This was far and away one of the worst planned study tours I have ever been on. And I have been on 3! If this had been a tour that I partook in separate from DIS I would have been furious and been asking for my money back. Nothing, absolutely nothing after the first day went as planned. We went well beyond Murphey's Law and into the realm of "everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And just for the fun of it, we've thought up some new things that were completely unexpected. You're gonna love it." Let's call it, I dunno, Odysseus' Law.
Let's just start with where I left off (sorry about that, we didn't have internet.) This brings us to the Monday of October 5th. We woke up in our wonderful 3 star hotel room (one less star than the previous night but a good deal more than the hostels) and headed out for Essen, Germany. Essen was a coal mining town that, up until recently, was pretty much something out of western Pennsylvania. However, in recent years it has achieved a bit of status because of the Zeche Zollverein. An old coal processing plant, it recently was put into Unesco's list of protected historic places. This is a huge deal, especially since in Europe, everything is old. So OMA and Rem designed a masterplan that woul serve not only to protect the site but also to make it more pronounced as well. There are a great many pictures from within the coal plant and it was interesting to see. What would have been further interesting, had it not been a monday, would have been to do what we were supposed to do and scheduled to do and seen the museum. But, what's that? Museums are closed monday? Excuse me? You say that that is pretty much a universal norm? Hmmm....now why didn't DIS think of that?
DIS screwup 1: failed to consider that museums are closed on monday
So after killing time there (and I mean killing it since we couldn't go through the museum and had allotted time for it) we headed over to the Norman Foster designed Red Dot Museum. Now then, I want everyone to say it with me: Museum's are closed on Mandays. Yes that's right. You would think after running this tour for ten years plus, that DIS would have known about this little anomaly in museum scheduling. This wasn't a total loss, however, because it so happened that the woman who ran the museum was coming in so after considerable begging we were allowed access to the museum. This was pretty cool. The museum is dedicated to recipients of the Red Dot design award which covers everything from xerox machines to backpacks. There was even lawnmowers and ipods recognized. It was fun to see different elements of design all appreciated.
DIS Screwup 2: Closed museum again, only made better by begging
After the museum, we walked over to a restaurant called Kokerei. It was a good meal but the pleasure came in the surroundings. It was built into a coal mill so it was heavy and dark and industrial. Very cool. And the first thing that day that wasn't screwed up!
The afternoon took us to the Zollverein school of Management and Design. This is a building designed by the Japanese firm SANAA. Frankly I did not think much of it. It was open form, adjustable space, etc...but frankly, it was a white cube with as far as I could tell, arbitrarily placed and sized openings. It was not a building I would go out of my way to see.
After that, because the tour had already screwed the pooch for the day, they decided to make a surprise stop and let us hang out with some Dutch architecture students. We had dinner at the Arch. School cafeteria, we waited, we walked around, we waited...hmmm...well the students didn't show up for the debate or mixer or whatever the hell DIS thought would come from this. So let's go ahead and chalk up
DIS Screwup 3: failed to confirm make up plans
It was good to get to the hotel that night.
October 6th, this was a good one as well. We had 3 items on the itinerary that took place outside of the bus: academic visits, if you will. 66 percent of these failed in one form or another.
Let's start with Van Nelle Factory. This was the first (well, supposed to be first) stop of the day. We arrived and after Kate and Boe (the professor on this debauchal) talked to numerous people it was evident that the two architecture students who were supposed to meet us, not only weren't there, but had no idea what we were talking about. So with the promise of returning in the afternoon, we all stopped sketching and loaded up to go to our next destination.
DIS Screwup 4: had not established plans at all
We left the Van Nelle and went to the NAI (Netherlands Architecture institute.) This went off without a hitch but I cannot say it went off as planned since it was supposed to occur in the afternoon. We just had to change the schedule around.
This was a neat building and museum. And recently it had been retrofitted to accommodate the 2010 Rotterdam Bianalle. After walking around there for a bit, and again, killing time, we headed off the the OMA designed Kunsthall. This is a pretty amazing building, but before we toured it we were going to have lunch in the cafe. This was a total joke. When we arrived, they were not prepared for us. They did not have enough chairs and tables and furthermore, they had not received their shipment of bread for the day and as a result had to give us really old bread that had been heavily toasted to compensate for the degree to which it had staled. They brought no utensils and for every table of six, placed one plate with 4 halved sandwiches. Numerous people walked away from that meal hungry because of either dietary issues or because one half a small sandwich was not enough. This is a trendy, contemporary art museum cafe and they were not ready for us. They did bring out more sandwiches eventually, but unfortunately, only like 4 of us were left in the room.
DIS Screwup 5: Failed to make sure we were going to be accommodated
After the Kunsthall, when we were supposed to return to the Van Nelle, we were informed that we would not be going back at all. This could be connected to the previous failure, but I am going to go ahead and count it as
DIS Screwup 6: failed to follow through on promises
We were then set off on our own for dinner and nightlife in Rotterdam after having a bus tour. Which, frankly, is the worst way to see architecture. I can't draw it fast enough and I can't take a decent photo through the rain smeared glass so...
The morning of the 7th brought with it a feeling of "what now." Everyone was eerily suspicious of every plan and frankly had begun to expect the worst. The first stop at the Hessing Cockpit, which is a high end car showroom, was a nice stop. There wasn't a single problem. Lunch went off well too. The only problem, and this is by no means DIS's fault, but the rain preempted our bike tour of Amsterdam, so while it was not their fault, they also did not spend that money on us.
Afternoon free in Amsterdam.
The morning of the 8th was the drivers day off, so we all (38 of us) had to try to take city transport together...it was a mess.
We got to Ultrecht University and had sketching assignments to do on our own. And periodically, groups would head to see the Schroeder house by Garrett Rietveld. I love this house. I couldn't live there but the machination and adaptability of the place is amazing.
Dinner was fun. We drank a lot. For some, too much. And we boarded the bus to return to Copenhagen where, again not DIS's fault, 3 students got violently ill, vomitting on themselves, others, and the bus. We had to stop 3 times to clean the bus.
This was a nightmare trip and I am thinking of asking DIS to return the money that I spent. I know I would if it was an independent tour group I went with...I just can't figure out why I am cutting them slack.
Anyway, it is good to be home.
Oh, one other thing, the other group, Group X, they got to go to a concert and have a cultural night that we did not. I feel shortchanged.
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