Today was our very first full day innn Rotterdam! We took the bus to the Zuiderzee museum! I honestly did not know what to expect from this museum, but it was definitely a hidden gem. When we first got there, we got on a boat, and it was really cold. The air smelled salty and we saw many boats out on the cold harbor. The boat took us to a small village that was designed to look like how the old harbor towns of the Netherlands looked. It was so quaint and beautiful.

We learned a lot about what life used to be like in The Netherlands. At each cottage, there was information posted about day-to-day life and businesses back in the day. I learned that carpentry and boat building were big professions in this town. Also, another part of the town was used for farmers and market gardeners.In order to stay in business, they would also run small, in-house shops to sell the seeds of the crops they sow. The last thing I thought was interesting and related to sustainability was a little courtyard I saw, which at first just looked like a bunch of random plants, but I learned it was a West Frisian orchard. West-Frisian refers to the fact that this type of orchard originated on the small island chain in The Netherlands. The orchard was filled with all types of plants, showing how they used biodiversity to their advantage when planting crops, unlike more farmers who create monocrops. The space is used to maximum efficiency by planting small bushes like gooseberry in with fruit trees like apple and pear. Large plum trees are grown too which protect the smaller fruit trees against the wind. I thought this was interesting because the lady at Cacao and Spice back in Amsterdam told us the importance of buying-shade grown cacao and cacao that has been grown in biodiverse environments, and they used to do that back in the day with other crops in the Netherlands! I liked seeing this type of planting with purpose because I have never seen anything like that in the United States.

Aside from learning about the ways of the town and sustainability, the museum was also just fun. We got to wear lifeboats, paddle our own boats, and complete challenges and it was really silly. There was also really good food at the cafes and old-fashioned games, swings, and seesaws in the town square. The weather was also gorgeous, and it just seemed like such a happy lifestyle the Dutch had.

After the museum, we headed to the biggest market in Rotterdam, called Markthal. It was indoors and had rows and rows of small vendors selling all different foods. I tried gyozas and indian food, but my friends also had gelato, pizza, greek, and other types of food. In the pre-departure meetings, I learned how the Dutch, other than staampot do not have a lot of their own signature dishes because the land that is below sea level is not great for growing food crops. This market was a modern day example to me of how that fact, and the fact that the Dutch are very tolerant and a lot of people immigrate here have made a true melting pot in terms of cultures and therefore cuisines. The market was also just really cool and decorated pretty, I definitely would go back and try other types of food! Yum.

Overall, today was really sweet and I learned a lot because I did not know that the Dutch had such an important maritime culture back in the old days. I knew about the kings, queens, conquering, and that type of history but I did not know there were multiple island villages and so much boating. This makes me really excited for the day when we are going to. head out on the North Sea on our boat!