the last couple days....

Quick update.

Sunday. - Zurich. Beautiful weather, amazing city. I cant wait to get home so I can share the amazing pictures of the city and scenery with you. Saw the art museum and a building by the very influential swiss architect Le Corbusier.

Monday. Bellinzona (city in southern Switz)
Nestled in the alps…. 3 castles…. Need I say more?
O…. I also bought a genuine Swiss watch there…. Great watch for a good deal. Also got some Swiss chocolate… and it is quite amazing.

Tuesday. Basel. Saw a lot of museums…. Too bad the weather was crummy.

Wednesday Arrived in Munich this morning. Great city, great beer, great people. I love Germany.

I have one more day in Munich then I finish my trip with 2 days in Berlin.

Pictures are coming…..

Florence

I am spending my last couple hours in Italy right now after a great week of studying the art and architecture in Rome and Florence.

I talked briefly about Rome in my last post, so heres the low down on Florence.

Florence was a nice relief because it was not quite as insane and touristy as Rome was. Also... the food is even more excellent here (as far as I can tell) :)

My teacher told me something very interesting about Italian wine. There are different regions in Italy that specialize in red or white wine. Rome is a white wine region while Florence is for Red wine. Whenever you go to a restaurant in Rome and order the house white wine, you likely get an excellent white wine, and the same for red wine in Florence. Since I prefer red wine over white (in most occaisons) I have really enjoyed meals in Florence. The pasta I have had here has been very very good as well.

In Florence I saw a lot of Renaissance churches, most notably Il Duomo. Again... I will be posting pictures when I get a chance... I have lots of pictures and can't wait to share them with you.

In a few hours I will be getting on a train to Zurich to begin my 3rd week of travel in Switzerland and Germany.

Peace.

When in Rome......

Rome is great.

Food is amazing, the wine is delicious and the weather is exceptional. It has been such a priveledge seeing all this incredible architecture as well that has been so influential. I visited the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and many other significant buildings and sculptures yesterday. The Colosseum was great but I was most impressed by the Pantheon. Yesterday morning I woke up early in order to see the Pantheon without a crowd of annoying tourists in front... which was well worth it. Incredible to see such a large impressive building that has stood there for roughly 1800 years or so. Pictures are coming when I have a chance to upload them.

Today I visited the Vatican. We saw the Sistene Chapel, St. Peters Basillica and many amazing paintings and sculptures. Its a lot to take in. I will go further in depth when I have more time and pictures.

Tomorrow I see some more of Rome and then I am off to Florence.

Ciao

Germany & The Netherlands

What a week!

I had a great time visiting lots of amazing architecture in western Germany and the Netherlands. I am about to take off for my 2nd leg of travel in Rome and Florence... followed by Zurich, Munich and Berlin for the remaining 2 weeks.

Here is a quick overview. You can see pictures of the various buildings I visited here:

Western Germany - http://picasaweb.google.com/steve04/BestOfGermanyStudyTour#
The Netherlands - http://picasaweb.google.com/steve04/BestOfNetherlandsStudyTour#


Sunday - Drove from Dusseldorf from Copenhagen. We stopped for a couple hours in Hamburg to see some buildings there. Hamburg is a very beautiful city, and I am hoping to go back at some point.

Monday - Visited museums in Neuss and Cologne in Germany. Lots of great architecture.

Tuesday - visited industrial redevelopment buildings in Essen, Germany. Drove to Rotterdam that night.

Wednesday - Tour of Rotterdam, saw a couple museums and other major buildings in Rotterdam

Thursday - Amsterdam! Amazingly beautiful city. Midday was spent on a bike tour of the harbor development with lots of new interesting architecture. Spent the evening walking around Amsterdam.

Friday - Utrecht. Another great Dutch city. I saw one of my favorite buildings in the world called the Educatorium by Rem Koolhaas at Utrecht University. Also went to an exotic car dealer which was amazing. Great day. After dinner we drove through the night back to Copenhagen.

Saturday - packing for my travels in Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

Sunday - Flying to Rome! stay posted.

here are a couple pics just to get you started.

Off Traveling Europe!

Its been a busy couple weeks. This last week I had to finish and present a design for a row house as well as take a couple tests. This is because the school is taking a 3 week break from classes for traveling. woo hoo!

Week 1: (Oct 12-18) Architecture Tour with school of Western Germany and The Netherlands. I will be going to see Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht. I am very excited to see all the architecture in these cities.

Week 2: (Oct 19-25) Rome and Florence! I am going on an optional tour of the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. I am super excited to finally see all of these iconic and extremely influential and beautiful buildings, paintings and sculpture. The Coloseum, The Pantheon, St. Peters, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's David, Boticelli's Primavera, Il Duomo in Florence, and much much more.

Week 3: (Oct 26-Nov2) I will be traveling on my own for the last week of the break. Starting in Florence, I will use the rail pass I bought to go back to Copenhagen through 3 amazing cities: Zurich, Munich and Berlin. I am planning to meet up with another DIS student in Zurich and spend a couple days with him in Switzerland. Switz. is an extremely beautiful county nestled in the Alps. I am very excited to experience the breathtaking landscapes. After Zurich I will take a train into Germany and spend a few days in Munich. Munich is an amazing city full of Museums, other architectural attractions and of course... the heartland of German beer. I very excited to see my favorite brewery: Spaten as well as the famous Hofbrau Haus. There also many interesting museums I want to see such as the BMW museum. After Munich, I will head north on a train to Berlin. Berlin is a huge city with a large variety of Museums and cool architecture, and has been one of the cities I am most excited to see.

I am planning on taking as many night trains in between cities as I can and stay in youth hostels in each city. It will certainly be a big adventure as this is my first time traveling Europe on my own. Prayers for safety, wisdom, and health are much appreciated.

Wow.... what a trip... and it all begins this morning... so now that I am mostly packed... I need to get to sleep as I am catching the bus ride to Germany early in the morning... *yawn.

Until my next post chronicling my amazing adventures, I will leave you with some renderings of the row house in Copenhagen I designed. I really enjoyed working on this project and am fairly pleased with how it turned out. Enjoy.

Front street facing facade:


Inside, 2nd floor:


Rear facade:


Natural daylighting diagram:

those pictures I promised...

Pictures from my Tour of Western Demmark

You can see more pictures from Western Denmark here
http://picasaweb.google.com/steve04/BestOfWesternDenmarkPics#




Hellige Kors Church


Utzon Center


Utzon Center


Alvar Aalto's Museum in Aalborg


Alvar Aalto's museum interior. Amazing use of diffused daylight


At the top of Arhus Townhall Bell tower


Arhus Council Chamber Hellige Kors Kirke


Arhus University Utzon Center


Koldinghus Castle


Koldinghus Castle


View from castle tower



AROS museum



Arhus Radhus bell tower


"Boy" in AROS Museum


AROS museum interior