I'll start with our north field trip to Switzerland!
We traveled by train starting in rome changing trains in Milan than off to Zurich Switzerland. It was a very long ride around 8 hours, but worth ever minute while we were coasting through the swiss alps. Absolutely breathtaking views of snow topped mountains and waterfalls spilling out from the cliffs.
Upon arriving in Zurich our first stop was a Graphic Design Poster Gallery, where we got to see works top swiss designers. Our guide then took us down into the archives where they house the entire collection and let us see an original Art Nouveau Mucha Poster close up. For a graphic designer this was incredible, spine tingling. It would pry be the equivilant of catching a homerun ball from your favorite player or something lol.
After the museum we checked into our hostel which was quite far away from the city center but very nice, and modern. The rest of the night was on our own so we went out to find some food later... finding out zurich is very expensive, talking 30-80 franks for a meal... the cheapest we could find and had to settle for was a tiny italian restaurant where we found pizza for 15 something we would have only payed 8 for in rome...
The next day we were off to Basel, another hour and a half train ride. Basel, was much prettier and more of a small town feel. It borders both france and germany so when we were there it was only about a 20 minute car ride to either country. Once again our hostel was veryyy nice, clean and great breakfast so sneak lunch from! Exploring Basel there was a carnival around every corner. Fair rides and food stands lined all the main squares and parks. It was a very fun cultural atmosphere. It reminded me alot of Prague but not quite as bohemian. While here we visited the Vitra design museum, crossing over the germany line. A lot of the building on the complex being done by Frand O.Gehry were works of art themselves. We took an architectural tour of the facilities, then got to spend a couple of hours inside the vitra show room. Vitra is a high end furniture line, that focuses alot on the design aspects of their pieces. Many of the pieces inside the museum art collector pieces done by famous industrial designers. It was an incredible space and must see for anyone interested in interior design or any design at all really!
In Basel we also visited an old fashioned paper mill where they still do all production and decoration by hand. We got to make our own paper starting with shifting the particles throught the water. We also got to see how print making worked and marbalize paper.
Switzerland was a great place to observe and see for graphic design. Their cities wayfinding and signs are great design examples. Home of the clean swiss design style and bold typography.
inside the vitra store house
frank o gehry architecture at vitra complex
eating curry wurst at the festivals in basel
mucha poster up close
our hostel nicer than some hotels i've stayed in!
the girls in the leaves. beautiful fall weather when we were there!
making paper at the paper meal
AMSTERDAM
beautiful train ride back through the Alps to Milan then Milan airport straight to Amsterdam.
We took a train from the airport to centrale station looks dark and lively and the canal streets look beautiful even at night! Got to our hotel its cheap, near everything, small but decently clean.
Set our bags down then walked the red light district, not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. But yes prostitutes everywhere. Met a fun group of people from Brown, studying abroad and hung out with them the rest of the night.
Morning delicious Pancake Breakfast at Sara's Pancake House. Met up with natalie and simon a girl in our major and her boyfriend. Went to the museum district and looked around, tried to see the modern art museum but it was underconstruction with only one small exhibit up. In the afternoon we visited the Ann Frank house. Great Experience very sad, but saw the space where the frank family hid and her actually diaries.
statue of anne frank in front of the house
amsterdam pier
No comments:
Post a Comment