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!)