PPAARRRISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Honestly, I was not a big fan of it here when I came with the Girl Scouts in high school. It was dusty, smelly, and really hot. But Paris in the fall is a whole other experience. Plus, I feel like I actually got that full Paris experience...all of the architecture sites I could manage with a good dose of sitting in cafes and people watching.
We visited:
Corbusier Foundation
Bibliotheque Nationale (Francois Mitterand)
the Salvation Army building
a nearby pedestrian bridge that I don't know the name of
a Gehry building (made out of stone?!)
a stadium with grass growing up the sides (a group of preteens were climbing up it and sliding down, was pretty amusing)
Arabic Foundation
Notre Dame
Centre Pompidou
Louvre
Grand Palais
Rodin Museum
the Eiffel Tower
Cite d'architecture
Bibliotheque Nationale (St. Geneieve)
Pantheon
Branly Museum
Park de la Vilette
All in all Paris was an amazing experience. I even had a real Croque Monsieur at a cafe! Also, the couples here are on couple steriods or something. They take PDA to a whole new level, which was interesting to get used to. And honestly sometimes kind of gross, especially at 9 in the morning.
TJ, Indy, and I managed to get a taxi to the Eurolines station this morning. We are currently on the bus to Amsterdam, it's a lloonnggg ride.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
8.0 Troyyesss?
Finally done with Basel we set out for Ronchamp and later, Troyes. Ronchamp was absolutely beautiful. It always looked a bit funny in history class but when you're there it's impossible not to be impressed. We also were SO close to meeting Renzo Piano! He was coming to talk about his building next to Ronchamp at 4:30 pm. We waited around as long as we could but we eventually found out that he was running thirty minutes late. SO CLOSE!! SO CLOSE!! There was a local news station there that was waiting for him to arrive so that they could interview him. According to Heiner I got filmed for a few minutes, standing outside Ronchamp and sketching. I was prretttyyy exccitteeddd.
It was nice to finally be in a country where I could understand a little bit of what was going on. The countryside is a little strange, it looks exactly like Virginia wine country. I kept on waking up from random naps on the way to Troyes and being like...wwheerree amm ii??
We didn't spend much time in Troyes. We had a delicious dinner: walnut salad, bouef collingnon, and chocolate mousse. YUM!
The next morning we visited a library and a church in Troyes before setting out. Nothing I was particularly excited about though.
It was nice to finally be in a country where I could understand a little bit of what was going on. The countryside is a little strange, it looks exactly like Virginia wine country. I kept on waking up from random naps on the way to Troyes and being like...wwheerree amm ii??
We didn't spend much time in Troyes. We had a delicious dinner: walnut salad, bouef collingnon, and chocolate mousse. YUM!
The next morning we visited a library and a church in Troyes before setting out. Nothing I was particularly excited about though.
7.0 BAHH Basel
We arrived in Basel on Friday afternoon. There are a festival going on right across the street from our hotel all weekend to mark the 550th anniversary of the foundation of the University of Basel. We learned very quickly that Basel is an expensive city. I mean, the Nutella was almost four francs! By George!
The hotel was...interesting. In order to get to half of the rooms you literally went "through the rabbit hole." By this I mean that to get to say room 17, you:
1) Walk up the stairs to the "1st floor"
2) Walk down long hallway, turning several corners and going down several steps
3) At end of corridor make a right and go down spiral stairscase just ahead.
4) At bottom of staircase turn left
5) Walk down a short ramp, down two steps, and finally up two steps
6) Room will be on your right.
REALLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY?????? Thankfully, I was not in Room 17 and did not have to trapse down to "Wonderland" very often.
The highlight of the hotel was having a television that got BBC...IN ENGLISH. We had some fun with the channels...for the record NCIS is better in French, and they do show Jersey Shore over here. With German subtitles.
I also really really really enjoyed the hotel breakfast. THERE WAS BACON! BACON BACON BACON! And scrambled eggs and hash browns....SO AMERICAN!
For the record, Basel is the Cumberland Gap of Europe. It borders Germany, France, and Switzerland. Our first day we drove over to Germany (about ten minutes away) and went to Vitra. Oh Vitra. I got to see Zaha, Ando, Gehry (thumbs down), and Herzog. BAH! I seriously would consider living in Vitrahaus, the showroom built by Herzog. I got stuck playing in on the children's floor for like thirty minutes. Seriously, it has the most fun furniture EVER!
After Vitrahaus we went to Piano's Beyeler Foundation building. I didn't think that I would enjoy it that much...but my god. He is amazing. Every single detail was taken care of so simply and elegantly. I don't think I've ever been in a building that was so aware of the comfort of the visitor. It wasn't an egotistical building. It honestly existed to serve the artwork, serve the visitor, and enhance the landscape.
After the Beyeler Foundation we were introduced to a VT alumni who is from my understanding a rather noted architecture theorist. I think I'm going to leave his name out because I'm a little worried about my comments showing up on Google. But yeahhhh. I could tell that he was very very brilliant, but dear god...he made absolutely no sense. He talked ever so softly in a stream of consciousness. Only occasionally could I make out random nouns. His lectures over the next few days went something like this: *mumblemumblemumblemumblemumblemumble* SCRAP *mumblemumblemumble*.
I don't think I would have minded it so much if he didn't so completely impede everything I wanted to do over the next couple of days. We'd be on our way to a building that I'd be really excited about and have to stop on some random street corner and "talk" about god knows what for an hour. He's seems to have been a mentor to one of our professors here, who got very offended if we didn't pay completely attention to him. I guess it's because of who he is, because people wandering off has never been a problem with our other guests. Case in point:
We went to St. Anthony's Church this morning before we left Basel. It was absolutely amazing. I really wanted to make a sketch of the plan. Of course our guest decides to go to the front of the church and start lecturing. Slowly most people filter over there, or if our professor saw people talking he would bring them over there. Before I realized it, I was the only one not sitting in the front with everyone. I was sitting at the back of the church trying to map out the plan and would get up every so often to check something out. Never been a problem before. I'm doing what I came there to do. After a few minutes the professor comes over to me and says, "I just want you to realize how very rude it is to not sit and listen when we have a lecturer."
BAH seriously?! I've been listening to him talk about nothing for the last two days and I'm finally in a building that I really really want to figure out, and I can't do that? It's not the end of the world and I don't mean to complain, but GAHH!!
One of the random fun things about Basel were the ferries across the Rhine River. They're connected to a cable and travel perpendicular to the current at an angle that allows them to use absolutely no energy to get across quickly. Our entire group piled onto one of them. They're wooden and very low to the water and honestly did not look like it could hold 30 people. TO JENNIE: I thought of you! The sides of our ferry had sunflowers planted in little ledges. And I was like...those are Jennie's favorites!
So that's really all about Basel. Not my favorite city, but still pretty fun to visit :-) Definitely worth it if I can go live in Vitrahaus for forever and ever and ever and ever.
The hotel was...interesting. In order to get to half of the rooms you literally went "through the rabbit hole." By this I mean that to get to say room 17, you:
1) Walk up the stairs to the "1st floor"
2) Walk down long hallway, turning several corners and going down several steps
3) At end of corridor make a right and go down spiral stairscase just ahead.
4) At bottom of staircase turn left
5) Walk down a short ramp, down two steps, and finally up two steps
6) Room will be on your right.
REALLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY?????? Thankfully, I was not in Room 17 and did not have to trapse down to "Wonderland" very often.
The highlight of the hotel was having a television that got BBC...IN ENGLISH. We had some fun with the channels...for the record NCIS is better in French, and they do show Jersey Shore over here. With German subtitles.
I also really really really enjoyed the hotel breakfast. THERE WAS BACON! BACON BACON BACON! And scrambled eggs and hash browns....SO AMERICAN!
For the record, Basel is the Cumberland Gap of Europe. It borders Germany, France, and Switzerland. Our first day we drove over to Germany (about ten minutes away) and went to Vitra. Oh Vitra. I got to see Zaha, Ando, Gehry (thumbs down), and Herzog. BAH! I seriously would consider living in Vitrahaus, the showroom built by Herzog. I got stuck playing in on the children's floor for like thirty minutes. Seriously, it has the most fun furniture EVER!
After Vitrahaus we went to Piano's Beyeler Foundation building. I didn't think that I would enjoy it that much...but my god. He is amazing. Every single detail was taken care of so simply and elegantly. I don't think I've ever been in a building that was so aware of the comfort of the visitor. It wasn't an egotistical building. It honestly existed to serve the artwork, serve the visitor, and enhance the landscape.
After the Beyeler Foundation we were introduced to a VT alumni who is from my understanding a rather noted architecture theorist. I think I'm going to leave his name out because I'm a little worried about my comments showing up on Google. But yeahhhh. I could tell that he was very very brilliant, but dear god...he made absolutely no sense. He talked ever so softly in a stream of consciousness. Only occasionally could I make out random nouns. His lectures over the next few days went something like this: *mumblemumblemumblemumblemumblemumble* SCRAP *mumblemumblemumble*.
I don't think I would have minded it so much if he didn't so completely impede everything I wanted to do over the next couple of days. We'd be on our way to a building that I'd be really excited about and have to stop on some random street corner and "talk" about god knows what for an hour. He's seems to have been a mentor to one of our professors here, who got very offended if we didn't pay completely attention to him. I guess it's because of who he is, because people wandering off has never been a problem with our other guests. Case in point:
We went to St. Anthony's Church this morning before we left Basel. It was absolutely amazing. I really wanted to make a sketch of the plan. Of course our guest decides to go to the front of the church and start lecturing. Slowly most people filter over there, or if our professor saw people talking he would bring them over there. Before I realized it, I was the only one not sitting in the front with everyone. I was sitting at the back of the church trying to map out the plan and would get up every so often to check something out. Never been a problem before. I'm doing what I came there to do. After a few minutes the professor comes over to me and says, "I just want you to realize how very rude it is to not sit and listen when we have a lecturer."
BAH seriously?! I've been listening to him talk about nothing for the last two days and I'm finally in a building that I really really want to figure out, and I can't do that? It's not the end of the world and I don't mean to complain, but GAHH!!
One of the random fun things about Basel were the ferries across the Rhine River. They're connected to a cable and travel perpendicular to the current at an angle that allows them to use absolutely no energy to get across quickly. Our entire group piled onto one of them. They're wooden and very low to the water and honestly did not look like it could hold 30 people. TO JENNIE: I thought of you! The sides of our ferry had sunflowers planted in little ledges. And I was like...those are Jennie's favorites!
So that's really all about Basel. Not my favorite city, but still pretty fun to visit :-) Definitely worth it if I can go live in Vitrahaus for forever and ever and ever and ever.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
6.0 14 Degrees Celcius (Vals, Switzerland)
We left Austria at around 8:30 yesterday morning. As I mentioned in my previous entry, the mountains were absolutely beautiful. There was a morning fog floating around the top of each mountain and every so often the sun would break through and you could get a full view of the mountain and the springs running off of it. I was struck on the drive out to Vals by those springs. When we were driving close to a mountain I could see tiny little springs that seemed to appear out of the grass and moss, all perfectly clear. Sometimes those little springs would develop into huge waterfalls running down the cliffs. Down the hills beneath us was a deep gourge with the absolute cleariest water I have ever seen running through it. When the water was too deep to be perfectly clear it turned into a pale aqua. Sometimes we were so high up on the mountains that I couldn't even seen the beginnings of the water below, the gourge just seemed to go on infinitely. It's a harsh landscape with its steep cliffs but somehow there are literally trees growing up the side of the cliffs. The roads are just as harsh. Even Fabio, our very competant and AWESOME bus driver, got freaked out a few times. Two lane roads turn into one lane roads with no warning, especially hard for a charter bus. There seems to be a honking system here that one uses for these random one lane roads and tunnels. When you enter them you honk a few times and repeat it one or two times through the tunnel depending on how long it is. There were many sharp turns that Fabio didn't seem to be sure if we could make it around. Shoulders here are also rather nonexistant. If its a steep cliff off the side of the road there will sometimes be one, but they tend to disappear at random. Sometimes we even had to stop and back up on a turn to make room for another large truck or bus to pass by. It was a beautiful drive, but I would absolutely never drive it myself...a little too scary for me.
On our way to Vals we stopped in Chur for Zumthor's Roman Ruins. By that I mean we got lost in Chur for about thirty minutes. Its a beautiful town with a rumored wait-list to live there, but the roads are SO confusing. It was funny too that their sidewalks in that town were virtually nonexistsant. There were probably about 2 feet wide and sometimes would disappear to like 6 inches.
To get into the Roman Ruins you have to stop in a church in Vals to pick up the key. Heiner went to pick it up and we had a mini dance party with Fabio to Timbaland until he got back. The Roman Ruins were interesting. Zumthor sort of created a building around the ruins of a couple of ancient Roman houses. It's absolutely freezing inside because it gets very little light, sunlight is only allowed through two windows and two large, and very deep lightwells in the ceiling. The building isn't entirely closed off, it has angled wooden slats that make up the main exterior wall. We spent about thirty minutes there before returning the key and making our way to Vals. On our way up the mountain to Vals Heiner kindly informed us that if we peed in Vals it would end up in Basel and then Rotterdam via the Rhine River. Very important information, obviously. The highlight of the drive, aside from the trecharous roads and beautiful scenery was having to stop in the middle of the road because there was a herd of cows being led by the road...with cow bells and everything! At that moment I think we all finally realized that we were in the absolute middle of nowhere.
The rooms are Vals were beautiful. I did unforutnately manage to somehow break the light in the bathroom, though--classy, I know. I was trying to dry my hair later on in the day after we had spent some time at the baths, but the hair dryer in the bathroom wasn't working. Thinking that someone had probably somehow tripped the reset button I followed the wiring up to the light and found a button that I figured would restart it. Nayeth. It turned off the light...for forever. Or at least until maintenance fixes it now that Kit and I have left the room.
The baths...oh my god...the baths. There's several of them:
Sound Bath: which I never found, apparently it's just a room of bells or something
Flower Bath: warm bathwater temperature fillled with flower petals. I met a bunch of Urugyians there who were architecture students on their own tour of the world. They were spending ten months traveling South America, North America, Europe, and Asia. According to them it usually takes 7 to 12 years to finish a Bachelor's in Architecture there because it's very lax. We told Heiner and he scoffed and said "Stupid Uruyians!"
Ice Bath: 14 degrees celcius and filled with bits of ice, hence the title of the entry. I did manage to jump in for about ten seconds before running out almost screaming
Fire Bath: 42 degrees celcius...burned when you got in but felt absolute amazing after a few moments
Outdoor bath: heated with the absolute most amazing view of the mountains dotted with tiny huts and a few mountain goats. TJ, Indy, and I performed a beautiful water ballet to much acclaim in this bath.
Mineral bath: this one was centrally located with super soft water. When we had silent night swimming last night TJ and I spontaneously performed an encore of our ballet. It was magical.
34 Degree Celscius Bath: this one was my absolute favorite. Its the perfect termperature and it has a hidden tunned with waist deep water that leads into a secret room. SO COOL!
Saunas (Naked and Clothed): there were two three-room saunas with different fragances mixed in with the steam. The clothing-optional sauna was rattthherrr eye opening and knowing my amazing maturity level, I handled it with total grace and absolutely did not giggle constantly. It smelled amazing in there though, there was some kind of mint mixed in with the steam. The last and most intense room of each sauna was insane and I could barely see because my contacts fogged up, but it felt so amazing when you left.
The architecture of the baths themselves is stunning. The Mineral bath and the outdoor bath are the only really visible ones when you enter the building. There are these columns all around those baths that are much larger than you think and house all of the other baths. The 34 degree celscius one is tucked in a corner that is difficult to spot right off the bat. The point is that you really take your time and explore the baths. The concrete in the ceiling has reveals that run the entire length of the building and connect the interior to the exterior in a seamless motion. The acoustics of each bath is amazing too. It echos beyond belief, which makes it difficult to talk, but it amplifies the sound of the water running off and somehow refilling. It's like being under a waterfall. Most of the spaces are dimly lit and there are a lot of lights running under the water, usually nearby the jets. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to sneak out cameras in so I couldn't get any pictures. But if you search it online, I promise you'll probably fine some amazing ones that will get you the general idea.
When we got to Vals and checked in everyone immediately changed and went down to the baths for about 4 hours. After that we got dressed up for dinner, just for fun, and had one of my favorite meals here. There were four courses.
Appetizer: Pasta Salad
Soup: Some kind of Pumpkin soup...AWESOME
Entree: Mashed potatoes, green beans wrapped in proscuietto, pork chops
Dessert: Coconut and pineapple mousse/ice cream with a piece of fried pineapple
After dinner I headed back to the hotel and got ready for night swimming. It's only held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday of each week and you have to be completely silent. There was a lot of interesting pantomining going on. Nothing better right before bed than soaking for another hour. I don't think I've ever been so freaking clean in my life.
Heiner and Mario set the leaving time this morning for 10:45 so that people could go back to the baths if they wanted. I took advantage of the time and caught up on sleep and spent some time really enjoying their amazing breakfast spread. Literally every kind of bread I could think of, local cheese, meats (including proscuietto...YAY!), fruits, cereals...just about everything.
We're now on the bus to Zurich for the morning (CALATRAVA LIBRARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and will arrive in Basel later tonight. We will be there until Monday.
BYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
5.0 I Can See the Alps from My Houssee (Bregenz, Austria)
As I type this we are driving past the most amazing view of the mountains I have seen yet. There's a thick cover of clouds whisping over them, only allowing small peaks of their actual height. They look so mysterious and ancient...it probably helps I'm listening to hippie music to go with it.
We arrived in Bregenz after about a 2.5 hour drive from Munich. We stopped in the center of town and got off the bus to look at a couple of nearby buidings. We began with an area high school where they had juxtaposed a new building with an older one. TJ and I managed to look like we knew what we were doing and got into the school without a problem. Apparently security here isn't a huge concern. It was interesting to see the way the two buildings connected on the inside and addressed the contradiction that the exterior offered. Well, more of, it didn't address it. The interior continued seamlessly into the old building without a hint of what was going on on the outside. We had a bit of a disscusion on whether we thought that this was good or bad. After that we walked across the street to....
SIDE NOTE: We JUST crossed into Switzerland. Country number three for the win.
...anyway, we walked across the street to an apartment complex to look at how they created a livable space so close to the train tracks. Finally, we met up at the Kunsthaus and stayed there for about three hours. The only way to describe it is: glowing. The interior has a suspended glass ceiling that diffuses all of the light from above which reflected off of the highly polished terrazo floor. The concrete walls are cool and muted and are simply a part of the space without overwhelming it. I sat on the third floor for about an hour just taking it all in.
We got back to the hostel and checked in. Finally, out last hostel. And it was much nicer than the last couple of ones. It had a REAL shower...A REAL ONE!!! I passed out on my bed until dinner, then came back and took the absolute best shower of my life because I didn't have to push a stupid button every ten seconds. YAY!
The next day we bused around to nearby towns by Bregenz. Bregenz, itself, is very spread out and each town kind of blends into the next. We traveled to a one woman office overlooking one of the harbors. It was a beautiful concrete cantilever. Nearby on the property was the "Party Haus" where she hosts events for various groups. It was also concrete, but not as minimalist. It had three ameoba looking forms that were repeated over and over in the concrete. Behind the concrete was feathered glass, which is a local tradition. When they form the glass they raise and lower the temperature so that the glass crystallizes and forms these "feathers" all over it.
After the one woman office we managed to get lost for about thirty minutes trying to find a stupid industrial park, that honestly, no one cared about. It had some cool building, but nothing particularly special. It was very amusing however watching Fabio, the bus driver, try to make a U-turn in the middle of a three-way stop.
SIDE NOTE: Fabio is awesome. When we got on the bus this morning he was playing a Snoop Dogg song on repeat and we hosted a mini dance party. Apparently Heiner isn't a fan though, so when he got on the bus, Fabio changed the song to Beehtoven's Fifth. According to Heiner, Fabio is the offical driver of the professional hockey team in Lugano, Switzerland. But I don't know if this is true because I can never tell when Heiner is lying.
After the industrial park we drove to another town where they had a Baumschlage-Eberle (spelled?) hotel with a sweet restauraunt lifted over the driveway. It was interesting but everyone was beyond hunger at that point and had seriously stopped caring about architecture. When we finished our tour we broke up for lunch. I went with a group of girls to a nearby cafe and got an amazing pretzel/bagel sandwich for lunch and a pastry as long as my arm for dessert. NOM NOM NOM. We found a nearby stationary store and I purchased a set of three mini Moleskine notebooks so I can make notes about each day for my blog entries.
After lunch we met up again and drove about twenty minutes to Mader, a middle school with an ecological focus. The students grown most of their own food on site and even have a class where they learn to preserve the vegetables they produce to eat in the cafeteria later. We got a tour from the school technicians because the building has a rather complicated electrical and glass louver system to help it conserve energy. It was an intersesting building but we stayed there for about 3 hours, which was 2 hours too long. On the bright side, I got to play with a miniature pony across the street when we left to get back on the bus.
Today we're on our way to Vals!!! We may be stopping in Chur to look at Zumthor's Roman Ruins, but that is very time dependent. I have no idea how long of a trip this will be. I asked TJ about five minutes ago and he told me it was seven hours. I asked if he was lying and he said yes--so I don't think he has any idea either.
Tchao!
We arrived in Bregenz after about a 2.5 hour drive from Munich. We stopped in the center of town and got off the bus to look at a couple of nearby buidings. We began with an area high school where they had juxtaposed a new building with an older one. TJ and I managed to look like we knew what we were doing and got into the school without a problem. Apparently security here isn't a huge concern. It was interesting to see the way the two buildings connected on the inside and addressed the contradiction that the exterior offered. Well, more of, it didn't address it. The interior continued seamlessly into the old building without a hint of what was going on on the outside. We had a bit of a disscusion on whether we thought that this was good or bad. After that we walked across the street to....
SIDE NOTE: We JUST crossed into Switzerland. Country number three for the win.
...anyway, we walked across the street to an apartment complex to look at how they created a livable space so close to the train tracks. Finally, we met up at the Kunsthaus and stayed there for about three hours. The only way to describe it is: glowing. The interior has a suspended glass ceiling that diffuses all of the light from above which reflected off of the highly polished terrazo floor. The concrete walls are cool and muted and are simply a part of the space without overwhelming it. I sat on the third floor for about an hour just taking it all in.
We got back to the hostel and checked in. Finally, out last hostel. And it was much nicer than the last couple of ones. It had a REAL shower...A REAL ONE!!! I passed out on my bed until dinner, then came back and took the absolute best shower of my life because I didn't have to push a stupid button every ten seconds. YAY!
The next day we bused around to nearby towns by Bregenz. Bregenz, itself, is very spread out and each town kind of blends into the next. We traveled to a one woman office overlooking one of the harbors. It was a beautiful concrete cantilever. Nearby on the property was the "Party Haus" where she hosts events for various groups. It was also concrete, but not as minimalist. It had three ameoba looking forms that were repeated over and over in the concrete. Behind the concrete was feathered glass, which is a local tradition. When they form the glass they raise and lower the temperature so that the glass crystallizes and forms these "feathers" all over it.
After the one woman office we managed to get lost for about thirty minutes trying to find a stupid industrial park, that honestly, no one cared about. It had some cool building, but nothing particularly special. It was very amusing however watching Fabio, the bus driver, try to make a U-turn in the middle of a three-way stop.
SIDE NOTE: Fabio is awesome. When we got on the bus this morning he was playing a Snoop Dogg song on repeat and we hosted a mini dance party. Apparently Heiner isn't a fan though, so when he got on the bus, Fabio changed the song to Beehtoven's Fifth. According to Heiner, Fabio is the offical driver of the professional hockey team in Lugano, Switzerland. But I don't know if this is true because I can never tell when Heiner is lying.
After the industrial park we drove to another town where they had a Baumschlage-Eberle (spelled?) hotel with a sweet restauraunt lifted over the driveway. It was interesting but everyone was beyond hunger at that point and had seriously stopped caring about architecture. When we finished our tour we broke up for lunch. I went with a group of girls to a nearby cafe and got an amazing pretzel/bagel sandwich for lunch and a pastry as long as my arm for dessert. NOM NOM NOM. We found a nearby stationary store and I purchased a set of three mini Moleskine notebooks so I can make notes about each day for my blog entries.
After lunch we met up again and drove about twenty minutes to Mader, a middle school with an ecological focus. The students grown most of their own food on site and even have a class where they learn to preserve the vegetables they produce to eat in the cafeteria later. We got a tour from the school technicians because the building has a rather complicated electrical and glass louver system to help it conserve energy. It was an intersesting building but we stayed there for about 3 hours, which was 2 hours too long. On the bright side, I got to play with a miniature pony across the street when we left to get back on the bus.
Today we're on our way to Vals!!! We may be stopping in Chur to look at Zumthor's Roman Ruins, but that is very time dependent. I have no idea how long of a trip this will be. I asked TJ about five minutes ago and he told me it was seven hours. I asked if he was lying and he said yes--so I don't think he has any idea either.
Tchao!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
4.0 Munchkinland?....
Oh Munchen.
We began our tour of Munich on the outskirts at the Olympic Stadium by Herzog and DeMeuron. It looks like an alien spacecraft fell out of the space. It was fun to walk around but there really wasn't much there beyond the skin. After that we stopped by the O2 village, which is student housing at the University of Munich. Apparently Munich has a huge housing problem for students because it's a relatively expensive city to live in...especially close to the university. The university's response to this problem was to create movable 8'x8'x8' cubes (it's acutally about 8'-8") that serve as "pods" for one student. It was an interesting solution to design problem about conserving space. We manage to get a tour of one. After that we got lunch at on campus student bar...great pizza...and had a discussion of what it would be like to live in a cube. Would we be purist and stick to the cube idea to a tee? We thought it would be necessary to eat only sugar cubes and bouillon cubes while wearing cube shoes and hats. There was a a bit of an argument on how to consume cubic beverages. But we finally came to the decision that one would simply freeze the drink into juice cubes or ice cubes or beer cubes and let them melt in a cubic glass. After that we visited another Herzog and DeMeuron building building--the Goetz Museum. It had some rather experimental video installations...a little over my head. I spent my time figuring out the section of the building.
After that we checked into our hostel...lots of very loud Germans and it was above an even louder discotheque that looked like a bowling alley. Apparently things got a little out of hand there and there were a number of loud and somehow drunk 14 year olds that got in an epic fight involving beer bottles. I missed it as I was hanging out at a nearby biergarten...thank god.
The next morning we visited the Olympic park to view the other Olympic stadium. We climbed to the top of one of the hills and got the best view of the city. It was beautiful. We walked around the stadium and park for a while and then stopped by the BMW museum and took motorcycle gang pictures outside. After that we met up with a number of people from Riva (Nick!) and then joined Heiner for a verrryy fast walking tour through the Marienplatz area of Munich. That night we went to Hofbrauhaus, just to say we did, and I had my first real German liter of beer. I was verrryy full afterwards. After that we went to the biergarten from the night before and hung out and talked for a while.
The next morning we visited three museums all within the same general vicinity. My favorite was the modern museum simply because it had the best Alessi teapot collection ever. I think I've decided to collect teapots when I have money (when I'm sixty?). That night we went back to the Marienplatz area and visited Augustiner, a different biergarten that was adjacent to the Hofbrauhuas. We walked around the area for a few hours after that just to enjoy the city.
On our last full day we visited the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, the Architecture House, and another church that had side by side Lutheran and Catholic chapels. It was rainy and freezing that day and honestly not very enjoyable. The Riva people left and I think the combination of that, the weather, and the last two weeks just all came together and I was just exhausated. I packed when I got home and literally just crashed. Today we arrived in Bregenz (Austria!) and I finally took a real two hour nap and had my first non-push button shower in a week. Believe me, I felt much better.
Also, I apologize for my lack of pictures. I have yet to find a stable wifi connection here that I can use to offload pictures from my laptop. I've even taken to copy and pasting emails into Word when I get them and typing up my responses there before cut and pasting them into the actual reply. I'm even writing this post in Word right now in the hopes that I can find real internetz sometime soon! I'm on the hunt though and hopefully I will find them soon. Otherwise, expect to be bombarded with pictures when I get back.
In closing, things I miss from home:
-being able to understand what is going on more than 5% of the time
-ice cubes
-free water
-internetzzzz
So long...farewell...Auf Wiedersen...Goodbyyeeeeee
We began our tour of Munich on the outskirts at the Olympic Stadium by Herzog and DeMeuron. It looks like an alien spacecraft fell out of the space. It was fun to walk around but there really wasn't much there beyond the skin. After that we stopped by the O2 village, which is student housing at the University of Munich. Apparently Munich has a huge housing problem for students because it's a relatively expensive city to live in...especially close to the university. The university's response to this problem was to create movable 8'x8'x8' cubes (it's acutally about 8'-8") that serve as "pods" for one student. It was an interesting solution to design problem about conserving space. We manage to get a tour of one. After that we got lunch at on campus student bar...great pizza...and had a discussion of what it would be like to live in a cube. Would we be purist and stick to the cube idea to a tee? We thought it would be necessary to eat only sugar cubes and bouillon cubes while wearing cube shoes and hats. There was a a bit of an argument on how to consume cubic beverages. But we finally came to the decision that one would simply freeze the drink into juice cubes or ice cubes or beer cubes and let them melt in a cubic glass. After that we visited another Herzog and DeMeuron building building--the Goetz Museum. It had some rather experimental video installations...a little over my head. I spent my time figuring out the section of the building.
After that we checked into our hostel...lots of very loud Germans and it was above an even louder discotheque that looked like a bowling alley. Apparently things got a little out of hand there and there were a number of loud and somehow drunk 14 year olds that got in an epic fight involving beer bottles. I missed it as I was hanging out at a nearby biergarten...thank god.
The next morning we visited the Olympic park to view the other Olympic stadium. We climbed to the top of one of the hills and got the best view of the city. It was beautiful. We walked around the stadium and park for a while and then stopped by the BMW museum and took motorcycle gang pictures outside. After that we met up with a number of people from Riva (Nick!) and then joined Heiner for a verrryy fast walking tour through the Marienplatz area of Munich. That night we went to Hofbrauhaus, just to say we did, and I had my first real German liter of beer. I was verrryy full afterwards. After that we went to the biergarten from the night before and hung out and talked for a while.
The next morning we visited three museums all within the same general vicinity. My favorite was the modern museum simply because it had the best Alessi teapot collection ever. I think I've decided to collect teapots when I have money (when I'm sixty?). That night we went back to the Marienplatz area and visited Augustiner, a different biergarten that was adjacent to the Hofbrauhuas. We walked around the area for a few hours after that just to enjoy the city.
On our last full day we visited the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, the Architecture House, and another church that had side by side Lutheran and Catholic chapels. It was rainy and freezing that day and honestly not very enjoyable. The Riva people left and I think the combination of that, the weather, and the last two weeks just all came together and I was just exhausated. I packed when I got home and literally just crashed. Today we arrived in Bregenz (Austria!) and I finally took a real two hour nap and had my first non-push button shower in a week. Believe me, I felt much better.
Also, I apologize for my lack of pictures. I have yet to find a stable wifi connection here that I can use to offload pictures from my laptop. I've even taken to copy and pasting emails into Word when I get them and typing up my responses there before cut and pasting them into the actual reply. I'm even writing this post in Word right now in the hopes that I can find real internetz sometime soon! I'm on the hunt though and hopefully I will find them soon. Otherwise, expect to be bombarded with pictures when I get back.
In closing, things I miss from home:
-being able to understand what is going on more than 5% of the time
-ice cubes
-free water
-internetzzzz
So long...farewell...Auf Wiedersen...Goodbyyeeeeee
Friday, September 10, 2010
3.0 Nayeth Nurnberg...Nayeth
Reinhart: Now I used concrete as the main material of my building because of the site issues with erosion. If problems begin to occur the concrete will not crack.
Heiner: Because no one wants a crackhouse in their neighborhood!
*Awkward silence*
On Tuesday we began our journey to Nurnberg. Our bags were packed and loaded at 8:05 am and everyone herded onto the bus and instantly fell asleep. About an hour later we arrived in Dessau. Yeah...not a fan. It may have had something to do with the gloomy weather but I have never seen such a depressing city with so many depressed looking people. It was shabby, dark, and honestly smelled not so great. First we visited the Ministry of Environmental Protection (?) building. It was interesting to see how they took a "green" building and took it a little further. One of the main criticisms of green or sustainable architecture that I hear a lot in studio is that with a variety of methods most architects can very easily a sustainable building...but they simply leave it at that. The actual architecture simply gets left behind. I think they did a pretty decent job with the Ministry building. Of course the tour guide gave us a bunch of gimmicky made-up nonsense about how the different colored panels on the facade reflect the surrounding hills, industrial zones, and residential areas and everyone just their eyes. But on the whole, despite looking like a bag of Skittles, it was a nice building. After that we drove about a mile to THE BAUHAUS. Hallowed ground. It was just beyond surreal actual being there and touching the walls and playing with the windows. Of course it took a little effort to put myself back in the shoes of those who were around when this opened. We're now so used to this very "sexy" perfect clean architecture that an older modernist building doesn't have the same effect. But when I stopped to consider just how revolutionary every single aspect of the building was and what a huge effect it had on our architecture school at Virginia Tech, it was unreal. Heiner kept on jokingly calling it our grandpa's house and saying we were going to go visit Papa Gropius. We had lunch in the Bauhuas cafe and I very sneakily stole a Bauhaus spoon as my souvenir. Plus TJ, Indy, and I needed a spoon for our Nutella so we figured if we were going to sneak one, might as well be a Bauhaus one. Very Virginia Tech Architecture of us.
After the tour at the Bauhaus and a bunch of silly pictures of all of us jumping in front of the sign, we boarded back on the bus for the final four hours to Nurnberg. The transition of the landscape was astounding. When we began it was completely flat...like Kansas flat...and there were hundreds and hundreds of windmills all around us. I fell asleep about forty minutes into the trip and when I woke up everything had changed. We were going up a huge hill and we surrounding by these beautiful pine forests. It reminded me of those romantic hunting painting from the Middle Ages where the light is shining between the trunks of the trees.
We arrived in Nurnberg and were immediately struck by just how hilly it was. Thankfully we were able to drive up to the Nurnberg Castle (where our hostel was) to drop off our bags...becasue believe me, walking up that hill with my bag was NOT happening. I had more than my share of that hill over the next couple of days. We got settled and had dinner at the hostel. A bunch of people went out to explore the city but I stayed in because I finally had internet and wanted to get my life (and emails) back in order.
The next day we began by meeting a Virginia Tech alumni named Reinhart at what amounts to an architecture managment firm. He looks like the German version of Billy Rae Cyrus, drives a Porsche, and smokes more than I have ever seen anyone smoke in my entire life. But he's very funny and we later discovered, has a RIDICULOUS house. The architecture managment firm is used as a head office for small, generally one person, traveling firms. An architect can rent out a desk for a half day, a full day, or a extended period of time. They also have access to four conference rooms on the lower level and have a full office staff on hand. It was an interesting concept. After that we went to the New (***) Museum. It is built as a diagonal cut through one of the older buildings that are attached to the stadium where Hitler held the Nazi rallies in Nurnberg. It is now a museum about the Nazi party and focuses in particular on their history in Nurnberg. The museum itself is incredibly. It uses glass walls to border and create walkways through this old building, as though its recognizing the history of the place but looking at it through fresh eyes. The exhibits were on the intense side and I think everyone was a little overwhelmed when we left. Then we met back up with Reinhart at the Art Center (****). I think this building must just have different effects on different generations. Heiner and Mario were completely engrossed by the modernist structure but the students were a little under-whelmed. It probably was a beautiful building about fifty years ago, but lack of upkeep, what smelled like some mold problems, and the destruction of art students over the years left it rather delapidated. Granted, Modernist building, like this one (built in the mid fifties), aren't what my generation has grown up with as being revolutionary. But all I could really see behind what probably was once a very pure space were all of the problems. Cracked, dirty windows. No insulation to speak of in the main entrance way. Water seepage. We've been told over and over to forgive these problems because these were experimental buildings with experimental materials, but at what point does the architect actually test some of his ideas...or just logically think through it, for that matter...before he actually builds it. I just think that building, in particular, had just one too many problems to be forgiven for being experimental.
The next day we went to the Neues Museum. Wow. We were in a pretty typical area of Nurnberg, aside from the multitudes of strip clubs around it...where Heiner thought it was hilarious to stop in front of each one and pretend to go in. Heiner then showed us a little more modern looking building with a more traditional one next to it. No big deal. Then we got closer and realized that there was a small alleyway between the two. When we rounded the corner into the alley...there it was. This huge, curving glass curtain wall that just seemed to go on infinitily, cleverly hidden on the side of the more modern building. In front of the curtain wall, and behind the more traditional building, was a massive cobblestone plaza with benches. Wow. Wow. Wow. We all freaked out and went back and rounded the corner several times because it was just that amazing. The interior of the museum was so well thought it. It had the curved glass curtain wall with what seemed to be much more orthangal interior walls juxtaposing and colliding with it. This created a variety of space that would open up into a huge room or close down into a narrow hallway. All over the building were these "moments" were you would round the corner of a small doorway and turn to the side to see the whole expanse of the building before you. So much attention to detail. And so much emphasis on these hidden views...almost like a Baroque garden. We stayed there for about 3 hours, got lunch at the cafe next door, then wandered around Nurnberg, playing in the shops and taking silly pictures on the bridges. Then we all met back up at 1:30 with Reinhart so we could visit one of his residential construction sites along the river. It was definitely interesting seeing the difference between a German construction site and an American one. For one, no one was wearing hard hats and there was a more than a little less emphasis placed on safety, but that just meant we got to see more of the site haha. After visiting the site we wandered around the city some more before meeting up at the Neues Museum to begin our trekk to Reinhart's office/house. Again. Wow. There's no other word to describe his house than just plain sexy. He was very generous and bought something like 15 pizzas and 8 crates and beer and everyone mingled for a while. We had to leave in three groups because of the train tickets we had purchased so Indy, TJ, and I decided to stay until the end with Heiner and Mario and a few other students. It was a lot of fun...topics ranging from design, American versus European culture, advice from Heiner and Mario on the issues our generation will face in architecture, Heiner making fun of Mario for about an hour, and then everyone else making fun of Heiner when he walked away. We even managed to make a Turning Torso-like (Calatrava) structure out of the pizza boxes and an "architecturally" (barely) significant arrangement of the old beer bottles and used wine glasses. Heiner even managed to restart the whole "Marie looks like a vampire thing" because apparently his nephew who was visiting him that day asked him three times if I was one. Oh ddeaarrr.
We packed up everything this morning and are now on our way to Munich. I'm currently watching the landscape change out of the window. It's funny how it will randomly look like Virginia for a split second and then I'll see a bunch of buildings nestled on the hillside and I'm reminded where I am.
TCHAO!!
p.s. I apologize if this is riddled with typos. I have done absolutely no proofreading on this. Also...expect all emails to be answered in the next couple of days.
Heiner: Because no one wants a crackhouse in their neighborhood!
*Awkward silence*
On Tuesday we began our journey to Nurnberg. Our bags were packed and loaded at 8:05 am and everyone herded onto the bus and instantly fell asleep. About an hour later we arrived in Dessau. Yeah...not a fan. It may have had something to do with the gloomy weather but I have never seen such a depressing city with so many depressed looking people. It was shabby, dark, and honestly smelled not so great. First we visited the Ministry of Environmental Protection (?) building. It was interesting to see how they took a "green" building and took it a little further. One of the main criticisms of green or sustainable architecture that I hear a lot in studio is that with a variety of methods most architects can very easily a sustainable building...but they simply leave it at that. The actual architecture simply gets left behind. I think they did a pretty decent job with the Ministry building. Of course the tour guide gave us a bunch of gimmicky made-up nonsense about how the different colored panels on the facade reflect the surrounding hills, industrial zones, and residential areas and everyone just their eyes. But on the whole, despite looking like a bag of Skittles, it was a nice building. After that we drove about a mile to THE BAUHAUS. Hallowed ground. It was just beyond surreal actual being there and touching the walls and playing with the windows. Of course it took a little effort to put myself back in the shoes of those who were around when this opened. We're now so used to this very "sexy" perfect clean architecture that an older modernist building doesn't have the same effect. But when I stopped to consider just how revolutionary every single aspect of the building was and what a huge effect it had on our architecture school at Virginia Tech, it was unreal. Heiner kept on jokingly calling it our grandpa's house and saying we were going to go visit Papa Gropius. We had lunch in the Bauhuas cafe and I very sneakily stole a Bauhaus spoon as my souvenir. Plus TJ, Indy, and I needed a spoon for our Nutella so we figured if we were going to sneak one, might as well be a Bauhaus one. Very Virginia Tech Architecture of us.
After the tour at the Bauhaus and a bunch of silly pictures of all of us jumping in front of the sign, we boarded back on the bus for the final four hours to Nurnberg. The transition of the landscape was astounding. When we began it was completely flat...like Kansas flat...and there were hundreds and hundreds of windmills all around us. I fell asleep about forty minutes into the trip and when I woke up everything had changed. We were going up a huge hill and we surrounding by these beautiful pine forests. It reminded me of those romantic hunting painting from the Middle Ages where the light is shining between the trunks of the trees.
We arrived in Nurnberg and were immediately struck by just how hilly it was. Thankfully we were able to drive up to the Nurnberg Castle (where our hostel was) to drop off our bags...becasue believe me, walking up that hill with my bag was NOT happening. I had more than my share of that hill over the next couple of days. We got settled and had dinner at the hostel. A bunch of people went out to explore the city but I stayed in because I finally had internet and wanted to get my life (and emails) back in order.
The next day we began by meeting a Virginia Tech alumni named Reinhart at what amounts to an architecture managment firm. He looks like the German version of Billy Rae Cyrus, drives a Porsche, and smokes more than I have ever seen anyone smoke in my entire life. But he's very funny and we later discovered, has a RIDICULOUS house. The architecture managment firm is used as a head office for small, generally one person, traveling firms. An architect can rent out a desk for a half day, a full day, or a extended period of time. They also have access to four conference rooms on the lower level and have a full office staff on hand. It was an interesting concept. After that we went to the New (***) Museum. It is built as a diagonal cut through one of the older buildings that are attached to the stadium where Hitler held the Nazi rallies in Nurnberg. It is now a museum about the Nazi party and focuses in particular on their history in Nurnberg. The museum itself is incredibly. It uses glass walls to border and create walkways through this old building, as though its recognizing the history of the place but looking at it through fresh eyes. The exhibits were on the intense side and I think everyone was a little overwhelmed when we left. Then we met back up with Reinhart at the Art Center (****). I think this building must just have different effects on different generations. Heiner and Mario were completely engrossed by the modernist structure but the students were a little under-whelmed. It probably was a beautiful building about fifty years ago, but lack of upkeep, what smelled like some mold problems, and the destruction of art students over the years left it rather delapidated. Granted, Modernist building, like this one (built in the mid fifties), aren't what my generation has grown up with as being revolutionary. But all I could really see behind what probably was once a very pure space were all of the problems. Cracked, dirty windows. No insulation to speak of in the main entrance way. Water seepage. We've been told over and over to forgive these problems because these were experimental buildings with experimental materials, but at what point does the architect actually test some of his ideas...or just logically think through it, for that matter...before he actually builds it. I just think that building, in particular, had just one too many problems to be forgiven for being experimental.
The next day we went to the Neues Museum. Wow. We were in a pretty typical area of Nurnberg, aside from the multitudes of strip clubs around it...where Heiner thought it was hilarious to stop in front of each one and pretend to go in. Heiner then showed us a little more modern looking building with a more traditional one next to it. No big deal. Then we got closer and realized that there was a small alleyway between the two. When we rounded the corner into the alley...there it was. This huge, curving glass curtain wall that just seemed to go on infinitily, cleverly hidden on the side of the more modern building. In front of the curtain wall, and behind the more traditional building, was a massive cobblestone plaza with benches. Wow. Wow. Wow. We all freaked out and went back and rounded the corner several times because it was just that amazing. The interior of the museum was so well thought it. It had the curved glass curtain wall with what seemed to be much more orthangal interior walls juxtaposing and colliding with it. This created a variety of space that would open up into a huge room or close down into a narrow hallway. All over the building were these "moments" were you would round the corner of a small doorway and turn to the side to see the whole expanse of the building before you. So much attention to detail. And so much emphasis on these hidden views...almost like a Baroque garden. We stayed there for about 3 hours, got lunch at the cafe next door, then wandered around Nurnberg, playing in the shops and taking silly pictures on the bridges. Then we all met back up at 1:30 with Reinhart so we could visit one of his residential construction sites along the river. It was definitely interesting seeing the difference between a German construction site and an American one. For one, no one was wearing hard hats and there was a more than a little less emphasis placed on safety, but that just meant we got to see more of the site haha. After visiting the site we wandered around the city some more before meeting up at the Neues Museum to begin our trekk to Reinhart's office/house. Again. Wow. There's no other word to describe his house than just plain sexy. He was very generous and bought something like 15 pizzas and 8 crates and beer and everyone mingled for a while. We had to leave in three groups because of the train tickets we had purchased so Indy, TJ, and I decided to stay until the end with Heiner and Mario and a few other students. It was a lot of fun...topics ranging from design, American versus European culture, advice from Heiner and Mario on the issues our generation will face in architecture, Heiner making fun of Mario for about an hour, and then everyone else making fun of Heiner when he walked away. We even managed to make a Turning Torso-like (Calatrava) structure out of the pizza boxes and an "architecturally" (barely) significant arrangement of the old beer bottles and used wine glasses. Heiner even managed to restart the whole "Marie looks like a vampire thing" because apparently his nephew who was visiting him that day asked him three times if I was one. Oh ddeaarrr.
We packed up everything this morning and are now on our way to Munich. I'm currently watching the landscape change out of the window. It's funny how it will randomly look like Virginia for a split second and then I'll see a bunch of buildings nestled on the hillside and I'm reminded where I am.
TCHAO!!
p.s. I apologize if this is riddled with typos. I have done absolutely no proofreading on this. Also...expect all emails to be answered in the next couple of days.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
2.0 Jah Berlin
After ten minutes of sleep on an overnight flight, a spazzy three hour layover, and then one more hop across Germany...I finally arrived in Berlin. It's a beautiful city. The sidewalks are huge and every street smells like either pretzels or currywurst. My travel companions, TJ and Indy, wandered up and down the main street with me for a few hours until we found a cafe to sit down at and get our first real German beers. IT was a little chilly outside but was well worth it to sit along the street and people watch. The next day the actual program began. Let's just say we hit the ground running...literally. I don't think I had been as physically exhausted as I was the first few days--ever. Here is a semi complete list of the buildings we visited during our five days in Berlin.
1.0 Gedenksfatte Berliner Mauen
2.0 Reconciliation Chapel
3.0 Berlin Wall Memorial Documentation Center
4.0 Blue Church
5.0 Altes Museum
6.0 Pergamon Museum
7.0 some new David Chipperfield Museum
8.0 Neues Museum
9.0 Deutsches Historisches Museum
10.0 Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11.0 Friedrichs-Werdersche Kirche
12.0 Riechstag
13.0 Krematorium
14.0 New National Gallery
15.0 Philharmonie
16.0 Sony Center
17.0 Philology
18.0 Several buildings belonging to the 1987 Building Competition
19.0 Jewish Museum
20.0 Holocaust Memorial
21.0 Nordic Embassy
22.0 Dutch Embassy
There's a few more random ones that I didn't comment on in my sketchbook, but I think that list gives a very fair idea. Honestly, the thing that struck me the most about Berlin were the dogs. They followed their owners around everywhere, without leashes. For example, while walking back to the train station from the Philology we passed a woman biking very quickly down the sidewalk. About fifty feet behind her was a dog running at full speed to catch up. It was cute. So knowing me, I reached down to pet it. But the dog was like "NO WAY LADY" and just ran passed me, his eyes completely focused on his owner.
Another overwhelming thing about Berlin is the history. The difference between deep East and West Berlin is still very distinct. You can really see the change in economic status depending on what side of the Wall you are on. It's amazing to think that all of these terrible things happened there, not so long ago. The scars on the city are very evident and I think they will be there for a long time.
Today we left Berlin. It was honestly a little sad. I think I'm a little emotionally attached to the city because it was our first one and we spent a fair amount of time there. But honestly, I really feel like we had started to make our own place in the city. We had a couple of cafes we went to daily and could wave to the bartenders as we passed by the door. It was nice to feel a part of such a big place.
We've now arrived in Nuremburg and are staying in a castle with wifi. More posts to come...
1.0 Gedenksfatte Berliner Mauen
2.0 Reconciliation Chapel
3.0 Berlin Wall Memorial Documentation Center
4.0 Blue Church
5.0 Altes Museum
6.0 Pergamon Museum
7.0 some new David Chipperfield Museum
8.0 Neues Museum
9.0 Deutsches Historisches Museum
10.0 Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11.0 Friedrichs-Werdersche Kirche
12.0 Riechstag
13.0 Krematorium
14.0 New National Gallery
15.0 Philharmonie
16.0 Sony Center
17.0 Philology
18.0 Several buildings belonging to the 1987 Building Competition
19.0 Jewish Museum
20.0 Holocaust Memorial
21.0 Nordic Embassy
22.0 Dutch Embassy
There's a few more random ones that I didn't comment on in my sketchbook, but I think that list gives a very fair idea. Honestly, the thing that struck me the most about Berlin were the dogs. They followed their owners around everywhere, without leashes. For example, while walking back to the train station from the Philology we passed a woman biking very quickly down the sidewalk. About fifty feet behind her was a dog running at full speed to catch up. It was cute. So knowing me, I reached down to pet it. But the dog was like "NO WAY LADY" and just ran passed me, his eyes completely focused on his owner.
Another overwhelming thing about Berlin is the history. The difference between deep East and West Berlin is still very distinct. You can really see the change in economic status depending on what side of the Wall you are on. It's amazing to think that all of these terrible things happened there, not so long ago. The scars on the city are very evident and I think they will be there for a long time.
Today we left Berlin. It was honestly a little sad. I think I'm a little emotionally attached to the city because it was our first one and we spent a fair amount of time there. But honestly, I really feel like we had started to make our own place in the city. We had a couple of cafes we went to daily and could wave to the bartenders as we passed by the door. It was nice to feel a part of such a big place.
We've now arrived in Nuremburg and are staying in a castle with wifi. More posts to come...
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