Our trip started with us meeting at the airport here in Barcelona at a fabulous 4:15 in the morning....joy! But we made it and then hopped on a plane (after me almost losing my passport at the airport...scariest 10 minutes of my trip yet). We arrived to the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam and boarding a bus to being our touring right away. This reminded me of what we did in Italy when we first arrived in Milan, much better though since I hadn't been up for 36 hours straight, still not very fun though. We began our tour in Utrecht. We walked around the town a bit - adorable! I decided that if I were to ever live in Europe it would be in Holland. After the white house tour, including Utrecht's Dom Church, we had a tour guide show us around their town hall which was designed by Enric Miralles. It was a very very cool building both inside and out!
this is for my papa!
one third of holland is water - crazy! is it going to disappear when the ice caps melt since it's at or below sea level?
the dutch are slapping specialists - don't mess with them!
adorable town!
the dom church
the town hall
cool fountain
interiors of the town hall
miralles decided to keep the original ceiling and just put a false one made of beams below it
view from a window inside
schroder house!! to an arch major this is a pretty big deal - designed by gerrit rietveld after a mondrian painting
university building designed by rem koolhaas - all the titles of rooms and buildings make them sounds ultra important (educatorium, etc...)
other cool buildings on the campus
library time
that red stuff is all foam!
tree atrium
cool courtyard
more interesting architecture
The day we ventured to the cities of The Hague and Delft. The Hague is the main political center of The Netherlands whereas Delft is quite a small town famous for their blue and white hand painted pottery or 'Delftware.' What I remember most about The Hague are the crazy sculptures that line all the streets. Some were very cool! Some were just strange...
We also saw a giant Richard Meier building and the auditorium where The Netherland Dance Company performs.
pick it beca!
oh richard meier and your whiteness
the theater
more sculptures
other buildings
girl with the pearl earring
We headed up - or down (not sure about my geography) to Delft and toured this very cool building on its University campus. We then visited the offices of the designers which was neat. They actually beat out some pretty huge names on a project they were showing us...impressive!
yet another cute town
reminds me of star wars
very green
coolest library i've seen yet
other buildings on campus
this is their TEMPORARY architecture building - and it's way nicer than our permanent one - fair? i think not.
more of the town
office visit - look at that detail in their site models! intimidating...
cool desk
The next day we had a free day in Amsterdam. When we arrived we immediately went and got in line at the Anne Frank House since we knew that would have the longest wait. It really wasn't too bad, probably about an hour and even though it was raining and everyone else was freezing - I didn't think it was too cold. Walking through the place where her family hid during the war was just amazing. So surreal to be standing right there. They had quotes from her diary all over the walls and pretty much used it to narrate the entire visit. It was very well done. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the house but I was sure to get some postcards showing what I saw. My favorite is the bookshelf covering the doorway - secret passages are so intriguing. After the Anne Frank we went and bought some Stroopwafles from the store - these delicious caramel filled cookies that are all over Holland. They even pass them out on the plane. Then after grabbing some yummy bagels for lunch, Erin, Jeff and I headed to the Heineken Experience to see how the beer is brewed. Though I'm not sure it was worth the 15 euro, we did get 2 free drinks so that was a plus. They didn't lie about it being an experience though. I honestly felt as if I were being brainwashed the entire time. There was a room surrounded by screens all playing different images from Heineken commercials with some intense music. True brainwashing was at work here...makes you feel like the only way to have as good of a time as the people you see is to drink an ice cold brew which...low and behold! they sell in the next room! look at that! After the Heineken Experience we went to the Van Gogh Museum where they were having a special night-themed exhibit and thus had on loan this famous 'Stary Night.' It was beautiful! His other work was great as well of course. I especially enjoyed looking at his poetry transcriptions. His handwriting is impecable! I loved it. After our late dinner we headed back to Rotterdam.
rain!
we found dr pepper!
anne frank's house
soooo many bikes in holland! it's amazing
beer!
the ingredients
the process
i was brewed
the brainwashing...
the bottling
the enjoyment
i kicked his butt
because of all the water causing instability - all the houses are crooked
are you amsterdam?
the van gogh museum
Though we had been staying the night in Rotterdam, we had yet to see past the 2 streets surrounding our hotel so on Saturday our loyal tour guide took us around the town. We started walking and kept walking and kept walking took a tram and then kept walking....my feet really love me right now. We did have a guided tour through Kunsthal Museum by Rem Koolhaas which was really cool actually! I wish we would have had more time to just explore the museum on our own though. I think alot of us feel that way about many of the places we visit - just not enough free time. We also went to but didn't get enough time at the Netherlands' Institute of Architecture. We did have a good tour of the Van Nelle factory. They used to produce coffee and tea and are still working with tobacoo. Unfortunately, I dropped my camera and it managed to not save all my photos and I lost all my photos from the tour...I will try and steal some from others and post them eventually. Sadness...but it was my own fault.
some buildings we passed by
sweet bridge - not as good as calatrava's though
kunsthal
the museum had a really nice outdoor area as well
the interior
there was a camel on the roof!
very cool auditorium
there was a roman exhibit going on
interesting...
i like the see through floors
it has a roof garden - they closed it off though...shame.
fashion exhibit! i would actually wear some of this stuff
very moving photographs - some of the best of the war i've seen
netherlands institute of architecture
christmas gift?! it's amazing...
we passed by this thing every time we went to the train station
we entered this square that had music playing and i felt like i was at disney world
muscles! no one would eat them with me though :(
the cube houses!! very exciting
other cool buildings
kyle field ramp anyone?
project by the same firm who did the crazy circular library
looks like a robot
world war ii monument
cool bridge
cool building
Hilversum was our location of choice the next day. The town itself is the smallest we've been to yet but it apparently is the 'Hollywood' of The Netherlands. We had a great tour of the very, very cool VPRO station offices. This was another set of photos my camera decided to lose however, so again, I will try and steal some because it had sooo many cool features in it. I'm so sad I lost them...After that we had a lunch break and then toured the town hall designed by Willem Marinus Dudok who apparently is a very big deal in The Netherlands and though I had never heard of him, he's supposeably a big name everywhere...
neat embedded building
adorable dutch houses
flowers!
the town hall
the stairs to the tower...
the bells
the view of hilversum
we saw the clemson kids down below!
oh holland!
Our final day in Holland was spent again in Amsterdam, this time touring with our group. We started out at another very cool library, then took a walk along the water to see some apartment homes and then we took a tram to Silodam - apartments constructed on the water, each with a different facade and though we didn't get inside, they apparently have a very cool interior. I was exhausted by the end of the walk and didn't get any pictures of Silodam - I heard the interiors are much cooler than the exterior anyways.
amsterdam bibliotheek
view from the top
on the walk down the port
the whale by frits van dongen
shoes on the door on an apartment building
finally a beautiful day in holland!
cool bridge
impressive housing
a boat
more housing
crazy bikers
And that's my trip! We left that night for Barcelona. I'll miss those Stroopwafles :)
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