Anyways. So this past weekend we went to Rotterdam and Amsterdam and took a bus tour of some other cities; Utrecht, Delft, and around the country side. It was amazing!! We stayed at these crazy looking hostels in Rotterdam..
So the first day, we had to ride BIKES. I was seriously scared to death that I wouldn't be able to ride (if you know about the infamous "ride bikes home from the bar story" you know why!), but turns out I was ok at it. The bikes were super tall so starting and stopping wasn't super graceful, but my feet didn't even touch the ground!
woo bikes!!
We toured around Rotterdam.. which was pretty cool. Its a unique city in the fact that after WWII, they were so severely bombed, they just wiped the city flat instead of trying to restore it. As a result there are a lot of crazy modern buildings and sometimes you feel like its a cartoon, but somehow, it works.
van nelle factory built in the 1920's (crazy right! looks so modern)
tobacco and coffee factory.. now is rented out to whoever wants it!
old Rotterdam (boat town!)
Amsterdam and Rotterdam were both founded as cities because they were ports.. and are both basically build on top of water
Kunsthal by Koolhaas in Rotterdam
We went to Utrecht on both day 1 and day 2.. first to the old city and to see the Rietveld-Shroder house and museam...
Rietveld-Shroder House. No pictures allowed inside which is such a shame because it is SO COOL. Everything is operable and it just all works so well. Built in the 1920's so it was wayyy ahead of its time.
old city of Utrecht..
its actually above sea level! notice how low the canals are to the houses!
Rietveld's Red-Blue chair
We also visited the University of Utrecht's campus. It was pretty neat.
Koolhaas' Student Center
library.. oooooo. pretty!
We also went into Amsterdam, but only for a few hours. Amsterdam was similar to Rotterdam, but prettier. There was a really cool architectural project there that I liked a lot. A strip of apartments was given to various architects and they were given a set of requirements (have 4 floors, a garden, etc.) and the result is actually quite beautiful. These apartments sell for millions apparently.
this is only half of them.
Overall, the trip was awesome; we got to hang out with some of the French kids in our class too so that was fun. As always, I have tons more photos on facebook so check them out!
Tomorrow morning, Christy, Jack, Zane and I are going to Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland, for the weekend! Super excited about that.
And in 14 days, 23 hours, 41 minutes and 49 seconds I'll be back to the United States! Crazy how fast this semester has gone.
Miss and love everyone and hope everyone had super delicious meals!!!
xoxo,
-A
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