Royal visit

I saw the king and queen of Norway yesterday, Harald V and Sonja. The royal couple visited CERN to acknowledge the Norwegian scientists here and take a tour of part of the Large Hadron Collider. I’ve never had to write a story about a royal or presidential visit or anything on that level, but it happened exactly how I imagined it. There was a caravan of cars, a royal flag placed on the hood of the king’s ride, and a bunch of secret service-type men with headsets who got out first and surveyed the area before giving the OK for the king and queen’s entrance. When the couple stepped out of the car, my stomach dropped. I think I’ve seen too many historical clips of the Reagan assassination attempt or movies about assassinations, and the only thing I could do was wait for a gunshot. The scene was just so perfectly like those I’ve seen on TV, with the photographers aggressively snapping shots behind the outstretched arms of the bodyguards. I could imagine one of those black-suited, grim-faced men flinging himself over the king and queen at the first sign of trouble. Fortunately, nothing happened. The arrival really was the most exciting part of the visit, at least for me. CERN’s administrators gave some short talks, the royal party and a few select others (not including me) went underground to the LHC tunnel, and when they came back the king and queen shook hands with the Norwegian scientists and students at CERN and were escorted out the door.