Welcome Back! 

The group started off the day with trip to central station, where we would embark on a canal cruise in Amsterdam. Once we boarded the boat, we travelled all around the city and learned some of Amsterdam’s history. The canals, and harbor, serve as an efficient means of transportation and allow for Amsterdam to be such an important port. When travelling down the rivers you see many interesting things, such as the “eclectic architecture” row houses, that all look similar at first glance, but once further examined, they all have a history and beauty of their own. We learned that the houses along the canals were once built using wood, this was common practice until two fires occurred in the late 16th century. The fires set forth regulations that all new builds must be built using bricks, to prevent devastation. Also, many of the older houses in the city have gable stones, which are placards above the door of a house. These gable stones were used in a time where house numbers did not exist yet, and often reflected what the house owners’ occupation was. In addition to row houses, house boats line the canals. They are fully functional houses on floatation devices and were introduced to solve housing issues throughout the years. 

After the canal cruise, we had some free time and chose to spend it eating lunch by the harbor. We went into your standard Dutch grocery store and got lunch. The seagulls in Amsterdam make strange noises, but I’ll look past it. 

Next, we headed over to Cocoa & Spice for our first site visit of the trip. We started with a chocolate tasting, and each chocolate had a story. Cocoa & Spice is a small, artisanal chocolate shop with sustainable practices. It is part of the new, and first female, mayor of Amsterdam’s initiative to rebrand the city as innovative and sustainable, rather than focusing on drugs and the red-light district. Part of this new program included buying ,for-sale, brothels and using them to give small businesses the chance to flourish. Cocoa & Spice is part of this rebranding city-wide effort. Salome, the owner, taught us that 1/5 of the world’s chocolate is in Amsterdam’s, where they sell it based on market fluctuations and demand. However, Salome did mention, a drawback of having control of the chocolate market is sustainability concerns. The farming of cocoa can raise concerns about deforestation and monoculture concerns.  She also taught us that 70% of chocolate is grown in Africa, while only 1% of chocolate is sold, as a final product, in Africa. Additionally, we learned that, on these cocoa plantations, women do 80% of the work, yet earn 10% of profit. To combat this, Salome only sources 100% fair trade chocolate in her shop. They sell chocolate from brands such as MIA, Made in Africa, which raises jobs and promotes fair trade. They also partner with a cocoa bean distributer, Original Beans, who pays 2.14x over the fair-trade price for them to launch their careers and livelihoods. We learned some chocolate fun facts; chocolate is sweeter and not bitter because it is grown in a bio-diverse area and not in a monoculture environment. Also, the plants raised around the cacao tree influence the taste of the pods. Fun fact, the shop has an uncommon drink, of fermented cocoa beans, which reduces waste and uses all parts of the pod. 

After the cocoa tasting and history session, we took an awesome tour with the best tour guide, Salome’s husband, Ian. He quite literally knew everything about Amsterdam and tailored the tour to our group. We saw this very interesting building where a women rescued over 75 Jewish babies and got them to a safe location, all by bike during the holocaust, then proceded to aid the sick and homeless in the following years. We visited many monuments and important locations on this tour. 

After the tour, we had some time to ourselves. The girls on the trip broke off and explored the shopping streets of Amsterdam. We headed over to an Italian restaurant for dinner and enjoyed the rest of our peaceful night. 

See You Tomorrow!