Today we had our first full day in the Netherlands, and after a small breakfast we started the day with a canal cruise. It was very interesting, it gave me a different perspective on how Amsterdam was built throughout the years. For example where the Amsterdam Central Station is used the the ports where spices and other goods came from all over the world, and at many of the wealthier people lived closer to these ports since they would move along the canals. If you find yourself walking in Amsterdam you will notice certain buildings with shutters, these used to be warehouses for the goods that came into the port and this is where they would be processed and sent out.
Another interesting thing I did during the cruise were the boat homes. I noticed them yesterday too during our scavenger hunt but didn’t think much of it. These would mostly be made from old cargo boats with concrete bottoms. This was done to help tackle the housing crisis, which is still present. Going past these floating homes you would notice that they are very nice and very very very expensive. We passed one floating home where the Captain of the canal cruise said it was on sale for 1.4 million Euros.
After the boat tour we got some lunch from a small supermarket then continued to our second planned event. A small but very interesting tour of Amsterdam and the Cocoa Company visit. During the tour we were told about the problem that is affecting much of the canals in Amsterdam. Each year the government would scoop out debris that had fallen in the canals and many times they are bikes. They would scoop them up in the middle of the canal but at some point it was noticed that most of the bikes that fall in are at the edge of the canal so they scoop for debris there too. After many years this has created an enormous problem, each scoop would also remove some of the ground at the bottom which was also holding the canal walls. This has caused the walls to lean in and create a multi million problem. Their solution is pretty clever using metal walls embedded in the ground to hold the canal walls in. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing solution but it is one that works
The Cocoa Company was also very interesting, I found it intriguing when we tried two different dark chocolates, both with the same ingredients yet they somehow tasted a bit differently. Although I’m not the biggest fan of dark chocolate, the ones we tried weren’t sweet but they were delicious. I learned how the surrounding environment and soil can have an impact on the cocoa plant. I never would have thought how little cocoa beans come from a cocoa fruit and that there is so much need to make chocolate bars.
Overall, today was very fun and informative from the canal cruise, our tour of Amsterdam, and the Cocoa company visit.
