(This blog post is for the week of 1/30/2012)

Over the weekend, me and a couple of the other people on the program visited Amsterdam. Our stay in the city itself was significantly shorter than expected due to train delays. On the way there, our train dropped all of the passengers off in a town in Germany instead of Amsterdam because of unexplained problems. As repayment, the passengers were bused to either Einthoven or Utrecht, both of which are in the Netherlands. From there, we had to find our own way to Amsterdam. We eventually arrived in Amsterdam five hours later than originally scheduled.

On the other hand, we still managed to see quite a bit of the city. We visited the Anne Frank House, which does not allow pictures inside, as well as the Rijksmuseum, which, among other things, has “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt. For those who have not seen it in person, “The Night Watch” was painted large enough to cover a decently sized wall. They also possessed art of a different sort; there were quite a few ornate weapons on display, such as the cannon in the picture. Our time in Amsterdam was the first time I had seen widespread snow on the ground, and the canals in the city were all frozen or freezing. As we were walking back to the train station to leave, we witnessed a large group of people ice-skating on a frozen canal.

On the way back from Amsterdam, our train was stopped for about one to one and a half hours. This was because another train had broken down and our train was to take on all of the passengers. Eventually, our train made it to Cologne, and we were able to find another train to Bonn, which had problems of its own on the way there. At least, we were able to find out that the cold weather here was at least partly responsible for the train problems.

I also visited Cologne on Wednesday. However, I believe that the other posters have covered that pretty well, so I will not repeat everything here. I will say that the cathedral is fantastic, and anyone who is even just passing through Cologne should take the time to see it. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera for that trip, so I have no pictures of my own to show.