where to go on a 3 month Europe adventure

Design Discussions students and schools
1

Hi all,
This spring I am headed over to Europe with one of my best buddies. We will be there for 2-3 months on a ‘travel-quarter,’ one quarter we are allowed to travel abroad instead of co-opping. We have no plans yet except that we want to get to Greece, Italy, and Prague. Any suggestions?? Anywhere in Europe that is an absolute must-see?? Or…any tips on the practical stuff like where to get an international cell phone, etc.?

The travel is supposed to be related to industrial design, so any design tips for Europe would be great too. Thanks for your help.
Carly

2

in no particular order, i’d suggest

  1. copenhagen
  2. stockholm
  3. belgium, dunno what city, but pretty hot for design/fashion
  4. milan
  5. london
  6. prague
  7. amsterdam
  8. bern or zurich, switzerland

skip greece, i’d say if you have limited time. last i was there not much to see.

best bet for travel advice is http://www.superfuture.com

R

3

Come on! there are many places to see in Greece you just need someone to help you.

My advice is skip Athens (if you are not intrested in clubing). Thessaloniki is cool and has a lot of natural beauties around.

4

belgium - antwerp and brussels. those are the only ones i’ve been to. nice to walk around. antwerp is the fashion city.

  • istanbul. for the long history.
  • berlin. for the streets.
5

If you’re going to Zurich, i’d swing around to see Munich, Germany. I"m currently studying abroad in Munich and we have a really first class design museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne. It’s got a particularly thorough collection of chairs from the late 1800’s through today.

http://www.pinakothek.de/pinakothek-der-moderne/englisch/englisch.htm

Munich also has the Deutsches Museum an amazing science and industry museum. It is an encyclopedia for anything involving technology.

“Among the particular highlights (besides many others!) are the first motorized aircraft built by the Wright brothers, the U1 submarine, the first program-controlled computer (Conrad Zuse’s Z3), and Diesel’s original engine on the island; the first motorcar by Karl Benz in the transport museum; the Douglas DC3 at Schleißheim; and the first Fischer wall plug in Bonn.” (from website)

I particularly enjoyed the printmaking section and the long boats.

Munich is also the home to BMW and it’s sleek museum which is located right next to olympia park, a pretty cool landscape.

http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/index_highend.html?content=http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/home.html

Also, i’d suggest couch surfing here in europe, it’s a great system and I’d look into low cost flights, sometimes they’re much cheaper than the train.

low cost search engine

6

Berlin and Barcelona are worth checking out too. Perhaps even the Milan furniture fair if your about when its on…and you want to see lots of chairs

7

Good point - check out the the Design Addict calender…

http://www.designaddict.com/design_addict/design_calendar/index.cfm

… to see what’s on/where/when.

8

It is cliche, but Paris is not to be missed. See the city on foot and via Metro. Bring a sketch pad…draw all over the city.

9

Got to do Venice and the art Biennale: La Biennale di Venezia

10

Paris - an obvious must see, one of the world’s top 3 or 5 most important cities

South of France / Provence - the most beautiful and deliciously gastronomic region in all of Europe, Hands Down. visit Van Gogh’s insane asylum, Cezanne’s studio, etc (Nice, Aix-en-Provence, Cannes, Arles, etc)

London - an obvious must see (though I would have been happy with only 2 or 3 days there, not my favorite place on the continent)

Bath, England - a great British city that isn’t London. much happier, kinder, relaxed, less expensive, easy to get to, much more beautiful, with ancient Roman history

Prague - the best value in Europe, still very cheap to experience / the only city not bombed heavily in WW2, so many old buildings still remain intact, lots of fun things to do, buy some absinthe and enjoy

Barcelona - unique place, worth checking out if you’re headed down and over to Spain

Amsterdam - an obvious must see, but not for the obvious reasons, there is an amazing culture and city to be discovered here, not just drugs and sex, though that is part of it

Zurich - my favorite city in Europe, breathtaking, beautiful, efficient, totally Swiss

Munich - beautiful in its efficiency, engineering, and design (the stereotypes are true… in a good way)

Venice - an obvious must see



that’s all for now

11

Forgot to mention…

Do not stay in Hotels, thats what jerks do when they’re traveling around Europe


–Stay in Hostels - you’ll meet locals and travelers

or
my personal favorite

–Sign up at Couchsurfing.com and create a profile, search for your cities you’ll be traveling to, and send out some couch requests

tens of thousands of people are on the website, safe, clean, totally cool, and free places to stay (and you get to ‘live a day in the life’ of a local)

12

Or not. That’s what hippies and poor students do when traveling in Europe…

:wink:

R

13

Thanks for your input so far- I am taking notes and getting pumped. We are planning a little every day, and getting more excited every day. It looks as though we will be flying into Stockholm and out of Madrid…

Any more input or ideas- big or small- are totally welcome!!

14

how are you travelling around? you could get an inter rail (maybe called rail europe now) pass and do it that way… the train network is pretty good and you have loads of freedom where you want to go could be worth checking out

15

We are planning to get a eurail pass…but we have to decide which one. I have also heard that short flights around Europe can be very reasonable- and we might take advantage of that in order to get to Greece.

Does anyone know much about international cell phones and/or internet access??

thanks.

16

The only thing I can say about short-hauls is that a lot of budget airlines (RyanAir, EasyJet etc) use ‘secondary’ airports on the outskirts of cities, meaning you’ll have to spend money getting buses/trains into the centers of cities anyway, and obviously back out of the cities to get to the airports as well.

17

Ok, we just purchased plane tickets today-
Looks like we are flying into Stockholm and flying out of Madrid (with a little more than 2 months in-between.)

Next question I have is…do you know of any good design schools or firms that we should visit while in Europe? Technically, our trip is supposed to be career-related, so a couple field trips would be helpful.

Thanks!