Salzburg.. I have confidence in Sunshine...

Suprise! The reason I have little for Munich is that I spent on of my three days there traveling to and from the birthplace of Mozart and the filmset of the Sound of Music!!

Trivia: Remember this place from the movie? It's actually the Mirrabella Gardens.

(Hint: think Do Re Mi)

It was a really really good day. I was happy to be there. The mountains were beautiful, the sunshine came out for the first time in about a week, and the church bells there (they have so many churches!) sounded exactly like in the movie.



Beautiful View... of a UNESCO world heritage site.



Also, since I was in Austria, there were lots of europeans there for the Euro Cup. Fanzone!

Munchen.. and beer gardens

All I remember about Munich was that there were amazing beer halls. Except that I didn't get any pictures there. I DID, however, get a picture of an interesting beer garden at the Englisher Gardens. The Germany EuroCup game was playing, and there were Horse Chestnut trees were everywhere. There were extensive bike racks next to the garden, and there were food stands at the periphery supplying all kinds of yummies. Oh, and there was a playground just off to one side if you wanted to bring the family.

Can it get much better than this? We took a paddle boat into the middle of the man-made lake of the Engisher gardens. We may be studying urbanism, but the parks seem to make it more on this blog...

Oh Freiburg, oh Freiburg

Oh Freiburg, oh Frieburg, your photovoltaics enslave me... One of our profs on this trip is really in love with the sustainability of a German city called Freiburg. It's oh-so-sustainable. From their treatment of stormwater, policies for dense development, extensive tram network, and walkable streets, its no wonder that nearly 80% of the children walk to school, and 30% of the transportation in the city occurs by bicycle. I nearly got hit by several bicyclists while I was there. The city is just over 200,000 people and the main employer is the university there. Can you imagine what Saskatoon would look like if 30% of the people biked, 30% took the tram/walked, and 30% drove? Wow. The black forest creeps straight into the middle of town like green/black fingers reaching into the dense urban centre.

Day one in Frieburg: 11am... prof took us to a beer garden in the black forest.

Freiburg streets. They're so sustainable.

Day one in Freiburg: 2pm... prof took us to another beer garden in the downtown. I like Germany..

One of the two suburbs we studied while we were there. Vauban was constructed in the early 00's and was partly designed (in a charette process) by the residents themselves. The demographic is similar to Calgary suburbs, but the housing types are quite different: apartment/flat dwellings looking onto shared common spaces/streets for children to play in. Each building is no higher than 4 storeys so that Moms and Dads can yell at their kids playing in the streets. Pictured in the image is Dr. Byron Miller: Freiburg's (and our) Champion. (note the photovoltaics)

I really enjoyed Freiburg, but it felt almost like a utopia. I defeinetly wouldn't mind living there. My hike in the black forest was amazing, and our rave/disco/party in the forest was also amazing. We really were in Germany, though.. I miss not being able to speak the language anymore.

Strasbourg

The train ride to Strasbourg was exciting... but mostly because my room of peeps slept straight through the early alarms, and nearly missed the train. :( We had about 6 hours to wander around the old downtown of Strasbourg before we caught a train to Frieburg.

For a Sunday it was suprisingly busy! .. but it was full of tourists, so I guess that's to be expected. I've also started to feel okay with being a tourist (I used to have this self-loathing thing going on) but sometimes you just gotta suck it up and take out the camera. The photo was taken from the top of the main cathedral in Strasbourg, looking down on the most touristy street.

Paris, Jtaime

Eiffel Tower!!! We took a bike tour around the most famous parts of the city.. it was a beautiful day.















Mmm... Magnum bars for dinner... Carolyn and I indulged on our way to a world music concert. Rupa and the Fishes.. I got to sit cross legged at the foot of the stage. I bought the CD.
















Modern Architecture! La Defence was an amazing place to visit. I actually liked it!
















...But maybe I liked La Defence more because I had the tastiest 70% cocoa brioche I have ever had in my LIFE.




















Nerd Out! This is the Champs Elysee taken from the Arc de Triomphe. I didnt do any shopping.. just sketched.


















I loved Paris. Loved it. There was so much to do, so many pleasant places to go, and so much good wine and food. I loved the streets, the coffee, the food, the language, the buildings, the parks, the monuments, the water features, and especially the gardens of Versaille. Stunning.

I'm sorry

Coming soon... updates on Paris, Strasbourg and Freiburg... Just after I finish my latest assignment for school... (apparently they want us to do work here!)

And off we go again!

Up comes the blogging again.. she must be on the move! That's right! I'm going to be in Europe for the months of June and July, and I've resurrected this blog to allow you to follow along in my adventure. Feel free to post comments, or just read the stories, but do drop me an email if you've been enjoying this. I'd love to know who's listening! (so I can include details you might find interesting)

I'm leaving May 25th, and for the following five weeks, I will be participating in a field course put on by the faculty of geography here at the university of calgary. I'm taking this course for credit, and have already done quite a lot of prep work. The theme of the course is sustainability in the built form, which is my exact area of interest! We will be doing a whirlwind tour of eleven cities:

May 26-31 Paris
June 1-5 Freiburg
June 6-9 Munich
June 10-13 Prague
June 14-15 Dresden
June 16-21 Berlin
June 22 Hannover
June 23-26 Copenhagen
June 27 Malmo
June 28 -30 Stockholm

There are 30 students participating in the course, with 3 instructors. I am the only graduate student, but the other students seem like a nice lot, so I expect to have fun. :) I've only recently started thinking about packing and the like, but don't worry, I've got a list. :)

The last four weeks of my trip (I return on July 28) will be spent travelling with my beau, Jeremy, visiting Pippa in the Old Country, and then to London Town for some more visiting and sightseeing.

I think I should be excited, but this past term and also the month of May have been filled with distractions aplenty. I'm sure I'll get excited sometime before my ride to the airport May 25th. hehe

PS I'm not taking my computer with me, so these blog posts will be dependent on internet availability. I will try to make at least one post per city. See you in Paris!

Welcome Back to Real Life

Well... I have now returned to a slower pace of life in Calgary. It is very good to be home in Canada and I am looking forward to catching up with those I missed. I was gone, but now I'm back and working on finishing my master's degree... possibly by September 2007, but likely by December 2007. After that... maybe I'll have another adventure? who knows?

Due to the comparative dullness of my life now, I think I will set this blog aside and actually keep in touch with you directly. The past four months have been rather like talking to a wall.

Until then, thanks for watching,
~B

The New Year in London England

Well... as mentioned in my previous post (at the bottom, I know it was long), Turid, Johan and I decided to go to London for the New Year!! Turid's father graciously offered to have us stay in his London work apartment for free! We couldn't not pass it up! The apartment was swanky, and located on Kensington High Street, west of Hyde Park. I had a huge bed and bathroom to myself and took great advantage of it. :)

A few highlights:
- London Eye: Some guy walked up to us and handed us tickets for free! He said he wasn't going to use them! This was great because we weren't interested in standing in the rain for an hour just to buy tickets. Instead we got the tickets, and stood in wind and the rain later on that evening waiting to get on. It was dark, but it was free! Picture from the top:

- Spamalot: Of course, it is required that when one is in London, one attends a show. We decided on Spamalot, a musical adapted from the Monty Python movie: Quest for the Holy Grail. They did routines, and chorus scenes, with footwoork impeccable. I laughed, I cringed, and I bought a stress-cow, named it Gwenevier, and consider it useful for situations that call for me to 'launche la vache'

- Evensong at Westminster Abbey: When we approached the gates of the church to hear evensong, there were two gruff men turning tourists away, announcing that visiting was over, come back Monday. I wormed my way to the front and as soon as I made it known that I was actually there to hear a service, their manner completely changed and they kindly ushered me in under cover of umbrellas murmuring "Of course, miss, this way please". The service was almost entirely sung, and even though we couldn't see the choir or the priests, it was heavenly. The music wafted over our heads and all around the beautiful church.

- Trafalger Square and the National Gallery: The last time I was in London, I was quickly dragged through the gallery by a friend who was tired of looking at all the 'jesus paintings'. This time I actually got to look at some things! Although, the exhibition we mainly saw was called Manet to Picasso; 19th and early 20th Century Paintings. The gallery was
packed with tourists, but I still enjoyed it. I will have to return some other time and see the rest of the gallery.

- Pub Crawl: We tried to visit as many different pubs as we could while we were in London, but the designated night of our pub crawl - New Years Eve - I fell afflicted with a stomach flu, and was out of commission that night! Woe betide! Oh well, just another good reason to return to London, I suppose. ;)

- Hyde Park and Kensington: My last day in London I had to myself, because Turid and Johan left one day earlier than me. I siezed the opportunitiy to do two things I thought only I would love to do: a)lots of walking and b) nerd-out and explore the neighbourhood around Hyde Park. I spent all day wandering through Hyde Park and seeing grand old street facades
and cosy courts. I also stopped in at Harrods and bought some chocolates.

And that was it! I then embarked on a two-stage journey with a stopover in a hotel in Frankfurt on my way home to Toronto and am currently battling (sucessfully, I think) with jet lag.