European Cities - Photography?

chrism_scotland

chrism_scotland

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Luckily due to having to fly for work I've accumulated a good level of BMI Diamond Club points which I want to use to get away for a long weekend somewhere in Europe, but ideally I'd like to go somewhere that has some good photo opportunities, nice buildings etc.

I'm a big fan of architecture and landscape photography so any suggestions from the following would be appreciated:

Copenhagen
Brussels
Moscow
Berlin
Dublin
Hannover
Vienna
Zurich
Beirut

Cheers Guys
 
Even if you don't do all the touristy stuff Paris has some great buildings. Don't know if you have the option of going there though.

From your list I would cross out: Hannover, Copenhagen and Zurich. If I had to choose from that list I would go with either Moscow or Beirut. Nice buildings and it'll be an experience just going there.
 
Cheers mate, I can go to other places but I was mainly looking at places I can get to direct from Edinburgh, with the exception of Moscow and Beirut which I have to connect via Heathrow.

I think I might do a long weekend to a short haul destination like Paris or Brussels and a longer holiday to Moscow or Beirut as I do really fancy those two destinations.
 
Barcelona should really be your first choice if you love architecture. It's an architectural wonder.

I assume you have already been there.
 
Ruhan said:
Barcelona should really be your first choice if you love architecture. It's an architectural wonder.

I assume you have already been there.
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I've not been no, but I have heard good things, as mentioned I'm trying to use my airmiles to get free/cheap flights and sadly British Midland don't go to Barcelona although I might think about it in the summer.
 
Saint Petersburg would be on the top of my list.
 
Bruges, Amsterdam, Ghent? I don't know how the flights go.

Or what about Lubeck,in north Germany? It is a fantastic place on an island in the middle of the river Trave, small enough to see everything on foot, with wonderful old brick buildings and streets. Part of it was damaged in WW2 but it has all been very well restored. You can also take a boat up the river to Travemunde, on the Baltic.

We flew there from Edinburgh a couple of years ago and had a wonderful four days. Excellent restaurants, too! I can thoroughly recommend it. The only snag for photographers is that the medieval builders had problems with subsidence - walls and towers lean every which way and nothing is straight :lol:.

The flight actually went to Bremen, then train to Hamburg and Lubeck. It was an easy journey, and you can get discount rail tickets if you book in advance on the Deutsche Bahn site.
 
Prague is very nice. Have a look in my flickr, there are quite a few shots from my trip there.
 
Your list is good. But if you have the points to get yourself as far as Moscow. Then why not go to Rome? Surely for architecture it can not be beaten.
 
Berlin is great, this year will be our third trip. There's a lot to see, plenty of opportunity for landscape, architecture, street, etc. There's some good hotels and very good places to eat in the Friedrichshain district. It's in the old East, convenient for the landmark locations and with good transport links (direct S-bahn connection from Schönefeld to Warschauer Straße).

I can also vouch for Lubeck. I didn't have long enough (passing through) but I did make a mental note for a return trip.
 
Brugge is wonderful for buildings. I spent a good four days there wandering about taking some great shots. Nice freindly people as well, great beer but the food is a little dear.
 
Another vote for Berlin, too. And it's worth spending a day at nearby Potsdam.
 
As an architecture student, I'd vote for Berlin. It is a who's who of 21 Century architecture (don't mention zeee war!).

A brief list of must see buildings are:

Neues Museum - Chipperfield [simply stunning restoration, the most sensitive approach to an existing building I have ever seen]

Altes Museum - Schinkel

Dutch Embassy - OMA [you will need to book in advance]

Deutches Histories Museum - I.M. Pei [ real nice extension]

Tiergarten Cementary - Axel Schultes [ a bit of a journey but undoubtedly worth it, second only to Chipperfields Neues for me].


GSW Headquarters - Sauerbruch Hutton [a much photographed exterior].

Holocaust Memorial - Peter Eisenman [surprisingly emotive for Eisenman]

Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum (Library) - Max Dudler [ very rational exterior ]

Jewish Museum -Daniel Libeskind [ personally it is a shocking response with Libeskinds ego getting in the way of the exhibits but either way it will provoke reactions. A stunning installation of the 'lost souls' is the finest installation I have ever seen]

Social Housing - Herman Hertzberger [ a fine example of social housing very close to the Jewish Museum]

Academy of Arts - Behnisch + Partners

The Nordic Embassys - [various] worth a look but you wont get inside.

Reichstag restoration - Foster & Partners [ still not been inside as the que was ridiculous both by day and night but I cannot wait to get a fisheye shot of the roof]

Berlin Philharmonic Hall - Hans Scharoun [You simply must attend a performance. You will be blown away.]

Neue Staatsbibliothek - Hans Scharoun [worth a pop in if your nearby the philharmonic]

On top of those you have Gehry, Koolhaas, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Michael Wilford, Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, Gropius, Niemeyer,


Im sure I will think of more but some to get you started. :)
 
Charlatan said:
Reichstag restoration - Foster & Partners [ still not been inside as the que was ridiculous both by day and night but I cannot wait to get a fisheye shot of the roof]
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Book a guided tour. You turn up at the appointed time (usually early evening) and you don't queue. There's a bit of a talk as you sit in the spectators gallery above the chamber, and just before/after that you can walk round the corner and see the Russian graffitti from 1945 that's been left on the wall. For some reason you're not told about this on the tour.. so you need to make a loo break at this point as it's between the gallery and the loos.

One must-do of a trip to Berlin.. have an evening meal in the rotating restaurant of the TV tower. You will have to queue for this, both for the lift up and for the restaurant (unless you can get the booking numver to work, it's never worked for us), so aim to be there for a couple of hours before sunset. You can watch the sunset and the city light-up for the night. There's no rush once you're seated, so drag out your post-dinner coffee/beer for as long as you like. If you're lucky you'll get a lightning storm..
 
Alastair said:
Book a guided tour. You turn up at the appointed time (usually early evening) and you don't queue. There's a bit of a talk as you sit in the spectators gallery above the chamber, and just before/after that you can walk round the corner and see the Russian graffitti from 1945 that's been left on the wall. For some reason you're not told about this on the tour.. so you need to make a loo break at this point as it's between the gallery and the loos.

One must-do of a trip to Berlin.. have an evening meal in the rotating restaurant of the TV tower. You will have to queue for this, both for the lift up and for the restaurant (unless you can get the booking numver to work, it's never worked for us), so aim to be there for a couple of hours before sunset. You can watch the sunset and the city light-up for the night. There's no rush once you're seated, so drag out your post-dinner coffee/beer for as long as you like. If you're lucky you'll get a lightning storm..
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Your quite right. I should of mentioned the guided tour. They were not taking them they days I was over last as they had celebrations outside the Reichstag celebrating 21 years since the wall came down.

I never mentioned how fantastic the beer is. You can drink all night without fear of a hangover, magical stuff.
 
For a long weekend trip, Brussels and Brugges are a great pair. Brugges survived the wars almost entirely intact. Lots of variety in styles and some great opportunities. One of my favorite cities in Europe (the beer is awesome). About an hour train ride between them. You could spend 3-4 days spread over both and have a great time.

Thanks,
Rick
 
repap said:
Saint Petersburg would be on the top of my list.
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:plusone:

I loved it there and as it was the capital of Russia before the revolution it has all the really beautiful buildings and interesting places to visit.

The people are lovely and really welcoming. You can even get plenty of wedding shooting experience down by the river as most newly-weds go there straight from the church for a blessing :)
 
Tracer said:
Bruges, Amsterdam, Ghent? I don't know how the flights go.

Or what about Lubeck,in north Germany? It is a fantastic place on an island in the middle of the river Trave, small enough to see everything on foot, with wonderful old brick buildings and streets. Part of it was damaged in WW2 but it has all been very well restored. You can also take a boat up the river to Travemunde, on the Baltic.

We flew there from Edinburgh a couple of years ago and had a wonderful four days. Excellent restaurants, too! I can thoroughly recommend it. The only snag for photographers is that the medieval builders had problems with subsidence - walls and towers lean every which way and nothing is straight :lol:.

The flight actually went to Bremen, then train to Hamburg and Lubeck. It was an easy journey, and you can get discount rail tickets if you book in advance on the Deutsche Bahn site.
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:plusone: absolutely stunning architecture around here and you would love it
 
Berlin is definitely the best city I have every visited from a photographic point of view as there are is simply such a diversity of architecture that I have not seen before.

For example some areas of the old "wall" have been redeveloped into cutting edge modern designs, yet surrounded by the more traditional stuff.

There is a superb balance between old and new, compared with some cities which seem to have a huge number of buildings of more similar architecture.

For me variety is what matters.
 
Brussels bored me. I would second the suggestions of Rome, Prague and Barcelona....
 
Charlatan said:
As an architecture student, I'd vote for Berlin. It is a who's who of 21 Century architecture (don't mention zeee war!).
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I've not been to Berlin since 1987, when I was an architectural student visiting for the Internationale Bau-Ausstellung that took place then, but I'd take all those recommendations, especially the Hans Scharoun buildings. His handling of space is magnificent.

Mies' Neue Nationalgalerie is also just round the corner from the Philharmonie and well worth a visit. I'd also take a trip to Charlottenburg in the suburbs for some marvellous 30s modernist houses and Potsdam for Mendelssohn's expressionist Einstein Tower (off limits in a military zone in the East in 1987).

+1 for Barcelona, if only for Gaudi and the Mies pavilion, but there's a wealth of 19th/early 20th century Modernista (essentially Catalan Art Nouveau, of which Gaudi was the leading light) buildings by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Josep Maria Jujol and others, followed by a wave of other new building from the late 80s onward when Barcelona was one of the hottest cities on the planet for architecture.
 
Musicman said:
I've not been to Berlin since 1987, when I was an architectural student visiting for the Internationale Bau-Ausstellung that took place then, but I'd take all those recommendations, especially the Hans Scharoun buildings. His handling of space is magnificent.

Mies' Neue Nationalgalerie is also just round the corner from the Philharmonie and well worth a visit. I'd also take a trip to Charlottenburg in the suburbs for some marvellous 30s modernist houses and Potsdam for Mendelssohn's expressionist Einstein Tower (off limits in a military zone in the East in 1987).

+1 for Barcelona, if only for Gaudi and the Mies pavilion, but there's a wealth of 19th/early 20th century Modernista (essentially Catalan Art Nouveau, of which Gaudi was the leading light) buildings by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Josep Maria Jujol and others, followed by a wave of other new building from the late 80s onward when Barcelona was one of the hottest cities on the planet for architecture.
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The Mies's building name escaped me when I posted initially. It couches the ground in a very delicate way. We did make the trip to Potsdam but for the time v worth it just didnt work for me. I enjoyed a sundial in the garden more than I enjoyed the Einstein Tower.

Id also throw Paris into the mix, a stunning collection of old/new and scales from small/enormous. I can produce a similar list if you would like more information.
 
Charlatan said:
The Mies's building name escaped me when I posted initially. It couches the ground in a very delicate way.
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It does sum up the problem of Mies for me. As an example of architectural sculpture, it's fabulous. I love the detailing. As you say, it's very delicately poised.

However, when it comes to addressing the programme of the building, it is rather less satisfactory. The actual gallery spaces are all hidden away underground in the plinth beneath the main pavilion and are rather dull and gloomy as a result.

When you compare it with the delightful games that Richard Meier plays with the routes through his gallery buildings, it's rather lacking. Round the corner, Scharoun takes the circulation spaces surrounding the Philharmonie's main concert chamber and works them into a dramatic kinaesthetic experience in their own right. Denys Lasdun did something similar at the National Theatre, which I always enjoy visiting for the same reasons.

I get the feeling with Mies that he doesn't really engage fully with the brief; his buildings deliberately address only those issues which he chooses to address and are often much more about questions that remain unanswered. His most successful work in Barcelona had practically no programme as far as I'm aware, which says rather a lot.

I always prefer the likes of Scharoun and Aalto (even Le Corbusier) who acknowledged that human beings will make and use their buildings (I'm really a disciple of William Lethaby at heart :))
 
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