Hello from Amsterdam

We left Minneapolis a little around 10:30 am Monday morning. After a six hour layover at Chicago O'Hare we were on our way to Amsterdam. We arrived at about 9:15 this morning, Tuesday. The good news is that, unlike our 2003 trip, everyone's luggage arrived as well! We were met by the travel rep, Rita, and took a bus to our hotel, the Hotel Acro, in the heart of the Museum district. We are about a block from the Rijksmuseum.

Because it was so early our rooms were not yet ready. We were able to get one room and stashed all the luggage there. Around 11 am we left for our walking tour, the aim of which was to start getting everyone acclimated to the city and to keep everyone from going to sleep, thus setting themselves up for a week of late nights and sleepy days.

For those of you who know the city, we walked up through the Leidseplein, down Kalverstraat, up to Centraal Station, to Dam Square via the Red Light District, down Rokin and across Kalverstraat to the Spui area, and back over to the Bloemenmarkt. From there we split up so that the students could start to explore on their own.

The very good news is that the hotel has one PC in the lobby with Internet access and I'm able to access the Internet wirelessly from my room. Hopefully, once we all feel more "settled in" I'll be able to start posting notes from the students.

In the morning we will be taking a bus tour of the city including a stop at the clog and cheese factory. After that we will visit the Dutch Resistance Museum, followed by our welcome dinner at Haesje Claes.

This week is largely a week of learning the city via some "touristy" activities as well as learning a bit about World War II era , e.g., the resistance and the Holocaust. Please stay tuned!