East London (Parle-G wreaks havoc in the UK, Part I)

 Welcome to London! For the first time in just under 3 months, we would be in a country in which our native language is the same as the dominant one of the land. So we were pretty excited. We had a wonderful conversation with a fellow on the easyjet plane who offered us all kinds of fun tidbits about the city. We took a bus from Luton airport to a more centric area of the city. But while waiting for it to depart, we had the pleasure of eavesdropping on a conversation between the bus drivers and a British version of Siri. We ate dinner at a pizza hut (The UK is still Europe, but feels much more American than anywhere else.) Then we traveled to our hotel, far removed from anything significant. But on the underground, there was this gang of kids, HS age, who got on and started poking fun at one another. But they did so in a verrrryyy British manner. And it was absolutely hilarious (at least I thought so).
27 MARCH 2014 We didn't really have a strict planned schedule. But since our hotel was east of town, we would check out the 2012 Olympic area. It was a short underground ride on the red line to Stratford. (PLEASE MIND THE GAP BETWEEN THE TRAIN AND THE PLATFORM)

This is the swimming arena, now converted from Olympic to public use. There was a children's swim meet going on inside, a ticketed event, so I don't have any interior photos.

The fluid shaped shell is clad in this wood covering. The abstract form is one that seemed like it was a Zaha Hadid building. And it turns out, we were right! Zaha was here!

We were unable to access the side of the river where the Olympic stadium was due to the renovation of the area from a temporary Olympic park to one that could be used for years to come. But we were able to have a conversation with a worker there. As it turns out he was a fellow architecture student! He pointed out this design feature of the swimming arena. See the steep stepped grass wall,- it was intended to be a 'green' or environmentally friendly aspect to the design. Very all good and happy intention. But in reality it doesn't work. Each steep step of the hill has grass on the side. But unfortunately it is s steep that it does not hold water, and the grass will not survive on its own. They have to put waayyy more energy into keeping that grass alive than if it were just a concrete form. A green idea that isn't really 'green' at all!

Olympic Stadium and crazytower.

Giant mall complex built just north of the swimming arena. It was huge. Totally not Italian sized. Almost too big.

And then there was this new block of hosing apartments. So huge. Zero context. The scale was so big. It was just gynormity. I didn't like it whatsoever.

But despite my criticism of some of the new developments, there were some areas that were pretty darn cool. Like this playground/park, where Forrest, Aaron and myself played a classic game of 'Don't Fall Into the Lava'

Forrest climbed this thing the fun way, by running up the steep side of it. I propped myself up between two of the intersecting planes. Soon many english schoolchildren jumped on our bandwagon. Forrest did it again, showing off his awesome parkour skills, and many of the kids tried to do the same, but were quite unsuccessful.

Once we decided we had plenty enough fun, we decided to check out the Olympic Velodrome. It was technically closed, set to open next week. It was being reopened as 'Lee Valley Velopark', where one would be able to rent out time on the track.

We went to the front desk and explained that we were architecture students and very interested in stadium architecture. The lady working told us it was not yet open. But she then left and got permission to show us the facility.

We were able to walk all the way around on the concourse.

A very beautiful arena in my opinion.

This non-panorama photo gives a better idea of the roof structure. It is a long shallow curving arch running in the long direction. Between the two grandstands, it hangs kind of like a suspension bridge. The cool part is that they both do it at the same time. It is a very unique and clean form. In fact, this is one of the cleanest-designed arenas/stadiums I have ever seen.

There is the outside of the velodrome. OLYMPICS, YO!

The big Olympic stadium and cawayzee tower, all hazy in the distance.

Can someone please give this guy a gold medal already?

The same worker who we talked to earlier suggested we go to this restaurant across the river. This area had a much different feel, despite close proximity to the Olympic park.

I would describe it as a hipster paradise, Essentially it was an old industrial area, but many of the old warehouses, garages and other buildings were converted into new and unique urban living. Of course there was a plethora of cool and unique artwork all over the place.

Murals everywhere!

The place we were directed to was this pizza shop/microbrewery. The pizza was made from scratch and wood fired. The beer was also brewed in house. Both were exceptionally good. The crowd/staff there seemed very friendly too.

This was the entrance to the shop. You had to go down the steps from where the bridge was and their location was right along the river.

As we left there and were walking to the overground station, I had to get a picture of this colorful building. Bonus points for the photo shoot going on in the bottom right area.

This is that area as seen from the overground station. From there we would make our way all the way to the other side of London to make a horrible attempt to go to our scheduled tour at the Harry Potter Warner Bros studios. Unfortunately here, we would learn how big this city really is.

Amsterdam

24 MARCH 2014 - Arrival in the Netherlands from Innsbruck. Looking out the airplane window is the city of Eindhoven, which was the RyanAir destination in the Netherlands. From Eindhoven, we would take a train to Amsterdam.

This is the central train station in Amsterdam. On a map, Amsterdam looks like an amphitheater. It is a city with several semicircular belts that wrap around a central area, with water to the north keeping it from being a full circle. The station is located in the north of that central area near the water. As we wondered into that central part of the city, it became apparent that we happened to wonder straight into the red light district, the commercial area of questionable morality. Before I arrived in Amsterdam, I was aware of the district, but was not aware of its location in the city. I expected it to be tucked off to the side somewhere. Nope. It is the dead center of the city. All these semicircular rings wrap around this district, making it on map look like the beating heart of the city.
Our original hostel was supposed to be outside of the city, and our plan was to travel into the city each day we would be there. But it just so happened that POTUS Mr.Barack Obama decided to travel to the Netherlands ON THE EXACT SAME DAYS WE WERE THERE. And he happened to pick the same area to stay as we did. Now due to that, our planned transportation system had to be reworked. We canceled that hostel and I was in charge of booking a new one. I picked a really cheap one that advertised themselves as a christian hostel and their location was pretty close to the city center. The irony hit me when we actually arrived, that a christian hostel would be located next to a world famous capitol of sin. I was able to talk to some of the people who worked there. They all loved the city (as I would also do), but it was so clear that they were sad, almost shamefully sad that their city was known for their red light district.

Regardless, we decided that after all that travel that we needed to find a bite to eat. We found a discount coupon for a place in our hostel and looked up the location on one of our phones. And the route took us into other parts of the city. And it was beautiful and peaceful. Amsterdam is incredibly unique. Canals served as the main landmark, with streets on either side, then a bike bath and sidewalks on either side of the street, all lined with beautiful canal houses.

Unfortunately, the GPS took us nowhere near to where our restaurant was, but at least we had a great evening of wondering around this beautiful city at night. (I was still hobbling around from my skiing mishap in Innsbruck but it was slowly getting better for me to walk a kilometer or two.)

25 MARCH 2014 - Before we left Florence I sent a message to Eric Asp, who is a pastor at h2o Church at Kent State, which has served as my church home for my time in Ohio. But Eric spent a good chunk of his life planting a church here in Amsterdam. Much of what took place on this day were suggestions from him. (link to his website/blog which is usually pretty interesting/insightful: http://www.ericasp.com/) (Thanks for the suggestions if you happen to read this!)

Our first stop on the morning was the 'Openbare Bibliotheek', the city's library. It is a very modern design and was fun to move around in, especially for us architecture geeks.

The Nemo Science Center across the way, designed by Renzo Piano. (Similar shell concept as Parco Della Musica in Rome.)

This is the outside of the library. The exterior is just about as cool as the interior.

Side note: Bikes.
Main idea: bikes.
Tangent idea: bIkEs. there were alot of them.
So we rented bikes this day. it was really cheap, and it allowed us to experience the city like the locals do.

We rode out along the Amstel River, away from the center of the city. Since we were riding and experiencing the city in that way, I didn't take nearly as many photographs as I would have if we were were walking. But we stopped at a few places. This area had this beautiful old windmill and a statue of Rembrandt. This city really seemed to love Rembrandt.

Our destination was a small town about 12km south of the city called 'Ouderkerk aan de Amstel'

 

This is a shot of my view when I looked down. Now in Italy, I had grown used to my light weight cromoly steel road bike with vintage campagnolo nuovo record components, that was made for zipping through the hills of the Chianti... This was quite a change. It is sort of like going from a Ferrari to a minivan. Super durable, bikes of Amsterdam are built like tanks and insanely optimized for simplicity in getting around. Fenders, racks, chain guards keep the drivetrain out of the weather. The riding position was also incredibly relaxed, so much so that it almost felt wrong, coming from my aggressive road riding positions. The brakes were achieved by pedaling backward, something I was not used to at all. It made for some awkward attempts at mounting/dismounting at stops. I never really figured out a good way. (I am used to stopping with my hands, then kicking my pedal around backwards to get my pedals in a good starting position. But here I had to remember to engage the brakes in the same pedal position I wanted to start on.)

The ride was certainly relaxing. It felt so nice just cruising for fun along the road/path with gorgeous and charming Dutch scenery.

River barges were a common sight.

There were some really nice house-boats along the bank of the river as well.

Wouldn't that be a fantastic place to live?

Our next stop back towards the center of Amsterdam was the 'Albert Cuypmarkt'. It had a similar feeling as the San Lorenzo market in Florence, with many tent lining the streets. Except it was a different experience. In Florence, if you even glance at a jacket, the salesman will come up to you and instantly try to push you to buy something. At this market, we were free to browse as we felt. Only once did a salesman come and try to pitch us to buy something. But that was after I had given a hard look at a jacket and had pointed to Aaron that I liked its style. Even still, the guy was incredibly friendly, which brings me to my next point. Amsterdam is incredibly friendly, perhaps the friendliest group of people we experienced in a European city.
Side note: pictured above is a 'Stroopwafel', a local specialty. Essentially two thin waffles freshly cooked with Dutch syrup in the middle. (The syrup has an incredibly thick viscosity and sweetness.)

Next was the famous 'I amsterdam' sign. Forrest had to climb the mist difficult letter, the 'I".

Then we went for a nice relaxing ride in Vondelpark. Some of the paths actually felt like a bicycle highway system. There was this one tree that we just had to stop and try to climb. Forrest was successful. Aaron and I tried and failed.

This tree was a little bit more climbable for us non-parkour experts. Above, is the bike path. They didn't stop coming at all. It was like a constant stream of them. They are definitely the city's main mode of transport.

This is another landscape/cityscape on the edge of Vondelpark. Very Beautiful.

Next we rode north, but keeping to the western canals. Amsterdam was abundant in beautiful scenery.

This is a parking garage - for bicycles. Insane. We went past the central station to make our way back to the hostel where we would park our bikes overnight. (We didn't want to ride at night, even though the bikes were rigged with lights to do so.)

Noteworthy of mention are the city's abundance of 'coffeeshops'. No, they do not sell coffee. They sell reefer. It is legal there. (I didn't participate, I know many may scold me for missing such an opportunity to legally use cannabis, but keep in mind that I had just blown way too much money learning to ski in Innsbruck. I didn't feel like blowing additional money on weed.)

Gandalf. You shall not pass, heuhhehhehheh!...

The Renzo Piano building again. The reason we were out here was to find this black light mini golf place we were reading about online. But it was closed.

Then we tried to find this bowling place that we found online. They were booked full, so no go.

26 MARCH 2014 - It was our last day in Amsterdam. Our only goal was to see the 'Concertgebouw' which is a very famous concert hall, supposed to have some of the best acoustics in the world. But we had returned our bikes early in the morning, so we walked instead.

Rembrandt and soldiers. This was a pretty cool plaza.

Some of the soldiers had some pretty amusing looks on their faces.

Unfortunately it started to rain. We took refuge in the lobby of the Heineken factory while the worst passed.

Then we continued on our way. This is the inside of the building in the background of the 'I amsterdam' sign.

I amsterdam

This whole park was called the 'Museumplein'. As its name alludes, there are many museums in the area. Some of them were quite modern and/or looked like a floating bathtub/spaceship.

Concertgebouw. Every Wednesday they have a free concert. It was Wednesday, and the line to get in wrapped all the way around the building. The place was packed. It seemed like it was a pretty popular thing to do. The performers came out in street clothes and performed one piece, about a half an hour long. The acoustics of the hall were indeed incredible. If I recall, the piece of music was arranged to feature a cello soloist. It was very enjoyable. On a side note, at one point I really started to feel drowsy. But I also noticed everyone around me seemed to be feeling the same way. I am assuming that since the place was packed, we all sucked all the oxygen out of the room, causing us all to start to nod off. Acoustics, check! Ventilation/fresh air, not check. See what us architects will have to deal with?

Concertgebouw from the outside, viewed from this awesome sloping occupy able greenroof. (There were many children playing on it.

Bathtub/spaceship museum.

A very typical view of Amsterdam. Canals. Bike lanes. Canal houses.

I am really curious about the functionality of this bike, but it looks super cool!!!

Here is a nifty pancake restaurant we stopped at before we caught our train to the airport. They put dutch syrup and powdered sugar out on the table. That was a bad idea. I am way too immature for that...

And afterwards we took a train to Amsterdam's airport, where we would take an easyjet flight to London.