As our time in the Netherlands winds down, we are all doing our best to make the most of each day. Today was no exception and we made sure to keep busy throughout. We started off strong with a tour of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) business campus. Although I was not particularly interested in the business school side of things, given my engineering background, our off-brand pathfinder for the day did an excellent job of keeping things interesting along the way. He sprinkled in the occasional fun fact, such as the tidbit that Amsterdam’s canals lie on a base of about one meter of mud and two meters of bicycles. Unfortunately, when people fatally jump or fall into the canal, their death is often a result of them getting stuck on one of these hundreds of bikes and not being able to free themselves. (Note to self: do not jump in any canals.) Our tour guide also shared with us some information about dry, above ground bicycles. We got to take a look inside UvA’s massive bike garage. In total it consists of about seven lengthy rooms where professors and students alike can store their favorite form of transportation. They even have a sensor system which displays how many spots are available in each row and a ticketing system to regularly remove abandoned bikes.
From here we made our way towards the canal near central station to hop on our third and final boat of the trip, with the intention of getting a closer look at one of Amsterdam’s most iconic features. Our hour-long canal cruise had us weaving between towns and under bridges, creating an experience I could only accurately describe as peacefully magical. Someone even remarked that it felt like we were on a ride at Disney World, so I guess this feeling of magic was universal among us. I had to fight to keep my eyes open and experience the breathtaking views as the gentle rocking of the boat attempted to lull me to sleep. A built-in headphone/speaker system occasionally provided us with interesting facts, including details concerning the design decisions behind historical buildings and an instance in which the queen swam in the canal for a charity event. I could have continued cruising around for hours, but we eventually made our return to the starting point and back onto land.
Although our built up exhaustion made us contemplate returning to the hotel for a late afternoon nap, most of the group ultimately decided to take in some more of the city. A group of about ten of us meandered throughout the streets of Amsterdam, exchanging stories and collecting souvenirs for our loved ones along the way. Eventually we made our return to the hostel, and are now awaiting dinner and whatever the rest of the evening has in store for us.