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!
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