Food played a community-building role: morning check-in over the breakfast buffet, snacking at a pølsevogn, lunch from the morning's grocery shopping, al fresco dining at POPL Burger, Reffen Street Food after visiting Copenhagen Contemporary, or the student-organized Pop-up Potluck Picnic (featuring baked goods from a pastry course some students signed up for!).
We always ate well, and among friends.
We spent the day at the Experimentarium and there was SO MUCH TO DO!
Highlights included
At closing time we were exhausted, but happy.
One of our out-of-town excursions was to Helsingør, site of Hamlet's Kronborg, which is a short walk from the rail station.
Close to hand is the Maritime Museum of Denmark, which is constructed in a former drydock.
There we took in an exhibition on container shipping, with one display in a space about the size of a typical KIX exhibit.
Adéu BCN, Hello YYZ
Thanks for the memories.
The Sagrada Familia is a prominent feature of the Barcelona skyline. The Moderniste structure is impressive in its colourful and organic expression.
An exhibit in its basement documents the evolving techniques used to explore, shape and build it over the past century. More than a display, one gets a sense that this is where the magic continues to happen.
Along with the Olympic Museum (as well as the Fundació Joan Miró, Jardí Botànic de Barcelona, Castell de Montjuïc, and Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya -- among others), Montjuïc is home to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.
The beautiful treasures inside the building are matched by the views of the Plaça d'Espanya which stretches into the distance from MNAC's grand front entrance.
At the other end of Las Ramblas -- a string of leafy pedestrian-oriented laneways lined with shops, theatres, museums and markets -- is the Mediterranean seafront, and the Museu Marítim de Barcelona.
The maritime museum is housed in an ancient shipyard: magnificent architecture that complements and competes with its contents.
Physical needs of food and sleep taken care of, it was time to engage with the city. Barcelona is a visually rich city for those ready to look.
From the hostel it was a short walk to the Passeig de Gràcia, a grand boulevard that led south-east to the Plaça de Catalunya, at the upper end of Las Ramblas.
Rooms at the Generator were simple and comfortable -- hotel-like but without all the extra furniture you never use. (From our window, if you leaned tight against the wall, you could see the spires of the Sagrada Familia.)
The bath was small, but clean and colourful. The dorms were similar, with more beds, more baths.
We stayed at the Generator Hostel, and used the few hours before check-in to explore the neighbourhood for amenities: ATM, coffee shop, pharmacy, tram stops...
The front garden is blooming. It must be time for a Field Trip.
On the last day of the Field Trip in 2011, while everyone else headed to the airport, we went to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof to catch a train to head north.
Our entire train loaded onto a ferry (!) and we had the chance to disembark and enjoy the fine weather on the top deck.
Once docked, we reboarded the train, and continued our journey to Copenhagen, to check out hostels for our next Field Trip, in 2012.
Compare and contrast one of the (many) sparrows outside the 2 euro pizza place near the hostel with the slightly more exotic specimens roaming Schloss Sanssouci at Potsdam.
The pizza was popular with the students; the students were popular with the sparrows, but I'm not certain the sparrows were popular with the pizza place -- although there were no crumbs or crusts in evidence.
The Pergamon Museum contains several large-scale reconstructions of ancient architectural elements contained in equally large spaces. I often found myself gawping at the size, colour, and age of the displays.
Every time we've visited Berlin, a different part of the Pergamon or its sibling institutions has been under renovation. Everything old is made new again.
In 2011, the Schwules Museum was upstairs in a courtyard off Mehringdamm, but now it's located in a beautiful facility on Lutzowstrasse (with a lovely cafe and patio for a drink or coffee).
May is Queer History Month in Berlin, and the Schwules Museum has some special tours and exhibits to mark the month.
We took a side trip to Sachsenhausen just outside of Berlin to visit the former concentration camp, and feel a solemn reminder of what happened there.
A comprehensive visitors centre provided audio tours, and in-the-camp exhibits demonstrated and documented the grim reality of the unfortunate many who laboured and perished within its walls.
May 1st is Labour Day in Germany. While events are held across the city, much of the celebration -- and occasional rioting -- is centred in Kreuzberg. The instruction for the day: "Don't go there."
Many museums were closed, so we explored the city looking at architecture, catching a glimpse of a Canadian flag over the embassy, and wandering between the 2710 massive stele of the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas.
Museum Island is well-named.
In a very small area we could visit the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Pergamon, the Bode, and the Berliner Dom. And these days, of course, the Humboldt Forum.
There's enough stuff here to keep your "museum eyes" engaged for several days. (And the cafes were pretty nice too.)
The [Humboldt Forum](humboldtforum.org/en) stands opposite the Lustgarten on Museum Island, but in 2011 it was a construction site and archaeological dig presided over by the Humboldt Box, a temporary building being built to provide info about the massive project.
The hostel where we stayed the first trip wasn't very far from Checkpoint Charlie, and remnants and reminders of the Berlin Wall were ever present.
(It was rumoured that the hostel was owned by -- or leased from -- the North Korean Embassy which was next door to it.)
