Amsterdam

Amsterdam was a fun place. While I was there, it was bitterly cold (yes, I know, laugh all you want, fellow Canadians), but it really was. A few nights that I was there, it snowed. Anyway, I stayed in Amsterdam for about a week, and my good high school friend Sarah Anderson joined me from Germany. She is studying optometry and is doing her practicum at a military base there. Anyway, on to the pictures!

Here is one of the main canals of Amsterdam, close to the center of the city. With reflected sun, of course.
Built islands and parks. Did you know that all of Amsterdam is not an actual natural land mass, but was created completely by humans? The whole area had the water drained from it and wooden posts driven into the ground support the buildings that sit on top of them.

Interesting housing, down by the port.

Dutch architecture.

A boat along one of the canals.

More canals.

Amsterdam, as you probably know, has a bit of a sketchy reputation. I thought that it was interesting, therefore, that this and many other road dividers have "XXX" written all over them. In fact, the three X's are crosses and represent the three historical disasters that befell Amsterdam regularly in the past - fire, plague, and flooding.

A plaque on the exterior of a building.

The Anne Frank house. I didn't go in, but did take a picture. Doesn't look that special, does it?

Sarah and an American fellow that we met who spent some time with us. This is in front of the Rijksmuseum. The museum is a repository of Dutch art, including the famous works by Rembrandt.

Sarah on a biking tour that we took around the city. Bikes are very popular in Amsterdam, and there are special bike lanes where you can get run over by bikers if you aren't careful.

Me, on the bike tour.

A statue of Rembrandt.

A 3-D reproduction of Rembrandt's most famous painting, The Night Watch.

On our bike tour we went to a clog (wooden shoe) factory / cheese factory. Here are finished but unpainted shoes. Look comfy?

These fancy decorated clogs cost more than the rest and are worn specially for your wedding. They were a tad expensive, so a picture sufficed.

Me, with wedding clogs.

Another statue of Rembrandt in front of a real live windmill! Actually, the windmill wasn't used anymore, and few of the old windmills are anymore, but it was a good picture. This was on our bike tour. Did you know that aside from grinding grain into flour, windmills were also used as pumps to draw drain the water around Amsterdam?

No tulips, because it was still a little bit too early, but we did see some daffodills.

White daffodills.

The older area of the city is full of soviet-style sculptures. I liked this one.

An inscription on this arch gives some useful advice: "Homo Sapiens Non Urinat In Ventum" (Humans, don't piss in the wind).

More of the Rijksmuseum.

A sculpture outside the museum.

A street in Amsterdam.

Clever... soo clever.

A cool theatre with semi-gothic exterior.

More architecture.

A bell / clock tower.

Ahhh! No, wait, they aren't real. Bronze / brass iguanas in a park.

A riverboat along one of the canals.

A friendly game of MEGACHESS!!!

Well, that sums up Amsterdam. Next up: Turkey!

Barcelona

Yay! Finally some more pictures! Here are my pictures of Barcelona... boiled down to the more interesting ones, I guess, simply because I don't have time to upload the gazillion photos I have been taking along the way.

The streets of Barcelona. Tall and narrow.

A random cool architectural building. This was down by the port.

Another cool building, architecturally.

The Christopher Columbus statue at the end of La Rambla, near the beach / port / seaside.

Some sort of weird (but cool) sculpture near the seaside.

A view of Barcelona from the "mountain" atop of which is Olympic Park.

The olympic stadium, with olympic space needle thingy near the right tip.

A close up of the gravity-defying needly-thing.

A random castle that I came across! It was closed, so I couldn't do in... sniff.

I believe this is called Montjuic. I say "believe" because I didn't go in. Instead, I louged around outside, near the massive, and beautiful fountain. (see the video on YouTube)

The huge "magic fountain" in front of Montjuic.

Barcelona had some really really pretty tagging art... more commonly known as graffiti or spraypainting. One look at these and you really understand that it is quite beautiful and is art... even if it is unsolicited art. Miles, I know you like this stuff, so the next few are for you!

More art.

A statement about the workworld?

I loved how the fill colour gives the impression of looking through a window at something bizarre and organic, instead of being the red of the letters.

More art!

Creeeeeepy.

Cops and Robbers? Or perhaps just robbers and robbers...

This is the plaza where I stayed at. My hostel was just to the left of this picture. Pretty, no?

Here is the infamous Sagrada Famillia. It was a church / temple comissioned by the famous architect, Gaudi. Truly, this is his masterpiece, and is as of yet unfinished. Construction began in the 1950's and is still not done. Will they ever finish it? Maybe in another 50 years...

A close-up of the side of the temple.

The architecture is somewhat gothic, somewhat drippy, somewhat trippy, and altogether weird.

At the back of the church is this futuristic looking entrance (while the front is more gothic). Everything on this side is angle and confusion as to how everything is suspended properly.

A wider view.

A magic square. Gaudi was quite fond of this, and added all sorts of strange messages here and there. Count up the sides or any row. 33, right? The number of Jesus, supposedly. Also, there is a kind of symmetry to the ways you can make 33 when not in rows. For instance, choose some numbers that add to 33, then see if the shape of those numbers works in mirror-reflection.

Looking up at Angle-Jesus!

Really, what is truth? This is on the giant bronze doors of the cathedral.

The stained glass inside the cathedral.

This picture really doesn't do it justice. The interior of the cathedral looks much like a catacomb, with stalagtites and stalagmites. At the same time, it looks strangely entomological... like a hive for insects of some sort.

More of the exterior.

This is the Torre Agbar. Sleek, sexy, strange. The neat thing about this is that the windows are all tinted different colours, making a collage on the side.

Damn straight! We should just shoot all those damn tourists.... oh wait... I'm a... um, forget that I said that.

This is at Park Guelle, another Gaudi landmark. Gaudi created this house, and others. In the foreground is a section of the bench that Gaudi created for the area. The bench is mosaiked in different coloured tiles. It is also the longest bench in the world, as it snakes its way around the park without a break.

Another one of the Gaudi houses. More park bench.

A wide angle shot of the park bench. Big.

This is the house where Gaudi lived. Gaudi really was a genius.

A sculpture in Gaudi's property. Think of it as a Rorschach for sculptors.

Another view of the city. This time from Gaudi Park (Parc Guelle).

Gaudi created this leaning grotto underneat the park bench seen earlier.

Myself and a friend I met while in Barcelona. This is Sebastien from Quebec. He kept me company for several days, walking around. We are leaning on another of Gaudi's pieces... a giant tile mosaic lizard, that also happens to be a fountain. I think Gaudi's style can be accurately described as Alice-in-Wonderlandesque.

Well, that's all for now! Next pictures: Amsterdam!