skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Metropol Parasol, the world's largest wooden structure, is located in Seville, Spain. It was designed by German architect Jurgen Mayer and was finished in 2011. It houses a market and underground archaeological museum, and has panoramic rooftop walkways.
When I saw this in a magazine, I was pretty blown away. I think it's a pretty amazing structure, and would love to see it in person someday!
This was built for the 2008 Summer Olympics and hosted swimming and diving events of the Olympics. Every time I saw the Water Cube during television coverage of this Olympics, I thought about was an awesome looking structure this is. I wish I could see it in person.Some info. about the Water Cube, "The structure comprises a steel space frame, the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only eight one-thousandths of an inch in total thickness. The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs.
The outer wall is based on the Weaire-Phelan structure, a foam (structure formed by soap bubbles). The pattern is formed by taking a slice through the foam, and it was chosen in preference to the Kelvin foam because the more complex Weaire-Phelan structure results in more irregular, organic patterns than slices through the regular Kelvin foam.
The structure will have a capacity of 17,000 during the games that will be reduced to 6,000 afterwards. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square metres and will cover a total of 7.8 acres."
At the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis, you have the opportunity to see how its products are made. Even though I am not a big beer drinker, I have enjoyed visiting the brewery. On the tour, you see the brewhosue, the beechwood aging cellars, the packaging facilities and so on. And I really enjoy seeing the Clydesdales. Those over 21 get complimenatary samples of products after the tour.
.jpg)
At 630 feet, the Arch is the tallest national monument in the United States. It is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial site. The Arch weighs 17,246 tons and was made with nine hundred tons of stainless steel. It is really fun to ride in the little tram up to the top and look out over the city. Looking at it from a distance, it looks so narrow on top, like people wouldn't be able to fit up there! I have been to the top a couple times. The Museum of Westward Expansion at the Arch is pretty interesting--you can learn all about the history of the west, Lewis and Clark, and American Indians. The Arch is such an awesome icon. http://www.gatewayarch.com/Arch/
St. Louis Union Station was once the largest and busiest rail terminal in the world. It now has many stores, restaurants, and a hotel. This is a fun place to go as there are novelty kinds of shops, St. Louis souvenir stores etc. There is a Hard Rock Cafe, Landry's, and Houlihan's just to name a few. And the Fudgery is awesome--not only do they make fudge, they put on little shows getting the people who are watching to participate in cheers, songs, etc. You can see some beautiful architecture at Union Station too. Definitely worth visiting.http://www.stlouisunionstation.com/
The website for Millennium Park describes it this way: "Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers."One of my favorite things in Millennium Park is the Cloud Gate sculpture, or "The Bean" as some like to call it. It is pretty cool to see the city reflected in it. Another cool thing is the Crown Fountain, "The fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images from a broad social spectrum of Chicago citizens, a reference to the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, where faces of mythological beings were sculpted with open mouths to allow water, a symbol of life, to flow out. Plensa adapted this practice by having faces of Chicago citizens projected on LED screens and having water flow through a water outlet in the screen to give the illusion of water spouting from their mouths. The collection of faces, Plensa's tribute to Chicagoans, was taken from a cross-section of 1,000 residents."There is a lot to see in the park. Check out the Millennium Park website here.
This fountain is one of the largest in the world. It is a pretty cool thing to check out. Whenever my friend Abigail and I go to Taste of Chicago in Grant Park, or really whenever I'm in that area with someone, we always stop by the fountain and get some pics.
I have been to several art museums in different cities, but the Art Institute of Chicago is my favorite. I love that there are so many paintings of Christ and paintings with Christian themes. My favorite is The Crucifixion by Francisco de Zurbaran (there is a post about this in my Art posts). There are paintings by Monet, Manet, and Picasso. And there are other well known paintings like Georges Seurat's A Sunday on la Grande Jatte or Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day. I also really enjoy the Thorne Miniature Rooms. These 68 rooms give glimpses of European interiors from the 13th century to the 1930s and American furnishings from the 17th century to the 1930s. It's very cool.There is so much to see at the Art Institute; one can easily spend a lot of time there looking at all the magnificent artwork. Visit the website of the Art Institute here to see some of the art.
This is a 3300 foot pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. I always enjoy going there, as the atmosphere is very festive. There are various restaurants and unique shops. There are attractions like the Ferris Wheel (with a great view) and the Carousel. There's the Museum of Stained Glass Windows and the Children's Museum. And there are various musical and theatrical performances held there. Of course there are boat rides available too. There is plenty to do and it is fun to just walk around at Navy Pier. http://www.navypier.com/home.html
Usually when I visit a city, I like to check out its zoo. I have been to quite a few zoos, but Brookfield Zoo in IL is still my favorite. There are so many animals there. You can easily spend the whole day there and not see everything. And I love this zoo because they have Tropic World. Tropic World is a created rain forest atmosphere that has many monkeys and gorillas which are my favorite animals. They also have an area called The Living Coast that has penguins, sharks and sea turtles. I like how this zoo is set up, and always enjoy my visits there. There is a nice interactive map on the website that shows all they have. http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/default.asp
This is definitely something to check out while in the Cleveland area. Lots of cool artifacts of various musicians--outfits, letters written by performers, guitars, all sorts of stuff. And there are also videos and interactive kiosks. Once someone has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, virtually every song of that performer is put on a computerized jukebox, so you can search by artist and hear pretty much all their music if you want. There was one interactive thing where you could select an artist and then see who their influences were and hear clips of music from each of them. A person could really spend days there. If I were alone, I could probably be there a long, long time listening to music! http://www.rockhall.com/I really think this building is cool too. It's very unique.
This museum is definitely something to check out if you're in Toronto. I love the extension on the building, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, which the Museum's website calls, "one of the most important architectural projects of our time and a distinctive new symbol of Toronto for the 21st century." I think it's awesome looking! There is quite a lot to see in the museum--lots of World Culture and History Galleries. The Canadian gallery is cool, displaying various images, symbols and emblems of Canada.http://www.rom.on.ca/index.php
Casa Loma is definitely something to see while in Toronto. In 1911, Sir Henry Pellatt drew up plans for his dream castle. It took 3 years and cost $3.5 million to build. He had made a lot of money by founding the Toronto Electric Company, enjoying a monopoly on supplying street lighting to the city and having stock in the railroad and other companies. Eventually Pellatt went bankrupt, largely due to him losing his monopoly of electrical power when public ownership of electricity was allowed.
The castle is beautiful. It has 98 rooms, secret passageways, and underground tunnel, stables, gardens, etc. http://www.casaloma.org/Main/MainDyn.asp
The CN Tower is Canada’s National Tower. Info. on the CN Tower says it is the World’s Tallest Building, though some other sources say technically this is no longer the case. At any rate, it is certainly one of the tallest buildings in the world at 1,815 ft, 5 inches (or 553.33 metres). At 1,122 feet., there is a glass floor you can walk on that looks straight down to the ground. It is actually way stronger than a commercial floor, but psychologically it is freaky walking on this glass and seeing the ground WAY down below. At 1,136 feet there is the Look Out Level which provides a fabulous view of the city of Toronto and beyond. Then you can go up even higher to the Sky Pod which is at 1,465 feet. The CN Tower is an awesome place to visit, and going there was one of my favorite things to do in Toronto.
The pic on top is the CN Tower of course. The picture below it was taken from The Look Out Level of the CN Tower—you can see what an awesome view you have.
Metropol Parasol, the world's largest wooden structure, is located in Seville, Spain. It was designed by German architect Jurgen Mayer and was finished in 2011. It houses a market and underground archaeological museum, and has panoramic rooftop walkways.
This was built for the 2008 Summer Olympics and hosted swimming and diving events of the Olympics. Every time I saw the Water Cube during television coverage of this Olympics, I thought about was an awesome looking structure this is. I wish I could see it in person.
At the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis, you have the opportunity to see how its products are made. Even though I am not a big beer drinker, I have enjoyed visiting the brewery. On the tour, you see the brewhosue, the beechwood aging cellars, the packaging facilities and so on. And I really enjoy seeing the Clydesdales. Those over 21 get complimenatary samples of products after the tour.
.jpg)
At 630 feet, the Arch is the tallest national monument in the United States. It is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial site. The Arch weighs 17,246 tons and was made with nine hundred tons of stainless steel. It is really fun to ride in the little tram up to the top and look out over the city. Looking at it from a distance, it looks so narrow on top, like people wouldn't be able to fit up there! I have been to the top a couple times. The Museum of Westward Expansion at the Arch is pretty interesting--you can learn all about the history of the west, Lewis and Clark, and American Indians. The Arch is such an awesome icon. 
St. Louis Union Station was once the largest and busiest rail terminal in the world. It now has many stores, restaurants, and a hotel. This is a fun place to go as there are novelty kinds of shops, St. Louis souvenir stores etc. There is a Hard Rock Cafe, Landry's, and Houlihan's just to name a few. And the Fudgery is awesome--not only do they make fudge, they put on little shows getting the people who are watching to participate in cheers, songs, etc. You can see some beautiful architecture at Union Station too. Definitely worth visiting.
The website for Millennium Park describes it this way: "Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers."
This fountain is one of the largest in the world. It is a pretty cool thing to check out. Whenever my friend Abigail and I go to Taste of Chicago in Grant Park, or really whenever I'm in that area with someone, we always stop by the fountain and get some pics.
I have been to several art museums in different cities, but the Art Institute of Chicago is my favorite. I love that there are so many paintings of Christ and paintings with Christian themes. My favorite is The Crucifixion by Francisco de Zurbaran (there is a post about this in my Art posts). 
This is a 3300 foot pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. I always enjoy going there, as the atmosphere is very festive. There are various restaurants and unique shops. There are attractions like the Ferris Wheel (with a great view) and the Carousel. There's the Museum of Stained Glass Windows and the Children's Museum. And there are various musical and theatrical performances held there. Of course there are boat rides available too. There is plenty to do and it is fun to just walk around at Navy Pier. 
Usually when I visit a city, I like to check out its zoo. I have been to quite a few zoos, but Brookfield Zoo in IL is still my favorite. There are so many animals there. You can easily spend the whole day there and not see everything. And I love this zoo because they have Tropic World. Tropic World is a created rain forest atmosphere that has many monkeys and gorillas which are my favorite animals. They also have an area called The Living Coast that has penguins, sharks and sea turtles. I like how this zoo is set up, and always enjoy my visits there. There is a nice interactive map on the website that shows all they have. 
This is definitely something to check out while in the Cleveland area. Lots of cool artifacts of various musicians--outfits, letters written by performers, guitars, all sorts of stuff. And there are also videos and interactive kiosks. Once someone has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, virtually every song of that performer is put on a computerized jukebox, so you can search by artist and hear pretty much all their music if you want. There was one interactive thing where you could select an artist and then see who their influences were and hear clips of music from each of them. A person could really spend days there. If I were alone, I could probably be there a long, long time listening to music! 
This museum is definitely something to check out if you're in Toronto. I love the extension on the building, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, which the Museum's website calls, "one of the most important architectural projects of our time and a distinctive new symbol of Toronto for the 21st century." I think it's awesome looking! There is quite a lot to see in the museum--lots of World Culture and History Galleries. The Canadian gallery is cool, displaying various images, symbols and emblems of Canada.
Casa Loma is definitely something to see while in Toronto. In 1911, Sir Henry Pellatt drew up plans for his dream castle. It took 3 years and cost $3.5 million to build. He had made a lot of money by founding the Toronto Electric Company, enjoying a monopoly on supplying street lighting to the city and having stock in the railroad and other companies. Eventually Pellatt went bankrupt, largely due to him losing his monopoly of electrical power when public ownership of electricity was allowed. 
