Day 2 in Amsterdam has finished, and it has been quite an adventure! After a restful night of sleep, we woke up and ate breakfast at 8:45 am, much later than yesterday’s 5:40 am start time. To begin our day, we split into two groups. One group began with a walking tour, and the other group began with a chocolate tasting, switching once both groups finished. I started with the walking tour, led by a Netherlands native, Ian.

The walking tour was about an hour of sightseeing all around Amsterdam, and learning more about its history, as well as its present issues. I found it very interesting how the city of Amsterdam, as well as those who live there, only change and renovate the buildings when absolutely necessary. This helps save money and is where the phrase “going Dutch” originates from. Many of the buildings maintain their original structures and facades due to this, and it helps to preserve the architecture and keep the beauty of the city. Another fun fact that I found extremely interesting was that having the buildings lean forward is intentional. In the city, taxes on the buildings are based on the width of the building, and not the height. Having the building lean forward maximizes space. It also allows furniture, and other items, to be hoisted onto the taller floors without damaging the side of the building. However, there are also buildings which lean sideways. This is not intentional, and signals that the structural integrity of the building is failing. This is a very common problem, as most of the buildings are very old and have not undergone complete rebuilding.

Also, during this walking tour, I noticed a lot of trash on the ground, as well as in the canal. This is an unfortunate result of an initiative created in which plastic bottles can be returned for 15 cents. While this incentives recycling, it causes people to root through trash for the bottles, and this trash is left all over the ground and falls into the canal. Programs are being created to clean this up, but this demonstrates that sustainability can be difficult to achieve and maintain, and that a lot of work still must be done.

After we finished the walking tour, we headed for a chocolate tasting led by Salome, Ian’s wife, at her chocolate store. There we tasted a variety of chocolates including dark chocolate, spiced milk chocolate, and a spicy chocolate made with Carolina Reaper peppers. I found the spicy chocolate to be too spicy for my taste, but I know others really enjoyed it. The store prides itself on sustainability as about half of the chocolate is made using locally sourced cacao. Also, they sell products there that use other parts of the cacao fruit. There was tea made from the fruit husk, as well as a juice collected from the fermented fruit. The most interesting of all the chocolate products, however, was the floor, as it too was made from the husk of a cacao fruit! This helps further the sustainability of this industry, as waste is minimized by using the entire fruit.

Full of chocolate, we headed down to the canal for a canal tour. We saw some famous landmarks and more gorgeous sites in the city from the canal, including the Silly Jack Clock Tower. After all this site seeing, we were sent off on our own. I walked around the city more with some friends, exploring stores and other famous areas, including the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, and the flea market. We grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel to rest up for another exciting day tomorrow!