Like Day One in Pittsburgh, Day Four began at an early 5:00 AM. Our first activity for the day was located southwest of Amsterdam in the city of Aalsmeer, where we had the opportunity to explore the inside of the Royal FloraHolland flower auction facility. This would establish the theme for the day: flowers. After finishing the tour much earlier than expected, we were then transported by private bus to De Tuliperij in the rural countryside of Voorhout. We then took the private bus back to the hotel, and I decided to rent a bicycle to explore more of Amsterdam (€19 for 24 hours). I first biked along the Herengracht canal, before meeting with a small group at the Waterlooplein flea market. We wrapped up the day with a group dinner at Kop van Yut in close-by Leidsplein, followed by a peaceful bike ride, once again back to the hotel.

A unique business advantage that I discovered farms in the Netherlands enjoy was that there was no need for expensive irrigation systems like those of the United States. Our guide at De Tuliperij (the owner of the farm) explained that because the Netherlands lies so low below the sea level, that the groundwater is close enough to the surface that crops and flowers can thrive without the supplement of external water. This gives the Netherlands a clear advantage over the competition with other agriculture exporters, because it decreases the cost of cultivating crops and flowers. Farmers in the Netherlands can exploit this factor of their land to establish themselves as a major exporter of agricultural product. The biggest limitation with this strategy is that, similarly to other small countries, there is a shortage of land available for agriculture.

While biking today, many differences in the culture and etiquette of bike riding between the Netherlands and the United States became immediately clear to me. As I mentioned in an earlier post, biking infrastructure is a critical part of Dutch city planning. This made the bike ride from the hotel in Sloterdijk to the center of Amstedam a comfortable and safe 15 minute ride, comparable to the time it takes by tram or metro. Additionally, the bike-riding culture here felt much more mature than in an American city like New York. As a result of the popularity of bicycles as an alternative to owning a vehicle, pedestrians and cars had much more respect for bikes, with bike lanes often taking priority right-of-way over vehicles and especially pedestrians. I also noticed that bike lanes in the Netherlands were treated more like roads, with bicycle-specific traffic lights, junctions, lane markings, and even a roundabout! This cohesive system creates one of the best cycling experiences that I have had so far, even better than transit-oriented places like Tokyo.

While our activities started early in the morning, the actual day was quite short and left lots of free time to explore the city by bike. I am looking forward to Nouryon visit on Day Five from a business perspective.