due to our concentration being on eating, we didn’t really pay attention to our surroundings.

Next up was the scary “London Bridge Experience” that took us through two thousand years of the London Bridge history. The Bridge was constructed four times in total. It burnt down the first two times and was once also sold to the Americans because they thought it was the Tower Bridge and built brick by brick in Arizona. The experience was informative and enjoyable at the same time. After the first part of the experience, the scary part began and some people had to back out.

After the scars and scares we came back to the hotel and made ourselves ready for a quick briefing followed by an impressive speech by Peggy Grueninger from Corporate Donations and Philanthropy at Roche.

As an end to this amazing day, we visited “The Bloomsbury Bowl” where we bowled, played ping pong and Foosball. Along with that we also had delicious Pizza and various other snacks. In the end we discovered an old Sega arcade Racing machine from 1995. After all that fun, we called it a day and went back to our hotel, where we fell into our beds.

 

 

 

Getting the first glimpse of London

Today our journey started at 8.30 am at Basel SBB where we took the train to Zurich airport.  One hour later we arrived at London Heathrow. On the coach transfer from the airport to the Ibis hotel, where we will stay the whole week, we got a first impression of London. After depositing our luggage and receiving a short introduction of the programm, we went directly to the National History Museum. The dimension and atmosphere of the museum was impressive and there was something for everyone. After all we spent a lovely evening at the Golden Hinde Restaurant eating the traditional dish fish and chips: Yummieh…!

Cu there soon!