Today we first went to a tulip farm. It was very cool to see all the different kinds of tulips they had as well as the process of farming them. Something interesting we learned is that went they are fully grown, they cut the flower off the tulips to preserve the energy of the bulb. This is because they commonly sell the bulbs to other countries.

We then went to a floating neighborhood on the water called Schoonschip. This community works to be sustainable with the materials they use to build their house, the way they harness energy, and the way they use waste and rain water. An example of their innovation is they use pumps which extract heat from the nearby water to use as heat for the houses. Every house has their own creative ideas so it was really cool to see!

After walking around for a while I found it quite interesting that I hadn’t seen much wildlife. Although birds are seen every day, I realized I haven’t seen any squirrels or deer. This was shocking to me as the Netherlands has a lot more greenery surrounding the areas compared to the US. As we go more through the trip though I’ll be sure to keep looking.