Our first target for the day, then, was the Einstein museum, located on the southern bank of the southern part of the river. The museum was set inside that one fantastic castle which I could only describe as being a real fairytale sort of thing. The museum was combined with a history museum of Bern, or Switzerland, or both (I wasn´t really sure). We weren´t really too interested in the history side and just wanted to hit up the Einstein part of it.
As we arrived at the castle we could see some huge thing being set up. Turns out it would be a jousting show (tournament, maybe?) but would only start at the end of the month. Damn! That would have been very fantastic to see. We were both a bit upset, I think.
We made our way into the museum. The tickets were a bit on the expensive side, even with our student discount. They were 18 CHF each, working out at about the same in Aussie dollars. We also had to pay two CHF to use a bag locker since you weren´t able to take bags inside. Geez.
We skipped past some of the history stuff on the first flight of stairs up. It talked about some of the rulers of Switzerland since the 1400s. Boring. We got into the Einstein bit. Even the first room was great. It had a general overview of his personality and some of his characteristics, including his strong connections to his Jewish heritage and him being a real lady´s man.
From there the next room was a flight of stairs leading up to the second floor. The whole room was decked out with mirrors and there were a few screens with images of the man. They reflected all over and the entire room became an endless Escher painting with images of Einstein throughout. Very very cool. I could immediately see that this was a museum like the Kafka one, where they had put not only money, but thought, into the place (unlike the Freud museum).
The main level of his museum had talked about several things; Einstein´s life and upbringing, the politics and environment of the places in which he lived, the events of the world, and some neat animated exhibits explaining his theories of relativity. It was very cleverly done. His life gave insight into the state of the cities and countries in which he lived, and they in turn gave insight into his life. There was a great synergy about the way the information was provided. There was also a small section giving quite a large amount of detail and explanation of Judaism, to cater for those who must not know much about it.
The animated displays were one of the best bits, I think. There was first one (coupled with a muon counter) that illustrated how light always travels at the same speed, and giving a general overview of the ideas in his special theory of relativity. A bit later there was an exhibit for that, with four screens. The first two gave a simple introduction to working in translating frames of motion, and showing then that gravity is the same as acceleration in a free fall. The third screen demonstrated how time flows differently when observed from a translating frame of reference compared to a fixed frame (since light always travels at a constant speed). The fourth screen showed how space shrinks along the axis of a translating frame of reference compared to viewing from the fixed frame. So interesting. I had to explain a bit to Emma.
The bit on the general theory of relativity would have been a bit harder for some people to get. The four screens depicted the four postulations of Einstein regarding gravity. They showed the deflection of light, gravitational redshift, the precession of Mercury´s orbit, and gravitation waves (the only one still unproven).
There was quite a large section on the Nazi rise to power, the holocaust, and Einstein´s eventual escape to the US, and all his efforts to assist other immigrants and to foster peace. At the end section there were displays regarding the atomic bomb. Finally, one display said that the man´s final words on his death bed were never truly known because he spoke them in German and the nurse attending him didn´t understand. How tragic! I´m sure the world might have benefited from whatever pearl of wisdom he might have left us. My guess is it would either have been something about stopping war or something personal to his family.
We had spent nearly three hours in the museum. Wow. The time just flew past, like the Kafka museum. We headed back over and had lunch in the park where we ate cheese the day before. After that we headed over to another park and sat for a good hour or more. I listened to music and Em read more Chaucer. We ate some Swiss-themed cupcake things that we bought with lunch.
From this park there was an amazing view of the hills surrounding the city, but more importantly there was a spectacular view of snow-capped mountains in the distance. Real snow-capped mountains! It was very very incredible and really made me appreciate where we were. Unfortunately, they were a bit too far and a bit too soft in colour to get picked up well enough by my camera.
From there we headed back to the hostel to try catch up with some blog drafting.We spent the night sitting on couches and watching cheesy and stupid but entertaining MTV shows with people.
1 comment:
You'd have to explain all the Einstein theories (or proofs) to me too ............. truth is I had difficulty following your description in this blog ...... Why am I soooooooo stoopid DOH! hahahaha Love Dad xox
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