June 19th

Our Car

Tuesday was quite the eventful day. One of our group members and I decided that we, as true Americans, wanted to make the drive to visit Normandy. Everyone else decided that they would rather sleep in or shop around the city while we visited one of the most important places in the world in regards to American history. We began the morning bright and early, arriving at the car rental office at 8. We rented what was quite possibly the smallest car in the entire continent, leading us to believe that if we couldn’t parallel park the car we could possibly just lift it up and place it in a parking space. Since we were in a foreign country speaking a foreign language, we sprung for the GPS option to help guide us to our final destination. Ready to go, we navigated the tiny car through Paris’s rush hour and jumped on the A13 interstate. However, after a short time on the interstate, the GPS suddenly died and left us with no clue how to navigate to Normandy. With no other options, we stopped at a gas station and I grabbed a map of France and tried to figure out some way to get to Normandy. A few hours later we miraculously arrived at Omaha Beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Omaha Beach, Point du Hoc, and the American Cemetery. It was truly incredible to walk around a place steeped in such history. It was also nice to be able to walk around the cemetery to pay our respects to the thousands of service members who lost their lives on D-Day. Even though it was a little tougher than we imagined to get to Normandy, we were both incredibly glad that we were able to visit the hallowed grounds. We got back to Paris around 8 and spent the rest of the night packing our bags and figuring out how to make our way to the airport in the morning. 

This will end my blog entries for my trip to Europe. I cannot say enough how awesome an experience this trip was, and how thankful I am that I was afforded the opportunity to be a member of the trip. Thanks for following my blog.

Monday June 18th

Monday brought our last full day as a group in Paris. With a free day for either travel or touring around Paris Tuesday, our professor had a few stops in mind for the day. However, I had previously arranged an interview with a contact regarding my thesis, so I went out on my own for the morning while the group checked out the sights. After a fairly long Metro ride out of the main city center, I arrived at the offices of COLAS. COLAS, the self-termed “worldwide leader in road construction,” completed over 110,000 projects last year with revenues over 12 billion euros. With my background in civil construction, I was very excited about the opportunity to meet with such a huge company. I met with Julien Guery, the chief project manager for the large projects division. Mr. Guery was very helpful in explaining COLAS’s involvement in public-private partnerships and his opinion of the future of PPPs in France. 

Following my meeting, I took the Metro back into the city to grab lunch and do some afternoon shopping. To complete our last day together as a group, our professors scheduled a potluck dinner by the Eiffel Tower. Everyone brought assorted dishes, from smoked salmon to pizza. It was fun for all of us to sit around and talk about our individual experiences on the trip and share our favorite portions that others might not have known about. Because we had enjoyed watching the lights on the Eiffel Tower a few nights prior, we decided to stay after our dinner and enjoy the lights one last time on a cool evening. Yet again, we were dazzled by the lights and enjoyed our time at the massive tower.

Sunday June 17

Les Invalides

Sunday began later than normal with the group meeting up at noon. Our day began with the group stopping at a local market to grab lunch. The market was slightly reminiscent of a farmers’ market, the street lined with various venders and places to eat. After a tasty meal of duck with noodles, I was ready to see more of Paris. Our second stop of the afternoon was Les Invalides, a handful of buildings that originally acted as a hospital for French war veterans. We visited two of the buildings in the complex, one that housed the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte and the other housing the French military museum. Much like his ego, Napoleon’s sarcophagus was large and very extravagant. Following the tomb we moved on to the military museum. We didn’t have too much time to stop at the museum so I immediately made my way to the World War I & II exhibit. It was interesting to see the wars through France’s perspective, more specifically their view of the invasion of France and its causes. After our stop at Les Invalides we made our way to Musee Rodin.

The Musee Rodin is a museum dedicated to the great sculptor Auguste Rodin. I was on a hot streak prior to the Musee Rodin, thoroughly enjoying the past three museums we had visited. While I didn’t dislike the Musee Rodin by any means, I wasn’t nearly as captivated by the pieces in the museum as I had been by the last two. The museum is most famous for housing the original “The Thinker,” a sculpture of a man in deep thought. The Musee Rodin is actually fairly small so we made quick work of checking out the museum and moving on to our next destination.

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Following a day of museum tours, all of the group members and I were excited when we found out that we would be going to the top of the Eiffel Tower to end the day. Since Sunday was the prettiest day weather-wise in a few days in Paris, we were far from the only group with the idea to go to the top. After waiting in line for about an hour we grabbed our tickets and ascended the stairs to the first viewing platform. This task was actually fairly nerve-wracking for me because I could see the land below me as I made my way to the platform, allowing me to realize just how high I actually was climbing. However, with a higher than normal heart rate, I made it to the first platform where we waited in line to take an elevator to the actual top of the tower. We again waited in line for about an hour before we boarded the elevator to reach the top. Once we managed to reach the top I realized why the lines were so long. The view from the tower was magnificent, providing a perfect panoramic view of Paris. After a few minutes of snapping pictures and looking around, we made our way back down via the elevator and stairs once again. Needless to say, I was glad when my feet finally touched asphalt pavement as we reached the bottom.

After the group all made it down to the bottom, we separated for the day and went our separate ways to find dinner. A few of us went to a restaurant recommended to us by some other students who had eaten there the other night. After a great meal, I headed home for the night to get some rest.

Saturday June 16

Saturday began with the group meeting fairly early to check out a few of the museums we saw on our bike tour up close and personal. Our journey began at the Musee D’Orsay, a Parisian impressionist museum. While I have had a little trouble fully appreciating the pieces of art at most of the various museums we have visited on our trip, I really enjoyed the Musee D’Orsay. I think the main reason I enjoyed the various impressionist pieces was that I could see myself actually having those paintings in my own house. For example, I can’t envision a scenario where I would want a piece from the Vatican in my living room, but I would definitely like to have a landscape painted by Monet. I think a few other group members agreed with this way of thinking because a handful of us commented how much we enjoyed the museum as we were leaving.

View from Arc de Triomphe

Moving from one museum to the next, we made the short trip to the Louvre. The most visited art museum in the world, the Louvre is one of France’s most famous attractions. However, we didn’t even attempt to cover the entire massive museum. We spent about two hours hitting the high points of the museum such as the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and other famous works. While I was glad I was able to see the Mona Lisa, the throng of people surrounding the painting was ridiculous. Seeing people elbow their way to the front and their general rudeness reminded me of trying to navigate my way to our fraternity’s seats just before kickoff of Auburn games. Regardless, it was interesting to check a small portion of the Louvre.

La Defense with Arc de Triomphe in the background

Following our quick tour of the Louvre we walked to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe is a large arch in the center of the city that was built to honor the veterans of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The arch is actually at the center of what is apparently one of the most dangerous roundabouts in France. According to our bike tour guide the other day, any wreck which happens in the roundabout is paid 50/50 by those involved in the crash regardless of fault due to the roundabout’s dangerous nature. Once we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe we made our way to the top to see a panoramic view of the city. It was actually really interesting because the roads leading to the roundabout all radiate from the Arc de Triomphe. After grabbing a few pictures, we began walking to our next stop. 

Eiffel Tower at night

A few kilometers away from the Arc de Triomphe, our final sight of the day was the La Defense, Paris’s business district. Unlike most of Paris, the business district is home to a handful of sleek, modern skyscrapers. Our trip to the district brought us to the Grande Arch. Built in 1989, the arch is a newer take on the centuries old Arc de Triomphe. After resting on the steps of the arch of few minutes after our long walk, the group was released for the evening.

After grabbing a quick dinner, almost the entire group met up to head to the Eiffel Tower to see the nighttime lights. Beginning at 10 pm, the iconic tower lights up and glitters at every hour, on the hour. It was fun to enjoy some wine and relax in the park at the base of the tower as the tower lit up. We left the tower about midnight, worn out from a long day.       

Friday June 15th

Louis XIV's Military School

Friday morning began with a simple breakfast at our hotel. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, these Europeans have no idea what comprises a real breakfast. After eating my toast and jelly, I met up with the group to begin our busy day. We walked from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with our bike tour guide. Even though we weren’t able to go up in the Tower, it was fun to see such a famous structure as we made our way to our leader. Supposedly we will be able to go the top at some point during our trip, so I wasn’t too upset that we casually walked past it on Friday. As some may remember, our bike tour was rained out in Prague so we rescheduled a bike tour for Paris instead. After meeting up with our guide under the Eiffel Tower, we made the short walk to Fat Tire Bike Tours to grab our bikes and hit the road.

Louis XIV's Church

As usual, we saw a ton of Paris as we pedaled around the city on our bike tour. We began the tour by checking out a few buildings built under Louis XIV’s reign such as a military school and a magnificent golden-roofed church. While we saw too many buildings both for me to remember and list here, we saw such landmarks as the Ponte Alexandre Bridge, the Louvre, and the Arc du Triumph. Looking back on the tour, I’m very impressed that a city as large as Paris has so much landscaping in the heart of the city. It seemed everywhere we turned there were large trees or well-kept gardens. Overall, the bike tour was an awesome way to see the city and have fun while doing it. 

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After the bike tour, we made our way to Centre Georges Pompidou, France’s preeminent modern art museum. While I have had a tough time appreciating some of the art so far on this trip, I went into the gallery with an open mind. My open-mindedness had to have been lost after about ten minutes in the gallery. It legitimately baffles me how people appreciate “modern” art. While I realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, some of the pieces in to Centre Georges Pompidou legitimately made me question the sanity of the artist behind their creation. Having said that, it was somewhat interesting to see the radical works in the gallery and wonder what drove the artists to create them. 

Following our trip to Centre Georges Pompidou, the group was released for the day. A couple of guys and I grabbed a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel to watch the night’s Euro 2012 soccer game. Even though I have never been a big soccer fan, it has been fun to watch while in Europe amongst some of the most diehard fans of any sport in the world. After watching France whip up on the Ukraine 2-0, I called it a night to rest up for a busy Saturday.

Thursday June 14th

Thursday was fairly uneventful as we traveled from Munich to Paris, via Stuttgart. Thankfully, our professor must have checked “yes” for air conditioning, as our trains were fairly cool and enjoyable. I was actually slightly let down by the high-speed train. Even though I could tell we were going pretty fast as objects whizzed by, it didn’t feel quite as fast as I imagined. Regardless, the day of travel ended up being fairly easy and manageable.

Once we arrived at the hotel and dropped our bags off, we visited Notre Dame de Paris. Although we didn’t go inside the cathedral, it was pretty to see the church as the sun was setting. The main reason for visiting the church was its proximity to a bunch of restaurants. Since we didn’t arrive at the cathedral until about 7 or so, we all had dinner on our mind. After taking a few pictures at Notre Dame, the group was released for the night and we went searching for an authentic French meal. A small group of us ended up settling on a restaurant where for a fixed price you could order three different courses. I, believe it or not, began my meal with escargot, followed by roasted pork in honey sauce, and finished my meal with apple pie and cinnamon ice cream. I actually really enjoyed the escargot, although my portion was a little small. After a nice meal, we made our way back to our hotel to call it a night after a long day of travel.  

Wednesday June 13th

Wednesday thankfully began slightly later than Tuesday, although only by about an hour. The group again met up in the lobby to make our way towards the train station and take the hour-long train ride to Gersthofen. We were traveling to Gersthofen to visit Seele, a well-known manufacturer of curtain wall systems. Seele is remarkably similar and produces comparable products to the company we visited Tuesday, Gartner. Our tour of the company was similar as well, as we began our morning learning more about the company and followed the presentation with a tour around the factory. One aspect of Seele that differentiates the company from its competitors is its ability to self-manufacture glass for their facades. While most people wouldn’t know Seele’s glass from the next manufacturer’s, many have actually seen the glass before. Seele produces glass for all the flagship Apple stores, such as the completely glass store in New York City. It was extremely interesting to learn how Seele designed and manufactured the different types of glass for Apple, in addition to learning about how demanding Apple is as a client. While companies like Seele and Gartner are somewhat foreign to Building Science students, both companies provided an interesting look into the different elements needed for a successful curtain wall system.

BMW Headquarters

Following our train ride back into Munich, the group was let loose for the day. With a few hours left in the afternoon, a few other students and I decided to venture across town to the BMW Museum. With their headquarters in Munich, BMW is a German staple. While I would rather drive a nice truck than a BMW any day of the week, I was interested to learn more about BMW. After spending some time in the museum I was very surprised to learn that BMW began as an airplane engine company, followed by motorcycles, and then finally cars. For a company so revered for their cars, it was definitely not expecting their start to be in airplane engines. A factory tour was included with our admission to the museum, but there was a waiting list of three weeks to visit the factory! Amazed and upset by the wait, we decided to head back to the hotel for the evening after a pretty long day.

 

One nice thing about our hotel was that there was a small kitchen included in our room. Complete with a mini-fridge, stove, and microwave, the kitchen provided a way eat a few cheap meals in Munich. I normally bought a microwavable box of Barilla marinara pasta and a few pieces of fresh bread when I ate in the room, but fixing this food was easier said than done at first. Cooking the pasta required decently detailed instructions which were all in German. Not speaking German, I was afraid that if I simply winged it I would ruin the pasta. After some Googling, I was luckily able to find a website with the exact instructions for my pasta except in English. Even though microwaving a meal seems easy, the language barrier can throw a kink in any plans.

We relaxed the rest of Wednesday night in preparation to our train to Paris on Thursday. We will actually be taking a train from Munich to Stuttgart, followed by a high-speed train from Stuttgart to Paris. I’m pretty excited about the high-speed train, which apparently travels at close to 200 miles per hour.