Day three started very early this morning. We left our hotel at six AM, and drove to FloraHolland! FloraHolland was so beautiful and smelt amazing when we arrived. We entered into the factory, and we learned that the factory was the size of Monaco. This was incredible to hear as even the part of the factory we saw was only 10% of the entire size. Seeing FloraHolland work was such a cool process. The amount of auctions the company gets for flowers and how the company is able to organize such a vast number of employees is shocking to me. We were able to walk around on a catwalk above all the flowers and employees, and it was very insightful to see how everything is organized.
After FloraHolland, we saw the floating village. The floating village is called Schoonschip, which has many houses built on water, solar panel energy, and the neighborhood even has a neutral carbon footprint. This was a super cool community, and it was eye-opening to see how living sustainably does not automatically mean cutting any simple life luxuries. Our tour guide was also very sweet and gave great detailed explanations on how the houses work. At first, I was pretty skeptical about how the houses could work, but I learned it is doable, just needs some additional patience and effort.
After the tours, we got some lunch at a local restaurant. We then took the ferry back to Amsterdam Central, which was a very beautiful and unique experience that I was very glad to witness today. We got to see Amsterdam from a 360 view when on the boat, which was very cool! Afterwards, I did some much-needed shopping for an Amsterdam-related charm to add to one of my bracelets, which has a charm for every country I have been to. I got a windmill to represent the Netherlands, and I am very excited to add it when I return to the United States.
Today was the first time we got to see first-hand the sustainability initiatives taken by companies and people. It was very informative to see how a full solar unit could work in a neighborhood, and I hope we can use some of the techniques from this neighborhood and start applying them to areas in the United States.
All in all, today was another great day in Amsterdam. It is important to consistently reflect on our actions and see if we are positively impacting our environment. Cannot wait for what day four has in store for us!