Today was our first day in the Netherlands, which began at 5:40 AM local time (11:40 PM ET) when we touched down in Amsterdam. Even though I didn’t sleep much on the plane, I was still fueled with excitement to explore a new country.
I started noticing the Netherland’s sustainability efforts before the plane even landed. As we were approaching for our landing, I looked out of my window to see a massive offshore wind farm in the North Sea right off the coast of the Netherlands. While I know the United States has a couple of offshore wind farms, it was neat to see the infrastructure that the Netherlands has in place to produce clean energy before I even entered the country.
After disembarking the plane, I was immediately introduced to more infrastructure that I don’t often see at home. Our first goal was to get from the airport to our hotel to drop our bags off, and we made the transfer via a combination of a train and a metro. First, we boarded a train at the airport, which we took to Lelylaan. At the Lelylaan station we transferred from the train to the local metro, which we used to finish our journey.
Once we took a moment to freshen up at the hotel, our day continued with a scavenger hunt to familiarize ourselves with the city of Amsterdam. Getting from our hotel to the city was a brief journey on a single metro line, and we made it in under 15 minutes. Throughout the hunt we saw Amsterdam Centraal station, the Dam square, and the Anne Frank house. After the scavenger hunt, I was fortunate enough to snag a ticket for the final day of the spring Keukenhof gardens. As it turned out, a majority of the students on the trip managed to go, and we had a great time. Despite this still being our first day in the Netherlands, we had no trouble navigating the metro and bus systems to both arrive at the gardens and return to the hotel. Finally, we concluded our day with a delicious Stamppot dinner at Batavia, a local restaurant.
Overall, I don’t think my first day in the Netherlands could have been much better. We got to enjoy beautiful weather while exploring Amsterdam and Keukenhof gardens. Additionally, I am already seeing some of the things that make the Netherlands a sustainability leader. For example, the combination of its clean and reliable public transit system and its robust network of bike lanes make a car unnecessary for most trips. As I have seen all day, this greatly increases the number of bikes out and about while decreasing the number of cars, making the Netherlands more sustainable in the process.
That was my first day, and I can’t wait to share more updates tomorrow!
