After a long day of traveling, we finally arrived in the Netherlands at around 5:30 in the morning. Despite our exhaustion, we made it to several stops within Amsterdam to start our journey throughout the country.
Our first adventure within the city was a canal tour of central Amsterdam. We had the opportunity to see Amsterdam from a different perspective and learned about the various architecture within the city representing different time periods throughout history. For example, house numbers have only become popular within the last one hundred years throughout the city. Instead of using numbers to mark homes, a family crest was built into the stone above their door or at the top of their house. The crest included family traits such as their trade/profession as well as other markings to represent the family and make their home unique.
After our canal tour, we had some time to explore the city and walk around before we tasted chocolate made in a more sustainable fashion and took a historical tour of the red light district surrounding the shop. While on the tour, we learned about the true tolerance within the city and legacy of original gay bars. Lesbians were responsible for many movements around the city, especially during the Second World War when it came to hiding Jewish residents. Overall, it was a fascinating journey across the area and throughout history as we were told local legends and shown the oldest buildings in the city.
After we took our tour of the red light district, we had the opportunity to taste some of the best chocolate in the country that is made in a more sustainable way. Sustainability in this case does not just mean saving the planet or using less water but also includes respecting the rights of the workers making the chocolate and making the city a better place. The government within the city of Amsterdam took initiative to clean up the red light district by sponsoring small businesses to take over shopfronts in order to remove brothels and weed combined coffee shops. The chocolate shop we visited was sponsored by this program and uses only local ingredients and farms in order to cut down on transportation pollution and to respect the farmers within their home country. The shop also has found a more sustainable way to use cacao beans by turning what is left of them into pieces of flooring or braids for weaving. In fact, the floor of the chocolate shop itself was made of cacao. Overall, this shop has found a way to eliminate the use of child and forced labor which promotes healthier work environments and improves the quality of human life.