We finally departed from Amsterdam! Although it was sad to see the city go, I am also super excited to spend the next week in Rotterdam! Before arriving in the city, we took a detour to a cute little town. The area was beautiful, it was another lovely day outside. There were green fields as far as the eye could see with windmills and animals wandering about. We firstly stopped in a clog making shop, where they had a little display of different varieties of clogs throughout history and some unique recent pieces. There was even a diamond clog. In the shop the workers walked around in all different variety of clogs and there was even a machine running cutting wood for different sizes and clog shapes!
After visiting the clog shop we had a company visit with Henri Wilig, a local cheese manufacturer. We firstly were given a demonstration on how the different kinds of cheese are made, preserved, and then packaged and sliced. The company is also very sustainable in their cheese making! The cheese making process takes many liters of milk being churned, which then separated into curds and whey. The curds are only about ten percent of the resulted product which is then turned into cheese, but the remaining ninety percent whey is used to feed their cows or produce cheese beer, meaning there is zero waste! After learning about the cheese making and sustainability process, we got to sample a wide variety of cheeses in their store. They were all so yummy, but I decided on buying the chili pepper cheese. This company visit was so fun and insightful on how a food industry can really strive for sustainability and achieve zero or almost zero waste and that it is 100% possible. We also got to see their goats roaming outside!
The rest of the day we had free time so we walked along the pathway next to all the big beautiful windmills. It was so peaceful and beautiful to see everything. We also stopped for a little lunch of a ham and cheese croissant along the way. After walking through the windmills we then visited an antique store and candy shop, where we got some yummy chocolate waffles for a snack before the bus ride. Finally it was time to get to Rotterdam. We rode the bus for about an hour and a half and arrived at our hostel in the city. After unloading we went for a classic and easy dinner at McDonalds to finish up a long day. The menu is so different from Americas! I tried a few new items – spicy nuggets and a stroopwafel McFlurry. I wasn’t a fan of the nuggets, but the McFlurry was so good and I wish we had it in America. I’m finally finishing off the day taking some well needed rest for our day of travel.