Day 4 has come to an end! Today, we started by meeting in the lobby at 8:50 am and taking a train at 9am to Zaandijk Zaanse Schans. There we visited the Henry Willig Cheese manufacturer, and learned a little bit about the cheesemaking process. I learned that it takes about 10 liters of milk to make just one kilogram of cheese. This process, by definition, is not terribly sustainable. A lot of milk must be used and processed to make a small amount of cheese, and this uses a lot of energy. Prior to departure, we did learn that the company does its best to make this process as sustainable as possible. One of these sustainable practices includes having the cows graze 100 percent outdoors, on biodiverse land. This was seen at the manufacturer with lots of undeveloped land that the animals could roam around. After learning about cheese, we got to taste these cheeses. Some of them had very strange flavors, including lavender and coconut. However, they all tasted delicious!
We were given some time to roam around the area before heading off to the next visit. While walking around, I noticed the many windmills that were in use. These windmills were historically used to grind flour, churn milk, and do other tasks that were tiring and time consuming for people to do by hand. They took energy from the wind, creating a machine that could do work without the need for electricity. They are extremely sustainable, as they use natural energy to complete tasks, and do not use electricity at all. While they were not originally created for the purpose of being sustainable, they now offer a sustainable solution to automation as opposed to using electricity.
After exploring some shops in Zaandijk Zaanse Schans, we took a bus ride and hopped on a fairy to visit the Zuirderzeemuseum. This museum is a recreation of a village in the late 1800s, and we got to learn the history of this village, and what it meant to live there. The homes had specially glazed tiles that were used on the roofs to collect rainwater and use it as drinking water. This was especially important for the villagers as they lived near salt water, with rainwater being the only source of fresh drinking water. Additionally, some of these homes were built on dykes, specialized walls that helped prevent flooding. These homes experienced a lot of flooding, and so the rent was much cheaper! For the winter, these villagers would smoke fish and other foods to help preserve them. I was able to experience this by eating some smoked mackerel and it tasted amazing! After seeing this village, there was an additional inside museum where we could see some boats historically used in the village. We only had about 25 minutes in this part of the museum, so I was unable to fully explore it. However, these boats were still very impressive.
After our trip to the museum ended, we headed back to the hotel. Some friends and I left to grab dinner, and head to Vondelpark in Amsterdam. Currently the Mahler festival in The Royal Concertgebouw is going on this week, and they were streaming a live recording of Mahler’s 6th symphony in the park. We sat and watched the concert, and then got some stroopwafels for dessert before heading back to the hotel to rest.
