Once again, today was an amazing day. Our day consisted of two tours, chocolate tasting, and shopping.
We began with a walking tour and chocolate tasting led by a married couple. We started with the walking tour guided by Ian, who shared the history of Amsterdam. I really enjoyed this tour! Not only was Ian enthusiastic about the history of Amsterdam, but he made the tour very entertaining. One of my favorite Dutch history facts I learned was why many buildings in Amsterdam lean forward. The buildings that lean forward are over 200 years old, while the buildings that are upright are less than 200 years old. The older buildings were built narrow to reduce the cost and their property tax. Because buildings were built so small, the stairwells in them were too tiny to deliver furniture or large goods to higher floors. To solve this problem, they extended the tops of houses outward and added a hook-and-pulley system to hoist goods through the top windows. After learning this fact, I began to take notice of how many hooks still remained on the tops of the houses.
Additionally, Ian explained how the Dutch government promotes social integration through housing. I learned that in every rich neighborhood the government has rent controlled housing to allow poorer people to live in the neighborhood. On the other hand, in low-income areas, wealthier residents are encouraged to live there as well. This integration allows children from different socioeconomic backgrounds to grow up and go to school together. Ian explained how this idea helps form harmony between everyone. I found this interesting and different from what I’ve seen in the United States, where neighborhoods tend to be segregated by income level.
After our insightful tour, we visited his wife, Salome, at their local chocolate shop called Cacao and Spice. During our time at the shop, we tried many delicious flavors of chocolate, including fun flavors like the Carolina Reaper and garlic! While tasting chocolate, Salome shared some insight into the struggles of sustainability in the chocolate industry, as well as ways to combat these issues. She explained, it takes 3-4 cacao beans to produce one candy bar. With this, only a very small amount of the bean is actually used, even though it is all edible. To make this process more sustainable we can reduce the waste of the bean by producing the chocolate in the country of origin where the bean was grown, and by switching from cow milk to plant-based milk. Additionally, the shell of the beans can be used to make juice and chips. We had the opportunity to try cacao juice, and it was actually pretty good! Also, the floor of their shop is made of cacao beans- an interesting use of the shell that I never thought of! An interesting fact I learned is that cacao beans can have many colors, but these colors do not correspond to their flavor. Instead, their flavor is determined by what is grown around them!
After a fun morning, toured Amsterdam on a peaceful boat ride. Following our tour we went to a few vintage stores, jewelry stores, and then walked around Amsterdam some more. We finished the night by sharing a pizza and getting ice cream (again).