Traveling and studying in europe

2010

While I was in my third year studying Landscape Architecture at the University of Manitoba we went on a two week trip to Europe in the fall. This trip was an opportunity for us to learn about and experience design work and ideas in Europe. We began our trip by flying into Amsterdam. Here we did lots of exploring and enjoying such an incredible city! I have to say one of my greatest memories of Amsterdam was a french fry chain called Manneken Pis. We found these everywhere and I ate so many french fries an truly enjoyed the flavoured mayo for dipping!

Amsterdam features so much amazing, old architecture and having canals run through we also had to get onto the water and explore.

While in the Netherlands we also travelled to and explored Utrecht and Rotterdam with one of the coolest spaces we visited being Schouwburgplein by West 8 in Rotterdam.

During our time in the Netherlands we took a day trip to Duisburg, Germany to visit Landschafts Park and did a bike tour of the facility. It is a reclaimed park on old industrial land. And if you're visiting and interested in diving there is a really cool space inside a large industrial drum so check it out!

Our next stop was Paris, France. And there were so many spots I loved visiting while we were there but the number one on my list was Parc de Sceaux and I actually don't have any photos of.. but will definitely go back and take lots! A few other great stops included the Eiffel Tower, Parc de la Villette, Promenade Plantée which is such a cool walk in the city because it makes you feel like you're somewhere else completely. We also walked all the stairs to the top of the Arch de Triomphe to get a great view of the city and in the evening walked over to Sacré-Cœur and enjoyed the evening weather and city lights.

Another really awesome piece of landscape design is Parc Diderot.

If you're someone like me who LOVES museums anywhere you travel you can't go to Paris without visiting the Louvre! I always suggest visiting museums early and this is no exception, if you don't come bright and early you'll be waiting in a long line and walking through the space will likely be very busy. But still I think it's totally worth it! You can't visit Paris without this stop!

And the last leg of our trip brought us to London, UK. We took the Eurostar train from Paris to London. There were so many highlights of our visit including Tate Modern, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and Covent Garden. Or if you want to go out dancing I really enjoyed our night out at Ministry of Sound.

One of my favourite pieces of design was the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park. The fountain captured the life and death of Princess Diana with the movement and agitation of the water as it flows around the never ending oval. It is a beautiful piece of art and public design.

London is very easily accessible via the Underground and I recommend getting an Oyster card to get around. On one of our open days myself and a friend chose to walk and explore the whole day. And as we ventured out into the city we visited and rode The London Eye, then afterwards walked along The Queen's Walk and stumbled onto St. Paul's Cathedral. 

And I might be biased but one of my favourite things to stumble upon was the Canada War Memorial in Green Park. The structure included some embedded metal maple leaves so when the water flowed across it created ripples. And the finest feature is that there are maple trees growing in that area so in the fall when the leaves begin to drop you'll actually see real maple leaves falling onto the structure adding another layer of dimension.