This week started with us working furiously to finish our first project for studio that was due on Thursday. However, Wednesday we got a bit of a break with our weekly seminar trip around the city. We visited a couple places not anywhere near the normal tourist path.
random sculpture
another church
then this chapel was built it was in the middle of nowhere! oh how cities grow...
some cool architecture
gaudi streetlamp
another church near the river
old train station - the city is trying to get rid of it
some mechanical stuff for the trains? i think...
this is a little village near the river. the city is making all of the tenants leave and is placing them in new high rise condos. some are happy, some are not. it was a really cute little place too so i think it is sad to see it go. it will just look like another part of the city when they're done.
erin turned 21!
On Thursday night we boarded a night train with our class to Madrid and Toledo for a few days. The night train was interesting. We had 6 beds in a room with 3 on each wall and a tiny aisle in between. Definitely not any room to anything but sleep...which is what we did! We did get to hang in the dining car for a bit first though. Kind of crazy waking up in the morning and instantly moving and touring though but Madrid was fantastic! It was at a much larger scale than Barcelona. The streets were wider, the buildings bigger. It felt much more safe too when compared to Barcelona. However, it doesn't have a beach so Barcelona would still take the cake I think. Our first walk through the city was down a large boulevard with giant buildings (banks, libraries, government buildings). We then walked down the main road with all of the museums on it.
on the train
they had seatbelts to keep you from falling out of bed but they were also gave us quite a recreational activity! beca had fun....
plaza mayor
the cow art was visiting
cool, random statue
inside the cathedral, it actually was only finished 15 years ago! but even though it wasn't old, it was still gorgeous, i loved the colors!
some views from the street
this cow reminds me of bethany cause it's black and white :)
museo del prado
you could walk on the roof! beca's crazy for heights
sculptural door
caixa forum and the veritcal garden!
tired tourists
museo nacional centro de arte reina sofia
the downtown area
we visited studio banana - a multidirectional artsy firm
That night we got all dolled up to go out - we saw flamenco! It was amazing! I am amazed at how fast their feet move.
our rooms were weird and the ceilings slanted really low!
flamenco!
the next day we got up and started walking again! one of the first things we came across was large group of chinese awaiting the see the president of china leave his hotel!
more views from the street
on the bus
futbol!
more buildings
We visited Matedero Madrid - which is in an old slaughterhouse (scary cow ghosts....) but it is now in the process of becoming a multiuse facility for artists/architects/fashion design/film....basically everything creative. it has facilities for exhibitions but it's mainly for people to come and work...it was very, very cool!
cool wine rack
cool coffee table
the couches were made out of paper!
they had a 6 team competition type thing were different firms (one being studio banana) had 8 days to develop models/concepts of utopias - here are some of the works
model of horizontal skyscrapers
you cna't have utopia without first destroying
we visited a cool part of town that is under development - it was one of the villages that had been eaten up by madrid when the city grew - very cool architecture!
they had artificial garden things that produced cool areas for hot summer days and also collected solar energy!
more cool architecture
swings!
solar powered wind tunnel to create breezy spots in the summer - it had the gardens inside as well
neat wall art
We spent our last day of the trip in Toledo. The start of the trip was actually miserable! It was freezing and raining. The water got in my shoes too so I spent the day walking around with wet, cold feet. We tried to go in as many buildings as possible to escape the elements. However, the views we saw were nice. Midday we took a break for lunch and I had to best meal I've had yet! I had a shrimp and cuddlefish brochette and a brownie with ice cream for dessert - fantastic! After lunch the weather had cleared up and we were able to enjoy the rest of our walk! We saw a more residential part of town and then walked back across the city wall to the train station where we saw the most gorgeous view yet - breathtaking!
so wet
and cold
views of the town
a cloister
toledo has a very specifc type of concrete and color
gorgeous! this isn't even the best view area
more views of the town
at our fancy lunch!
yet more gorgeous views
they had this giant system of escalators for mass transit - interesting idea! apparently it worked very well and the number of cars on the road was reduced dramatically
a sculpture - the people of the city are angry because the government allows the area as a parking lot and the sculpture was not well taken care of
walking through the wall
the walk to the train station
beautiful
the hillside
i loved toledo!
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