Ending in Amsterdam

Time has gone by so quickly and it’s hard to believe the final day of class has arrived. We rode the train to Amsterdam, with everyone practicing our presentation parts on the way. We got a few strange looks!

After arriving at the central station, we got to see a little bit of the city on the 20-minute walk through the historic canal district to Amsterdam City Hall.

We gave a presentation to a few city employees along with another study abroad program. Fitting just a sample of the course into a 15-minute presentation took careful planning! We were able to present on everything we have learned in our class so far, focusing on the different bicycle facilities we learned about, and the techniques to measure walkability.

After our presentation, we got to learn about some of the history of Amsterdam, and how the city is changing. City officials provided information on their current planning initiatives and how Amsterdam is working to accommodate rapid growth of the city’s population. It was a great way to end the class since much of the city‘s presentation covered topics we had been discussing throughout the class.

Then, it was time to explore Amsterdam. We all grabbed some gyros for lunch, then had some time to explore on our own.

After that we had to say our goodbyes. A few of us were leaving straight from Amsterdam, while the rest of us headed back to Delft for our final night together.

Vaarwel Nederland!