Hallo

Hello from Amsterdam! It has been good, also foggy and cold. I'm currently finding it easier to tweet, so I will retweet those here
http://t.co/3N67iRc0

http://t.co/GmrM3YN8

http://t.co/sEUOVNnv.

It's nearly midnight here and we drive to Germany tomorrow morning so I will say goodnight. Welterusten!

Windows Part One

I've been keeping note of the views that I can see through the windows of where I am staying during my journey abroad.

 Atlantic Ocean

Leamington Spa

Gretna Green

I seemed to miss the truck-stop down from scotland. I think my camera battery had died.

 Bristol

Tomorrow I am off to London for two nights, and then I leave for Europe on the 19th for two weeks, during which I will try to update where I am and what windows I can see. Either here or on twitter, which also is in the side bar top left! See you soon

Scotland

After driving for two days, we finally passed into Scotland. (Actually we had crossed the boarder the night before, staying in a truck-stop motel outside Gretna Green, the infamous village to elope to, such as with the wicked Mr. Wickham, but we had driven back to England the following day to check out Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall , before making our way truly into the northern country).

Edinburgh is an extremely beautiful city, with my sister deciding it was like a porcupine that had curled up and fossilized, with the population then carving out their homes amid the rock spires. Which is sort of true, as the land has historically been torn and pulled by volcanoes and glaciers before settling into it's current built form carved out of stone.

The city is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having been recognized to be "of outstanding value to humanity" Which is a bit a humbling really. This must be why the historic character of the place feels so well cared for.

I loved these alleys. I would always be surprised to see them, hidden away in the gaps between the shadows.

Apparently Edinburgh, becoming a humming metropolis full of the famous artists and poets of the day, was being called 'the Athens of the North,' and the city even started building it's own Parthenon

But it was never finished, as the project ran out of money.

However, the city is not defined by just one building, but by its sum total. While most of the architecture faithfully follows the patterns and ideas of those previous, you can see instances of new experiments..

But mostly it is just old

growing more complex at smaller and smaller scales, like a city sized fractal

Sometimes it just amazed me how old this city was, seeing thick stone steps worn away by thousands of millions of footsteps.

The next day we drove to Glasgow, not a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but functioning more as a place of industry. We were able to gain local insight into how these two cities worked by meeting up with my sister's friend Fiona, who described Edinburgh as a tourist attraction that no-one actually lives in, while Glasgow offers more contemporary culture, diversity, and grit.

The above photograph was taken from the large motorway that carves through the city, flying above it on long overpasses, which I think says a lot about the city. It had a strong feeling of being continually under construction.

But it also had its moments of delicacy.

After Glasgow, we made our way back to England again, and towards Derbyshire...

Winter Star

Jupiter above the Juniper tree, outside my window in Leamington Spa. I decided to see if I could spot anything else in the sky from the park near by.

Phew it is a chilly 4 degrees outside. I left my gloves inside and the air numbed my fingers. Below is a transect of the sky approximately South to North. (I still find it weird that the sun is now South here...)

 I think Britain is just covered in light

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Hello London

Jeremy and I travelled to London today, meeting Ed along the way too! This was also my first step above ground here, as when I arrived in London Heathrow I had made my way straight to Leamington Spa due to excess luggage and being very tired after travelling so long (so long). And my first impression was of a very fast city. Changing tube lines to weave our way to a particular station felt like moving in a strong current, squeezing and slowing and rushing. Reading the underground line map was a bit confusing at first but I was getting the hang of it at the end of the day.

Above ground the tide of people was strongest only in the most touristy parts of the city, like Piccadilly Circus (below), but it became more relaxed in the large and beautiful parks.

Our first destination was here at St. Pancras station, where all the eurostar trains terminate. It had these huge olympic rings which was pretty exciting.

 I was reading that St. Pancras was one of the last great examples of Victorian architecture. I remember learning this year in architecture school how much of a revelation steel had been for the construction of these huge beautifully open spaces.

 The exterior of St. Pancras. It reminds me of a gingerbread house.

We then made our way to the Portobello Market in Notting Hill, to try and see Hugh Grant, or at least some of the scenes from the film of the same name

I had this one in my mind as I was walking down the seemingly never ending tents and tables, full of people. (Thousands more than in the scene above)

Some enterprising cafe owners even used the typography of the film title as a handy marketing ploy.

We meet up with Ed and we caught the tube to Green Square (renamed green and yellow square by Ed), and wandered over to see if the Queen was in.

 Cross cultural Ed

Buckingham Palace. The gold leaf was extraordinarily bright, it felt as if it were glowing.
The Queen, unfortunately, was out.

We also visited New Zealand House, and 'Kiwifruits' the New Zealand store (complete with New Zealand twanged shop assistant) to stock up on some essentials.

Following the Mall (as in Pal), we found Parliament, in gorgeously elaborate victorian gothic style 

 I also liked this building, it was like glass filled with smoke.

Finally, we took the tube from Westminster to head back home, entering this huge yet cramped futuristic subterranean cavern, adding to a picture of London as a great, old, dense and continually growing structure.

After rushing around London for the day, it was very peaceful to be able return to Leamington Spa and walk through the quiet countryside under a soft and starry sky.

I'm looking forward to returning later this week and checking out all the amazing galleries and museums... I think I will be spoilt for choice.

Bristol, Bath, and Bed

So I went to Bristol to visit Cherrie which was excellent, and also see some interesting city things...

Bristol is actually quite colourful

and not just because autumn is painting in soft pastels

but there are lots of these coordinated terraces which are very pretty too.

Terraces are actually a big thing here.

Also in Bath too, where I went for a day. Very sedate..

 I love these ceilings. The above is Bath Abbey, while below is St. Marys on Redcliff.

Bristol also has a bit of a checkered past, being a historical hub of slavery, but it confronts this very thoughtfully in a great new museum called the 'M-shed' (not as masculine as it reads)

But Bristol is also pretty funky. This is a picture from the same museum above.

It's like it's in chaotic order.

 There is also a significant underground culture, with Banksy celebrated as a famous Bristolian. I thought this was a cool piece of street-art I stumbled on.

 I have no idea what the braille is saying (I've since tried to translate it) but either it's a more advanced grade of braille than the simple translation of the alphabet, or it's gibberish. I do hope it says something...

I liked these two. This whole street was just covered in street-art, it was kind of like a mecca.

So this is just a bit of a taste, as I wanted to put something up before I head to London for the day tomorrow! So I'll wish you all goodnight. Thanks Bristol! Goodnight!