Today, we started off the day in the hotel lobby at 9:00 A, where we took our train to Zaanse Schans to see the beautiful “countryside”. As soon as we hopped off the train, the amazing view almost struck me down. The windmills were spinning in the distance and there were thousands of sailboats stationed at the harbors in the canal, with green and white house’s surrounding them.

We walked over to the Henri Willig farm, where a kind woman gave us a tour of the cheese farm and told us about their sustainable process. She explained that the cheese is made using a microbial rennet, which uses organic cultures like mold instead of animal rennet to produce the cheese, leading to a richer and more sustainable cheese. She also explained that all of their Henri Willig farms and shops have solar panels on them to produce sustainable energy to run them. The calving process is also sustainable and animal friendly, with the cows only calving once every two-three year to allow for a happier stress-free cow. This also makes the cheese taste better, because it isn’t filled with bad chemicals and hormones. As a side note, we also finally figured out that Henri Willig is alive and living in North Holland, despite him being rumored to be dead.

From there, the group took a ferry to the next location; the Zeiderzeemuseum. This museum was a beautiful depiction of the culture and history behind the Zeiderzeemuseum, a town which used to be a rich herring fishery but was affected by the building of dikes. The display was a collection of 130 real houses from the Zeiderzee which were deconstructed and reconstructed at the site. In around 1930, dikes were built blocking off the North Sea, a saltwater canal into the surrounding areas of the Netherlands. This human intervention severely affected the neighboring ecology and fish market in the town by turning the water into saltwater, causing the town to readjust to the new conditions. It was a great display of human intervention and engineering can have adverse reactions and have a large effect.

Today was definitely more of a relaxing day but was much needed to rest up for the Anne Frank house tomorrow. Goedenavond!