Addina Tritle - Decathlon

The story begins with a couple Tesla's and some Mercedes which happened to be our taxi's a little different from the USA... just a little. After enjoying a luxurious taxi we arrived at our glorious hotel most importantly with free WIFI! After taking a short cat nap we were ready to go on our walking tours of Amsterdam rich with history and secrets of the city. It was a humbling experience to see Amsterdam as a regular citizen. Our first day here was short lived considering we 6 lost hours, none the less we were able to see the beautiful city we can call "home" for the next 11 days. 

The second day might be one of my favorite days consisting of windmill's and cheese. Gerda was our tour guide for the two best features of Amsterdam. " God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland" this is due to the polders. Polders are areas of land which once were water and sectioned off to become farm land, originally water was pumped out by windmills now it is powered by electricity. The cheese market we visited was in a city located outside of Amsterdam called Alkmaar, 1,000-1,400 pounds of cheese is delivered by truck and only available at market on Fridays. After the cheese market we were lucky enough to visit a windmill that was preserved and turned into a museum to show how farmers would use windmill's to keep water away from their crops. This was one of many utilities a windmill had to offer in the late 1600's to local farmers. After our cheese tour we went to get our gear from the European Athletic Championship (insert picture here of gear). We are lucky enough to be able to visit a wonderful city such as Amsterdam due to our partnership with the European Athletic Championship. One event highlighted in this prestigious event is the decathlon,  is made up of four runs (100m/400m/1500m/110 hurdles), three jumps (long/high/pole vault) and three throws Gabor put/discus/javelin) over two consecutive days. This event is awarded based on a point system based on  fastest time and furthest distance.  One of the most interesting facts about the decathlon is that this event is mainly made up of male participants. The decathlon was one of the original events in the Olympic Games. Although the decathlon has evolved over the years it still involves overall skill sets the "world's greatest athlete" would need to possess. Last but most importantly not least, as a group we had a canal pizza cruise. It was an amazing experience considering we were able to see many of the canals during our walking tour but through a different perspective. We are beyond excited to see what the rest of Amsterdam has to offers!!!