Today, we started with a late breakfast, and then traveled on a bus (the first mode of private transportation we have taken in the Netherlands) to De Tulperij tulip farm. Here, we learned about how tulips and hyacinths are grown and harvested, and about how farmers avoid using pesticides by picking sick flowers by hand.

However, many people find the ill-looking flowers to be more attractive, so farmers mix the seeds of different types of flowers together to achieve a similar appearance but a healthier plant. Next, we took our bus to Schoonschip, a little floating neighborhood. These 30 houses–some split into multiple households–float on one of the many Amsterdam canals and showcase the versatility of sustainable living. These houses are all built with environmentally friendly goals in mind, but each has a slightly different path to achieve this. Many homes had green roofs, and some also had solar panels. One home even had solar panels on its sides because of its green roof, which actually ended up reflecting more light than expected because it caught the sun’s reflections off of the water!

There were also many friendly cats wandering around the houses. Last, we toured multiple buildings made by EDGE, and heard about how their company creates sustainable and pleasant buildings.