Starting the amsterdam week off with a bike tour! The tour took us through the bike paths and backstreets of a few of amsterdams bigger neighborhoods. We went across bridges, through a park and generally tried to stay out of the way of the locals (we did not succeed, we were yelled at in Dutch, but I didn’t understand it so it was fine). It was a nice tour, we stopped at several different places so that our guide could give us some info on the area and midway through we stopped for a coffee break (and I do mean coffee, not the other stuff they sell in coffee shops here). The tour was 3 hours in all and I learned quite a lot about Dutch history and architecture.

Next I visited De Oude Kerk (the old church) and De Nieuwe Kerk (the new church). Both churches were huge and decorated with stained glass windows, sculptures, and grave stone floors. Both churches were also at one point on fire and flip flopped back and fourth between being catholic and protestant (depending on who was in charge) so their architecture is a little inconsistent. They had audio guides to tell you more about the buildings.

In the old church there were a couple of interesting art installations (one of which had a bunch of bells you could ring) and in the new church there was an exhibit on the history of the royal family of Amsterdam that had videos you could watch.

After the churches I wandered around the area a bit and then headed back to my hostel where I met some of my roommates. The first girl I met is from Germany and she and I chatted for quite awhile. I learned a lot about German transportation (apparently the only non punctual part of Germany is the trains and the Germans are mad about it), politics and schooling. The next girl I met was from london and she was really sweet and asked me about how my time there had been. A busy first day here in amsterdam but I think I’ve learned one of the most important things already: keep out of the way of the cyclists!