Early tuesday morning, the group of 120 collectors met at the new Terminal B (entrance point of the Expo.02 in Biel). The Terminal B is the large building (built especially for Expo.02, it will be removed afterwards as all new buildings for Expo.02) on the picture below on the right:
The building also contains a swatch store. So it was immediately invaded, collectors bought the nice big red Expo.02 book special, and the brand new Diaphane swatches. It looks as if the Diaphane Automatic Oscillation (SVDK1000) will be the unofficial club swatch of next year, it was a big seller!
Then, the group was divided into two groups of about 60 collectors each. Our group drove to Neuchâtel (about 30 kilometers from Biel on the same lake) where another part of the Expo.02 can be seen. We later went to Biel in the afternoon. The other group did the same just the other way round (first Biel then Neuchâtel).
Alright, then it was time to enter the Expo.02 in Neuchâtel. We were divided again in groups of 10 (english, german, italian speaking) to visit the Expo.02. Each group had its own guide:
My group :-)
The first exhibition was a big wall with historical events in Switzerland. Antoine, our guide (speaking German with a funny french accent), did not give too many explanations, so it was slightly boring. Did I say already that it was HOT?
Then we entered the first pavilion called Manna. Each pavilion at the Expo is sponsored by a company or another institution. Antoine never failed to mention the name of the company at each pavilion. Manna was sponsored by a food store company, so the theme of the Manna pavilion was about food and enjoying eating an so on. The Manna pavilion somewhat looked like a big vanilla pudding:
The air was filled with artificial strawberry smell, and there also was a display of 365 different types of apples (there are more than 1000 in Switzerland alone). Most of the apples are relatively rare.
The next pavilions were build near or above the lake:
Artficial reed (with light at night)
Click here to go to page 4 to read more about the Expo.02.
