Today, we got on a bus and headed to Deltapark Neeltje Jans at around 8:30 a.m. We arrived at 10 a.m., where we got to explore the park for a little while. This is where we found Olaf, an outdoor trampoline. It was so fun jumping around with my friends, and it honestly felt like…
Category: Plus3 The Netherlands
Holding Back the Sea: Inside the Dutch Delta Works – Day 9
Our programming today was fully dedicated to visiting the engineering marvel that is the Dutch Delta Works. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the Delta Works are a system of dams, dikes, locks, and storm surge barriers located in the provinces of South Holland and Zeeland, protecting the land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the North…
Day 9: Floating Farm And Dutch Innovation
On May 11, we took the metro and headed to the first floating farm. There, we attended a presentation where we learned that the idea for a floating farm first came from the need to make fresh produce and meat products more accessible near the city. This floating farm offers a sustainable alternative to traditional…
Day 10 – Sustainability in Rotterdam and Dutch History
After waking up and getting ready for the day, we took a metro headed for Rotterdam. In the city, we were given a tour of some of its sustainable aspects. Some of the sustainable aspects of the city we saw while exploring were public facilities such as basketball courts that could be used as water…
Day 9 – The Delta Works: Dams, Dikes, and Storm-Surge Barriers
Today was the long-awaited day we got to visit the Delta Works, the Netherlands’ large-scale flood-prevention system. After waking up and eating breakfast, we headed over to Deltapark Neeltje Jans, a location along a Delta Works storm-surge barrier dedicated to teaching more about the Delta Works and its history. After we left the bus and…
Day 8 – Industry Around Rotterdam
Today was one of the later start days of this study abroad, as after breakfast, we left around 10:15 to begin our day. After taking public transportation, we spent some time at the Floating Farm. Floating Farm is an initiative that began over a decade ago with the goal of creating water/floating farms, including livestock…
Day 11: Water might be the enemy…..
Album of the Day: demon daze – sports. Today we spent the day learning about flooding and how Rotterdam prevents it. Our day started with a small tour of Rotterdam’s city center and some of its infrastructure that relates to water management. We were shown water basins built into public spaces to allow rainwater…
Day 10: Yeah… Delta WORKS!!!
Album of the Day: Revengeseekerz – Jane Remover Today we visited one of the most important engineering projects within the Netherlands, the delta works! The delta works are a set of engineering projects that focus on heavy water management in Dutch rivers, especially in relation to connecting them to the ocean. One of the main…
Day 10: A Calm Day with the Cows
After a late arrival and nice night of rest, we got to meet the famous cows from the Floating Farm in Rotterdam! I was very excited for this industry tour because one of my student teams were assigned to research them before we arrived in-country. Even with my prior research, I was still surprised about…
Day 9: The German Epos
Today we bid goodbye to Enschede and took a detour out of the Netherlands to explore the small and historic German town of Münster. Throughout our entire trip, there has been an underlying theme of how war, specficially World War 2, has effected the places we’ve visited and forced them to innovate. In WW2, after…
Day 8: Enjoying Enschede before Exodus
Today was very relaxed, with only one tour throughout Enschede, leaving most of the day open for whatever we wanted! Before we got to that, we took a guided tour through the sustainable infrascturcture of Enschede. The city of Enschede is built all along a decline, similar to Pittsburgh, and the city struggles with flooding….
Day 7: Wacky Whimsical Windpower & Elegant Elburg
Our first full day at the Univeristy of Twente began with a quiant sustainabilty tour all throughout the campus, showing off the different architecture, engineering, and policies to ensure sustainable practices are prioritized all throughout their school. Some of these things included a man made pond used to cool the campus’s buildings, permeable stone used…
Wind Power: Its more than Windmills!
What a day we had on 5/8! For us in the Netherlands cohort, we started the day with a very informative lecture on the mechanics of wind power from one of University Twente’s own mechanical engineering professors. Then, we all boarded a bus and drove out to see a modern windfarm ourselves that’s managed by…
Plus3 & Me: The One Where We Go to Germany
Day 8: Today was our final day in Enschede as we were heading to Münster, Germany for a day trip. I woke up early, finished packing, ate breakfast, and met with the group to begin our bus ride. After a little over an hour on the bus, we made it into central Münster, a city…
A Day in Munster
05/10/2026 Today we departed from Enschede and stopped in Munster for a day trip before making our way back across the country to Rotterdam in the evening. While in Munster we started our day off with a small tour of a portion of the city where we learned about the history of many of the…
Day 2 in Rotterdam: Delta Works
Today was a super cool experience as we visited Delta Works which protects the Netherlands from water. We began the day with breakfast at the hotel and then departed on an hour-long bus ride to Delta Works. When we got to Delta Works, we had 30 minutes to explore. During this time, we were able…
Mooving on Up
We began our day by visiting Rotterdam’s Floating Farm. The Floating Farm is a prototype designed to create a more circular farming process. It is stationed in water, similarly to the floating houses we visited earlier in the trip. With the constant changing of water levels, the structure must be built to adjust to these…
Reinventing the Port and the Farm: Introduction to Rotterdam – Day 8
Our day started by taking the metro from our hotel to the heart of the Port of Rotterdam. Once there, we walked to the Floating Farm — a small farm that operates on a specially designed barge in one of the port’s berths. The farm opened in 2019 and remains the only floating farm in…
The Munster Mash
Today we traveled from Enschede to Munster, Germany, for the day. Upon our arrival, we learned a few quick facts about the city’s history from our tour guide, Enno. He informed us that Munster is a city that had been bombed numerous times during the Second World War. Therefore, much of the city has been…
Plus3 & Me: Day 7 in the Netherlands and Day 3 in Enschede
Day 7: As I woke up, the sun was shining through nice and bright, a perfect way to start the day. I met up with the rest of our group for breakfast, and shortly after, we boarded the public bus to head into downtown Enschede. Taking public transportation allows for the carbon emissions to be…