On the final day in the Netherlands, we are going to The Hague. This is the political capital of the Dutch; it is where all political action takes place. While we were here, we learned about the history of the Dutch government. The government has a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. This means they…
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Day 10: Sustainability in Rotterdam
Today, we took a tour of Rotterdam Central to learn about how the city incorporates sustainability around the city. We saw some lower elevation parts of the city, where the water runs off to, for example, they had a basketball court that acted as a drain and water storage for the city. We also saw…
Day 9: Exploring the Delta Works
Today we headed over to the Delta Works. The Delta Works is a massive system of dams, sluices, locks, dikes, and storm-surge barriers. It was built after a terrible flood killed 1800 people in 1953. This project is a crazy engineering feat. They built factories just to make this and specially designed boats to help…
Day 8: Floating Innovations
Today we visited a floating farm. This floating farm had everything it needed, even though it is located on the water. The top floor was where the cows lived and where an automatic cow milker was located. Underneath that was where they made dairy products and the food for the cows. The food for the…
Final Lessons from The Hague
Somehow, today was already the last day of our trip. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. Even though our time in the Netherlands was coming to an end, we still made the most of the day as we traveled to The Hague, the political capital of the Netherlands, for one final day of…
Modern Solutions to Old Problems
As our trip begins to wind down, we are starting to see how the complex history of the Netherlands has helped shape the innovation of tomorrow. Today, we toured rooftop gardens in the city of Rotterdam and visited another detailed museum, Watersnoodmuseum, which focused on the devastating flood of 1953. As we started our morning,…
Built Against the Tide
Tuesday launched us into the detailed past of one of the Netherlands’ darkest, yet most important, moments in history: the flood of 1953. We left early to arrive at the Deltaworks to learn about the tragic flood, and the actions the Netherlands has taken in response to it. The Deltaworks is a large complex along…
Moo-ving Towards Sustainability
Early Monday morning, we woke up for our first full day in Rotterdam. With a gray, cold forecast ahead, I unfortunately wasn’t dressed for the weather, but I still ended up having a great day. We navigated public transit across the city and began with a visit to an innovative floating farm, followed later by…
From Ruins to Remembering
Sunday brought us to the second country of our trip: Germany. It was my first time visiting the country, and I was excited for the opportunity to immerse myself in its history and culture. Our destination was the city of Münster, a place whose history stretches back thousands of years. Despite its long history, many…
Going with the Flow in Enschede
Today was a balance between learning about sustainability and experiencing the student culture here in Enschede. Throughout the day, we saw how the city carefully plans for the future while also witnessing the strong sense of community that defines life at the University of Twente. Our morning began with another guided tour, this time through…
One Last Peaceful Day in the Hague
For our last day in the Netherlands, we visited the Hague, the political capital of the Netherlands and home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. After the end of the second world war, these courts were created and housed in the Peace Palace located in the Hague to try those…
Pitt has Joan Gabel, Holland has Roofs Gabled
After visiting the Delta Works yesterday, our group took a tour of the Watersnoodmuseum, a museum dedicated to the victims of the flood and recognizing what survivors faced during this harrowing experience. While here, we not only read accounts from survivors and about those who passed but heard them firsthand through our guide who survived…
The Delta Works – A Triumph of Dutch Engineering
Today we visited the Delta works, a network of storm surge barriers meant to protect citizens from flooding and rising sea levels. After a catastrophic flood in 1953, the delta works project was sped up in order to protect the region that is already below sea level from further issues and dangers. Originally, the project…
Moo-ving Across the Rotterdam Harbor
For our first full day in Rotterdam, we visited a floating farm in the Rotterdam harbor and toured the RDM facilities. The floating farm is one of the few prototypes able to break even as they sell the products they produce in their general store, to local buyers, and to businesses in the area. They…
You Can’t Spell Munster without “Must”
On our way to Rotterdam, we took a day trip to the city of Munster in Germany. While here, we had the opportunity to sight-see and visit the many museums the city has to offer such as the Picasso museum, a Greek archeological history museum, and an art museum featuring paintings, sculptures, and writings across…
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Enschede
For our last day in Enschede, we toured the city center and got to experience a Dutch farmers market first hand. Although Enschede is much different than Amsterdam, the city still focuses on sustainability and meeting the needs of its residents in how it is built. Enschede is one of the few parts of the…
A Whirlwind Travel Day
Before heading out into the countryside today to visit a windmill farm and historic medieval village, we attended a lecture on how wind turbines work and the math behind their sustainable energy development. During this lecture, we learned some of the formulas required for calculating how much power, lift, and drag is created depending on…
Day 5: Future and Past of The Dutch
Today, we learned about windmills. We had a lecture on them, where we learned some of the physics behind them, learned about some of the innovations used today, and actually saw them when we visited Pure Energie. But before that, we took another tour around Twente and learned about how their campus is sustainable. The…
Catching a Dutch Breeze
After a string of great days this past week, I think day five may have topped them all. Following a quick morning tour around Twente, we boarded a bus and headed out for what were, in my opinion, the two most interesting experiences of the trip so far. After a lengthy ride, we received a…
From Canals to Campus
Our fourth day here has, in many ways, been the most eye-opening so far. We woke up early this morning to leave Amsterdam and arrived at the University of Twente in Enschede a little after 10 a.m. Although I was sad to be leaving Amsterdam, I was excited to see what university life is like…