At 3:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday April 29th, a group of 7 students and 4 Chamberlain staff piled into a school van and headed north to Boston to catch the red-eye bound for Amsterdam. This was the start of a 10-day adventure in Holland and Germany where they would be introduced to different cultures, history, art and sciences. Following is a sampling of what they experienced.
- April 30th- Picked up rental car, Holland Passes and drove to and settled into rental house in Loosdrecht, Netherlands.
- May 1- Tour of Amsterdam to visit the flower market, Peace Palace (shousing the Permanent Court of Arbitration to settle international disputes) and Parliament, the Delft factory and the diamond factory.
- May 2- Canal boat tour, Amsterdam Dungeons, visit to the NEMO interactive science museum, Jewish Historical Museum (in the heart of the former Jewish Quarter), Van Gogh Museum (world’s largest collection of his work along side pieces by Gaugin and Monet) and TheHouseboatmuseum.
- May 3- Tour of Utrecht’s Dom Tower in Utrecht’s 600+ tear old medieval church (465 steps to the top) followed by tour of Slot Zuylen Castle.
- May 4- Cultural festival followed by visit to a local park.
- May 5- Packed up rental car to head to second vacation home in Sint Athonis, Netherlands. Dinner out that evening.
- May 6- A group bike ride to a local lake for a swim.
- May 7- Trip to Cologne, Germany to do some shopping and visit the Imhoff-Stollwerck Museum (a.k.a. The Chocolate Factory) with free chocolate samples as a highlight.
- May 8- Tour of Xanten, Germany with shopping. Ended with an evening at the spa, an outdoor salt water pool.
- May 9– Our weary travelers return to the U.S.
When asked about their travels, student, Matt V. shared that he loved the diamond factory because there was “lots of expensive jewelry” and he learned how they cut diamonds. He was especially exuberant in discussing the visit to NEMO where he and others were able to pull himself up with his own body weight via a pulley system and later allowed to trap himself in a giant bubble produced by a huge bubble maker. Michelle Hunt noted that they struggled in getting the kids to leave the NEMO museum. It’s a wonder they were able to pack so much in one day. For example on May 2nd they visited 4 museums, did a canal boat tour and then participated in the Amsterdam Dungeons guided tour which ended with a roller coaster ride.
All in all the best memory for Matt V. was “spending time with everyone on the trip” while staff member Joe Brito was most impressed at the beauty of the churches.
