Benny's Adventures: My trip to Amsterdam, part 1: bike trip on the Amstel

I'm writing this post from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, where I am enjoying fantastic weather and great company. The Netherlands is a country in Europe that borders Belgium and Germany, two countries that I have already visited. My little map on this blog is starting to fill up with blue, especially in Western Europe. I have now added an inset on my map of visited countries so that it will be easier for you to see where the Netherlands is. Do you see what body of water the Netherlands is on? That's right -- it's the North Sea again, the same sea that I saw in Scotland and in Antwerp.

This morning, I went to a museum in Amsterdam to see an exhibit about Impressionist art. The Impressionists started painting in France a long time ago, back in the 1870s and 1880s. Instead of just painting what they saw as accurately as they could, they tried to paint in a way that gave an "impression" of what they were looking at. If you look closely at an Impressionist painting, you can see lots of splotchy brush strokes. If you stand back, you can get a sense that the whole landscape is moving beautifully. Here I am in front of a painting titled "Woman in a Garden" by Claude Monet, who was one of the most famous Impressionists.

I ponder the meaning of a Claude Monet painting.

After I was done looking at the art, I decided that it was time to go outside and enjoy a beautiful, sunny Amsterdam day.

I look out the window of the museum at an Amsterdam canal.

For my adventure outside, I decided to go for a bike ride with my friends Kyle and Annie along the Amstel River. The Amstel is a river that flows into the North Sea in Amsterdam. Amsterdam got its name because it was built after people built a dam on the Amstel. Our goal was to go upriver away from Amsterdam to a little town called Ouderkerk, which is a little over five miles from Amsterdam.

My legs are too small to reach the pedals, so I had to find a different way to ride the bike. I tried sitting on front, but that seemed kind of dangerous, so I decided to ride in Annie's bag.

I sit on the front of the bike.

I ride in Annie's bag.

This is the way to travel!

The Netherlands is known for having lots and lots of old windmills. The windmills can be used for lots of things, including grinding grain and pumping water. Since much of the Netherlands is really low, people needed windmills to pump out the water so they could make usable farmland. If you go along the Amstel from Amsterdam to Ouderkerk, you will see two windmills.