After a bright and early start to our day, we arrived at the Royal FloraHolland. This is the largest floriculture marketplace in the world, and the facility is biggest than Monaco! The market opens at 6:00am and goes until all the flowers are sold. Today there were about 20 million flowers and plants to be sold on Dutch auction, which has a very unique auction style from highest to lowest. As a studying industrial engineer, this place was a dream for me. The fact that we only saw 10% of the whole facility was mind-blowing, and I just wanted to know more. We followed a bridge above the floor and followed an online self-guiding tour. I would have to say that this was the best part of the trip for me so far. They even take sustainable measures like quality flowers, rechargeable batteries for motor vehicles, and reused storage containers for flowers!

We got done a bit early, so we went to a neighborhood, NDSM, where there is a graffiti park and artistic warehouse. After exploring for some time, we walked to the little community of floating houses, which is the first in Europe. It is called Schoonschip and a woman from the community was kind enough to give us a tour. We learned that it started in 2015 and took a lot of effort to get started. Architects were hired for each building which makes them all unique and does not look like normal community housing plans. Each house has solar panels, heat pumps, and was suitable for the flora and fauna of the canal with algae and places for birds to nest. Schoonschip is taking big steps to make a more sustainable living, all with coming together to work towards this goal, which is very admirable.

After getting lunch and taking a ferry back to the Centre, our planned events were done. This left some of us to go look at the shops once more and then head to a Van Gogh and Rembrandt experience. We were in the same church that both artists sat in for Sunday service and watched a projection of their art and stories on the church walls. It was a very immersive experience and something that felt like a must see while here in Amsterdam. It was also great to see how the artists incorporated the culture of Netherlands into their pieces to embody Amsterdam’s true beauty. After a long day it was time to go back to the hotel and prepare for the next days ahead of us!