Into Amsterdam

Today we traveled to the heart of Amsterdam. We had sort of a tour of the city led by one our professors. He told us about the origins of the city and how it has changed since it's early days. The Dutch people have a passion for their old city, and take some extreme measures to keep the architecture and design of the buildings intact, as seen in some of these pictures. (this second picture is of the intricate ceiling of one of the churches)

















We also were given a tour and allowed in the museum of Central Station. Central Station is the major transportation hub of the city. Trains, trams, buses, and soon metros will all converge on this huge station. The city is currently working on a underground metro that will connect the north half of the city to the south half of the city. The amazing part of this project is that they are creating it without altering the surface, which means they have to dig beneath the river, buildings and roads without disrupting the foundations. To say the least this is quite the engineering feat. (the next picture is Central Station)

After this stuff we set upon the city to explore as we wanted. We found some sweet restaurants and stores. The french fries were really good and the pizza was awesome. The whole day was really cold though which was the only downer.

The trip back was an interesting trip though. We boarded the bus in Amsterdam at about 5:30pm hoping to arrive in our base town in 15 minutes. We did arrive in 15 minutes, but it took us a moment too long to realize it. One of our group made it out the doors before they closed on us. We were stuck until the next stop. Getting off here, we soon asked the next bus driver if they were headed where we needed. She said yes, so we boarded the train. After just a few minutes, we realized it was still heading in the wrong direction. We pushed the button and waited for the next stop... 10 minutes away. Finally, we got the opportunity to wait another 15 minutes for the right bus. Getting on the next one and confirming that it did get to our town, we got home at about 7:00. I think we all learned to make sure we pay better attention and get off when we should. It was a fun day despite the various waits.