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July 18th

After a fun night of celebrating our professor Marc's 50th birthday in Malmö, it was time to get the show back on the road and head to the Netherlands. We left our hotel at 5:45 AM in order to catch a 6:30 AM train from Malmö back to Copenhagen. This ride only took 35 mins to go across and under the channel between Sweden and Denmark. I had never crossed a channel on a train before so it was quite fun to experience.

Once we got to Copenhagen and went through airport security we had a little over an hour to burn until our flight to Amsterdam was boarding. Some of the group had rougher mornings than others...


The flight to Amsterdam was fast, in fact, they even shaved 20 mins off of the original wait time. Once we got our luggage we hurried to the train station of the massive transportation hub that is the Amsterdam Airport and caught the first train to Utrecht. This train ride only took 45 mins to go 22 miles. I found it very comfortable as well.

Once we got to our hostel I didn't do much but eat some food and rest. What was really interesting about this day was the travel. We were able to go through four major cities, through three countries without using a single car. This is absurd to me, and the best part is that it was the most convenient and fastest way to get to Amsterdam from Malmö to Utrecht (unless we wanted to spend an absolute fortune).

It got me thinking about how amazing a light rail system could be in the U.S. If you were able to implement a train system like this in the east coast or even down the west coast it would not only cut out tons of car trips but encourage more travel within our country. The more I experience Europe's ideas of transportation the more I realize how far behind the United States really is.

Heres a great video of Jaden adding a sticker to the collection on the luggage wheel in the Amsterdam airport.




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