Today after an extremely quick breakfast the group travelled to the Watersnood museum. The museum is modeled after the Dutch flood of February 1st, 1953. During this time the country of the Netherlands was completely destroyed by the torrid water from the sea. One of the ways that the Dutch government solved this issue was to build large structures to block delta areas and keep coastal towns safe during floods and storms like the one in 1953. These structures allow the Dutch to construct land on bodies of water that can block oncoming seawater. The Watersnood museum itself is actually one of these structures. As you walked through the museum you get to experience each and every part and see the history of the event dating back to 1953. This event reminds me specifically of one of the cities in my home state Alaska. As a result of our various earthquakes there are many tsunamis on our coastal towns. One of these completely crippled and destroyed towns such as Homer and Seward in Alaska. As I was walking through the museum, I was able to draw many parallels to Alaskan maritime history.

Our second part of the day saw us visit the park at Delta Works. Delta Works was also developed because of the floods in the Netherlands in 1953. Delta Works hosts a various number of activities at its theme parks along with many windmills on sight. The park itself is built directly on the bridge structures that allow the Dutch government to provide protection against hurricanes and floods of the future. To explain how it works the Dutch built a large sea wall that can be lowered to stop sea water from coming into the Delta in the region. The Dutch built this model instead of a normal static sea wall because of the local wildlife. If they were to cut off access from the sea many local species of fish would be trapped and need to migrate to other areas of the delta. This would then hurt the local fishing economy which directly impacts the chain of product or concept to customer in the region. With less fishing comes less availability and higher prices along the large food market industry. Therefore, larger chain companies that rely on goods being delivered to them quickly, and at reasonable prices will have to rethink and change many of their business practices.

Tomorrow marks the day in which we visit a local Amsterdam market to browse and purchase clothing if needed. I am extremely excited to experience all that Dutch markets have to offer and to see what tomorrow holds.