Today, we traveled to De Zaanse Schans, a town just outside of Amsterdam that contained many of the quintessential attractions that you think of when thinking about The Netherlands.

First, we saw how cheese gets made for Henri Willig, a large cheese company based in the Netherlands that also distributes cheese globally. We got to learn about how the cheese is made and what values the original founder, Henri Willig wanted to encompass within his business. Upon further research, I learned that a big priority is treating the animals involved in the cheese-making process fairly. This included creating chemicals and cultures needed to produce the cheese without killing any animals. An added bonus is that most of their cheeses are certified vegetarian. To connect this visit back to our program focus, “From Concept to Customer,” this was the first time I got to view a company from the customer perspective. The short cheese-making information session and demonstration led us directly into a Henri Willig store, which contained a large variety of cheeses to taste and buy. The entire experience that came with visiting this site made my trip to Henri Willig very engaging and made buying boatloads of cheese seem very enticing.

Following our cheese store visit, we spend the afternoon walking around De Zaanse Schans and enjoying the beautiful weather and sights. As mentioned before, we saw many classic Dutch sights, such as windmills and clog makers. Though the town seemed very tourist-oriented, it was lovely to spend a few hours there and get a flavor of what the Dutch countryside may be like. It was also a great spot to do some souvenir shopping, pet grazing sheep, and sit and enjoy the view while eating ice cream.

Finally, we took it easy for the rest of the day as we reached our final destination of the day: Rotterdam. Though I have not gotten the chance to see it too much today, it seems much different from Amsterdam so far.

I’m excited to venture out and see more of the city tomorrow!