Week 3 - Norderney & Amsterdam

This week was filled with traveling. When we got back from Ireland, we spent a day in Bonn and took off to Norderney by train the next morning. As soon as we took the fairy over to this small island, we were given our designated bike to travel the city with. On the second day, we made a trip to the Badehaus, which was a relaxing time. There were salt pools, steam rooms, dry saunas, and waterfall showers. The Badehaus was the highlight of the trip because of the much needed relaxation time. Later that day, Chandler, Bryan, Matthew, and me were playing soccer on a turf field right next to the dorm rooms. We were later greeted by a German class of about 25 kids, so we had a nice friendly game of soccer. It was all 4 of us guys against all of the German boys, and later on some of the girls in our program joined in. All in all, it was a great match and definitely a fun experience.
I attached a photo of all of us below on the field. I highly recommend spending some time at the beach. The water is freezing, but it's nice once you get used to it. On top of all of this, we went on numerous bike tours and we got to walk across the mud flaps with a guide, which was a great learning experience about the biodiversity of Norderney.

The city of Amsterdam is indescribable. Since it's a tourist hotspot, there's tons of people from all over the world. The buildings are tilted, and canals travel through the entire city. On Saturday, we got to visit the Anne Frank House. In middle school, my class learned about the history of Anne Frank and her diary, but not until now, I actually got to understand where she lived. The tour was about an hour long. It focused on the living situations, the families, and the Nazis capturing. Later that day, we went to the Van Gogh museum. I had no idea about the mass amounts of paintings and drawings that Vincent Van Gogh made over his lifetime. The museum talked about his history, mental breakdowns, and path to success after his death. His art was magnificent, and I would recommend going here. Later in the evening, we went on a canal tour around Amsterdam. This was a great way to wrap up the trip.