We began our fourth day in the Netherlands by traveling outside of Amsterdam to a windmill farm surrounding a small historic town. As we walked around, we saw what the original windmills looked like before they became the white wind turbines that are used today. While here, we saw many animals like ducks and sheep along with another feline friend. Our group was also presented with the opportunity to visit a clog making store within the village where we got to watch a pair be made and learn the significance behind them. Clogs were made from wood and worn with thick wool socks in order to protect the user’s feet from blisters and any possible splinters. They were used to protect the feet of farm workers as they could not walk around barefoot on the farm and while doing manual labor like shipbuilding. They have become a cultural symbol of the Netherlands because of their constant use and the personalization that each owner added to their own clogs such as a nice solid paint job, designs, or just leaving them as they were.
After this, we toured the Anne Frank House. Although it was a somber experience, it was fascinating seeing the original rooms the Frank family spent their time hiding away in and seeing the original preserved posters Anne Frank had pinned on her wall above her bed. While there, we got to see a new exhibit of the museum featuring the diaries of other children Anne Frank went to school with. It was incredible reading each different account of the Holocaust for each child and seeing exactly what they were forced to go through. It was a heartbreaking experience but very important and vital to go to while in Amsterdam as the city held mainly a Jewish population at the start of World War II and lost most of their population because of the holocaust by the end of the war.
While we did not visit any modern companies today, an interesting thing we have noticed in our hotel room is a key card light operator. This relates to sustainability within the Netherlands as it allows hotel goers to not worry about forgetting to turn their lights off as they are key operated. When a hotel goer leaves their room, they need to bring their key with them which automatically will turn off the lights and turn off the power being used by the room. This is very different from hotels I have stayed at within the US as I have only seen it at one hotel before in Arizona and never in Pittsburgh or any other part of the country. Our room was interested in how this invention came about and how much energy it has saved for hotels and the good it has done on the environment since being implemented into the design of the building.
One challenge myself and my roommates have been dealing with on the trip is how early stores within the Netherlands close. Normally, if we wanted to get some snacks or needed something from the store at a late hour, we could just go to the store and purchase what we needed while in America. However, in the Netherlands this is not the case with most grocery stores closing at 8pm or 9pm and most general stores closing at 5pm. This makes it difficult to get to the stores we want to go to while completing our study abroad program. Almost every shop within the Netherlands is also closed or has limited hours on Sundays as a day of rest.