Greetings from Amsterdam!

I'm in Amsterdam! It was a really long bus ride with a very early start. The bus ride was very interesting. When we crossed over from England to France we used the Eurotunnel. Basically, our bus drove into a large shipping container sized compartment. The containers are actually attached to a train. After everyone is loaded up both vehicles and people are driven through the tunnel. It is a very quick crossing. We were in France after about half an hour.

Driving through France and Belgium was really great. It was oddly familiar. It was very flat. The landscape reminded me a lot of Amish country in Indiana. Instead of white wooden buildings the farms we passed had red brick buildings. Throw in a few more trees and a couple horses and buggies and I would have sworn I was back in Indiana. 

We stopped in Ghent, Belgium. While we were there we stopped at the Design Museum of Ghent. It was a great museum. The building that the museum was in was unlike any museum I've seen before. It is a very old building with rough wooden floors. The next room might be ultra modern and have a newer stone floor. It was really neat to see how they married the old with the new. 

While we were there they had an exhibit about light. They had amazing displays of light everywhere. Here is a picture of my favorite display. I loved how they put a very modern display in a traditional room. There was light everywhere. It was extremely beautiful. 

After I was done visiting the museum I had some free time. Not too far away from the museum was the canal. I sat on the edge of the canal and sketched for about an hour. It was a lot of fun. People were coming up behind me and watching me draw. It was a very new experience for me. I don't have a scanned copy of the drawing yet but here was my view. It was so surreal to be there. 

It took another three hours to get to Amsterdam from Ghent. I was very happy when we finally arrived. Tomorrow we get to go to a museum and explore the city. I can't wait to see Amsterdam.