Day 3 in Amsterdam was very successful (and very rainy!). Today our group got the pleasure of visiting Zaanse Schans. The town is about 40 minutes north of Amsterdam and is a famous tourist location. Right when we got there it immediately smelled like chocolate. The main attraction of the town is their windmills, which we all had the pleasure of entering. We all saw an operating sawmill and it was interesting how so see how they function. The workers can choose how long they want to set the sails on the windmills depending on how fast the wind is blowing. They can also completely rotate the direction of the sails to always catch the wind. One recurring theme in The Netherlands is sustainability, and this is scene in the windmills too. All of the leftover sawdust from cutting wood is sent to local stables for horses to walk on to ensure that no materials are wasted.

Our group was able to visit a clog store and see how traditional Dutch clogs are made. Rather than taking a few days to shape a clog, a machine can do it in roughly five minutes. All of the wood used is fresh and it truly is an art. We also were able to visit a cheese shop, which was my favorite part of the day. I enjoyed trying many different flavors of cheeses and bought a few for myself to have later. The Netherlands has a lot of fresh cheese options, and their cheeses can still last weeks without going bad. They don’t have many processed cheeses like America. The town museum was educational and unlike most museums I’ve been too. The audio tour went through the development of the town and how different materials such as starches and chocolate are prominent. The museum ended with an experience through a model of biscuit and chocolate factories. They showed supply chain diagrams of how each product, such as cacao, is turned into their final product. It was nice to see something that directly relates to our course topic in the middle of a museum.

I finished the day in a vintage thrift store with a few of my friends. The thrifting culture is very big in The Netherlands and there are stores on almost every block. This makes sense since this country isn’t very wasteful and tries to reuse materials. I am very excited for an early morning tomorrow at Royal Flora Holland. Doei!