Today we toured the City of Enchede. Our tour was mainly focused on the work by the city to prevent flooding. Since the city is at a higher elevation than most of the Netherlands, when the city floods, the lower parts of the Netherlands also flood. To try and prevent flooding, the city installed many “reservoirs” to contain rainwater. They are lowered portions of land, often with grass and trees that the excess rainwater flows into. We also learned that the city is on an incline, meaning that the water all flows from one side to the other. However, compared to Pittsburgh, one of the hilliest cities in America, the incline was hardly noticeable.
Later that day after we had returned to the University of Twente, we went to the finish line of the longest relay race in Europe. It is called the Batavierenrace, and it is 175km long. Each team has 25 people, and the person who finishes the race often carries something fun or memorable, like a dinosaur costume or a suit and tie. This race brings people from across the Netherlands all to the university, and is really cool to see. The community and culture that surrounds this race was really quite beautiful.