23 Days of Travel Part 2: London and Amsterdam edition

The 28th of December Ryan and I had to woke up early to get to London. The flight we ended up taking gave us a 3-hour layover in Geneva, Switzerland. When arriving to Switzerland the view of the Mountains was unbelievable. The Swiss Alps enclose all of Switzerland making it seem like the mountains are endlessly surrounding you when you arrive and take off. While on the flight Ryan told me an interesting fact about the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Alps are rigged with explosives, so if there are any Wars Switzerland can blow up all the tunnels in the mountains and make it nearly impossible for anyone to get into Switzerland in a war time crisis by land.

If you have the chance to have a layover or even visit Switzerland I recommend it. I don’t only recommend it because the overhead view of Switzerland is one of the best, but because the Swiss airlines are the best airlines I have ever been on. The seats were farther apart and larger than any airline, you automatically got a delicious Swiss pretzel bagel and chocolate, and the children on the flight all got a plush airplane that was absolutely adorable.

I would say that you need to save up a lot of money to spend a long time in Switzerland. The airport was extremely expensive and all the adds lining the airport were either for watches, knifes, diamonds, or Swiss banks.

I thank Switzerland for making this part of Ryan and I’s journey to England pleasurable, because when we arrived at London we were greeting by a very Rude awakening.

Being in Spain I have never had to go through customs other than when first arriving because I have only been traveling in countries apart of the Europeans Union. The customs in Barcelona are very painless, but coming to England we had to go through customs again considering the United Kingdom is not a part of the European Union. Going through customs in London was one the worst experience I have had with Europe by far. We had to wait in a line that was 3 hours long. When getting to the front of the line we were told we were supposed to be given a form on our flight that we were supposed to fill out when coming to London. Since Ryan and I speak English the Swizz airlines flight attendants did not give us that form, and we did not know to ask for it. If you are from America or England you may be thinking that the accents are totally different so how did they get you confused? Well, I have been asked if I am from England in more than four countries now. I think the only country people automatically knew I was not English was when I was in England.

Back to the line though, we found some forms near the front and started to fill them out until a man working the customs line yelled at us for not having them filled out before and then said it’s like you people don’t even speak English when we spoke English 100 times better than he did. Then he almost made us move to the back of the line to wait another 3 hours, but we ended up filling out the forms fast enough.

I told a couple of friends from my program about our rude experience going through customs. One of my friends is not from America, but goes to the University of Illinois with me. He told me that if I was not an American citizen that going through customs in the United States can be a very similar experience, which was sad to here. After going through customs, we took an Uber to our hotel, and the day ended up being a 12 hour travel day.

The next day we woke up and tried to find a way to get downtown so we could get to the Harry Potter walking tour I had scheduled, but unfortunately my Spanish phone plan stopped working when I got to England, and did not work for the rest of the trip so I could only access data when on wifi. We ended up missing the walking tour, but it was the only thing we missed out of the million things I scheduled so it was not that big of a deal and it was not expensive.

Considering we missed the walking tour we decided to head on the British museum. I was very excited to go considering I already knew that the British museum housed the frieze on the Parthenon, and the fact that the British Museum still has the frieze when Greece has asked for it back is very well debated. Front of the British Museum is below. Designed in a neoclassical style on the exterior and parts of the interior, but with a very modern translucent roof.

In my sophomore year archaeology class, I first learned about the British taking the Parthenon frieze and parts of the pediment sculptures on the Parthenon from Greece to keep it safe during times of hardship. Greece has come a long way since then, and has asked the British Museum for the Parthenon Frieze back. The first time they asked the British museum said no. They said they could do a better job at keeping it safe and house it in a better museum. They also told Greece that if they designed a better place to house the Parthenon Frieze that they could have it back…. And so they did! If you have read my early blog post you know I have been to Athens, and I went to the Acropolis Museum that was perfectly designed by Bernard Tschumi.

Now having been to both museums, below is my arguments to why Athens deserves the Parthenon Frieze and does not.

From a design point of view. The museum in Athens was designed specifically for the frieze. Something very evident from visiting. The museum in Athens has the fake frieze on the top floor. The entire room is surrounded by horizontal windows with ceramic frit and shading devices to allow you to have a beautiful view of Athens any time of day. Outside one wall of windows you can see that the top floor is situated at the exact same angle as the acropolis right outside the window. (Below is a pictured from the Athens Museum and then under it is the British museum to further help explain design differences.)

In the British museum, the room that houses the acropolis frieze is square and spacious, but it is also very dark. It may allow you to view the frieze, but the museum in Athens has much better natural lighting. Plus, the Acropolis museum allows you to look at the acropolis and the frieze at the same time. Which is very extraordinary.

(Below you can see images of the same area the same pediment sculptures are houses in. The fake one in Athens in the first image below is much easier to see with all the natural light and openness from the windows in the space.)

When you entered the Parthenon room in London they do something very strange. They give you a pamphlet explaining why they have the work. In my opinion, if you already apologize before someone says anything you know you are doing something wrong. The British museum states its case in the pamphlet saying that the reason they have this piece of work is to bring culture to the rest of the world that would not have the opportunity to see it in Athens. I do think that this is a very valid argument, but the problem for me is that this piece of works means a lot to the Greeks. The entire city of Athens is made of the idea that they are Greek. When gaining their independence, they got rid of almost all Roman influences and focused themselves back to the time when they were independent and the Acropolis was at its full glory. This piece of work means so much to their culture and the idea of the full collection together in its birthplace is great.

If the British museum did give back the Parthenon frieze they would have a very large empty room, but they could fill that with the overcrowded Greek sculptures they have in other rooms of the museum. The other main problem that would arise if the British Museum did give it back would be that other countries may ask for other works back as well. The British museum is extensive and has works from Africa, Asia, Europe, and all over the world. The only thing they don’t really cover is the United States from the Revolutionary war and onward, but I think we all know why that is. I don’t want to see the British museum, or any culturally diverse museum with just works from the area because people should learn about other cultures and many not be able to travel.

Overall, from a design point of view Athens should be given the Parthenon Frieze. They were told if they built a better place for it they would get it back, but this promise was broken when a better place was built. From a cultural stance, I do think that Britain makes a good case in the fact they want the rest of the world to be able to learn about Greek culture, but then they should have never promised it to Greece in the first place when Greece has asked for it back so many times and it means I great deal to the people.

Other than the Parthenon frieze, another cool item housed in this museum is the Rosetta Stone! Without this we could still be in wonder of what certain hieroglyphics mean.

Another piece of work I really liked in the Museum was the beautiful pottery work of a Japanese artist, Hitomi Hosono.

After the British museum, Ryan and I walked over the Holiday market down by the London Eye. The line for the Eye was very long even if you book ahead of time, so we did not go up inside. The area by the eye is very interesting. Many nice restaurants surround the area, along with an impromptu skateboard park.

The next day in London we took a tour to the Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the city of Baths. The castle was our first stop, and very beautiful. Though I think the one in Carcassonne is better. The interesting thing about the Windsor Castle is that the Queen of England grew up here, and still spends every weekend here were she starts her day horseback riding.

Going to Stonehenge our buss took us through the Salisbury Plains. Don’t let my pictures fool you, Stonehenge was full of tourist. Preservationist are trying to bring the monument back to its full peaceful state, and soon get the nearby road removed from the area so one road can take you hear. It is still a mystery what Stonehenge was used for, but archaeologist have discovered hundreds on human remains and ashes. They also know the rocks line up with the sun, and that there was originally more rocks to mark the entrance way. This brings us to the conclusion that like most old places this was probably some kind of religious place. As an architecture student it is incredible that they were able to built something like this so long ago with the materials they had. They would have had to use the man power from a majority of the population in the area, and this place being here shows that a large population lived near here thousands of years ago.

The city of Bath was a very beautiful little city, but just coming from Rome the Baths were not that impressive to us. The only original roman thing in the baths is the slippery marble floor, and the rest is all reconstructed with Roman and English influence. We did go to a pub in Baths before getting back on the bus to London, and that was a lot of fun.

New Year’s Eve in London. Ryan and I woke up and picked up our tickets to see the Fireworks in Trafalgar Square. I had to reserve these months in advance but they only cost 10 pounds each. After that Ryan and I went to a cute little restaurant where I had one of my favorite meals in London. It was similar to an Eggs Benedict in the fact it had a pouched egg and hollandaise sauce. It then had haddock and a bed a mash potatoes with veggies under it. They called the potatoes with veggies, bubble and squeak.

Next, we headed over to see Buckingham Palace. After that we strolled along looking at the Parliament buildings, and tried to see Big Ben. Sadly, big bed is covered in Scaffolding being restored. Needless to say, I was very disappointed.

We headed back to the hotel early to get ready to go to the fireworks in the freezing cold. We got there 3 hours early, and about an hour we were packing into our area like sardines. We stood next to a few nice couples. One couple told us this was on their bucket list to see the London fireworks. We all talked about how this was a once in a lifetime experience, but only because this is something no one in their right mind would want to do again! It was cold, and we waited for 3 hours to see a 12-minute firework show. Yes, the fireworks were amazing and the best I have ever seen, but I would have much rather watched them from a warmer place where I didn’t have to stand. All and all I had a fun time though and it was a cool experience.

The next day Ryan and I went to the London Shard. We decided that the line here would be better than the London Eye, and we were correct! Plus, the view is over double the height. The London Eye stands at 443 feet, while the Shard 1016 feet. As an architecture student, this experience was much more enjoyable. From the viewing decks we could see all of London. The building is extremely elegant, and the top floor was open to the sky. You can really learn a lot from the top floor and seeing all the different layers of the façade come together. This building was designed by Architect Renzo Piano. I have seen many of his works and would have to say that the shard further shows how great of an Architect he is.

After the Shard Ryan and I walked around the area to see the tower of London and then the tower bridge. This was overall one of my favorite days in London, not only because of the Shard but because it was the only day we saw any sun in England.

The next day Ryan and I headed on a train to Amsterdam. We had a quick stop in Brussels to switch trains. We spend about 5 hours on the trains, but those 5 hours were much more enjoyable that a 2-hour plane ride that we would have had to go to the busy airport 2 hours early for.

First day in Amsterdam we went to the Van Gogh Museum. I really enjoy museums that house a single collect of artist work. It allows you to really learn in-depth about why this artist was so important. His impressionist paintings are so soft with the short brushstrokes and colors beautiful to eye. His work is very easy to look and in my opinion, is work that looks like a lot of people can understand at first glance, but we never really knew what exactly was going on in Van Gogh head. Vincent Van Gogh suffered from severe depression during his very short life where he painted at least one painting every day of his life. He was in a mental hospital for a point and time and killed himself short after. His brother wife is the one that sold most of his work and made him the famous artist that we all know the work of today. Starry Night was not in the Museum, but his Sunflowers pictured below were. (I don't have many pictured from the museum because we were really suppose to take any)

We went to the Rijksmuseum after that, but were honestly a little too tired from constant traveling to enjoy more than one museum in a day.

Below is an image of the beautiful library in the museum which was cool to see considering I am designing a library in my studio project this semester so seeing as many as I can is a good thing.

The next day Ryan and acted like actual tourist our age, and went to the Heineken Experience. I learned that Heineken was the first beer to arrive to America after prohibition. They had a shipload over in 3 days ready to be sold in New York City. I also learned more about how the beer was made, enjoyed the interactive exhibits of the first brewery and enjoyed the 2 free beers given to us at the end.

We also went on a boat ride this day. Amsterdam is know for all of the beautiful canals throughout the city.

One of my favorite parts about Amsterdam would have to be that its a very relaxing city and we actually took the time to sit down and eat a lot of food here. I am polish is and it was pleasant surprise to find perogies in Amsterdam! Also great to have dutch pancakes considering Spain is not a place you can find pancakes easily.

The next day Ryan and I got on a train to go to Paris. The next day, January 6th, I started my workshop with 11 other students in my class, my professor, and his wife. Ryan left that morning, and our two weeks traveling together were over. I will see him again when I return to America in May. My next blog post will be about my trip with part of my class in Paris. It will also include many of my sketches from the trip in Paris!