After a short stop in the hotel, our first day in Amsterdam began at Centraal Station with a canal tour across the city. As the boat tore through the rivers, the history of the city revealed itself in the tilted, brick structures. Located next to the ocean, the city has served as a trade port…
Tag: Winaida Flaherty
Flowers and Floating Houses
After another morning of bread, yogurt, and cheese, our group departed for de Tulperij, a family-owned tulip farm in Voorhout. Grown there are a variety of tulips for the purpose of selling their bulbs and stalks locally and nationally. A unique aspect of the farm is how it utilizes the environment of the Netherlands to…
Horticulture, History, and Hors d’oeuvres
Our final day in Amsterdam began with a visit to Zaanse Schans, a historically preserved village known for its wooden windmills and farmland. Walking through the town, we arrived at a lookout point where our tour guide, Enno, discussed the development of the former farmland. Initially, the region, and most of the Netherlands, was mostly…
Knowledge and Kristalbaad
Departing from Amsterdam, we arrived in Enchede where we will be staying for 3 days in the University of Twente Campus. For the first time this year, we got to relive the experience of touring colleges as students were kind enough to give us a tour around their campus. Similar to Amsterdam, bike lanes littered…
Diplomacy and Departure
The final send off to our trip was in The Hague, the location of the government of the Netherlands and many of the international embassies. While walking around the city, we got to view some of the governmental complexes and even learnt about how the Dutch government works and compared it to the US. For…
Water management and Watersnood
Our first stop on the itinerary was at the dakkaker farm building for a tour around the city area and the different ways they incorporate water management and humanity into the environment. A school building had a basketball court and skating rink that turned into water retention areas during the rain and a church collected…
Deltaworks and Dikes vs. Dams
Our second day in Rotterdam and so far my favorite visit on the trip occurred at the Deltaworks in the southern coast of the Netherlands. The project was built as a response to the 1953 flood in order to regulate the water level during storms. The Netherlands is mostly below sea level, so any sudden…
Floating, Farms, and the Future
Today began our first day in Rotterdam, a city known for its ports and modern buildings that were built after the destruction of the city in WWII. Compared to Amsterdam, the architecture is a lot newer with tall, colorful structures not made out of brick and wood as much as the historically-preserved areas of Amsterdam…
Munster, Museums, and Movement
Pivoting from the Netherlands, we took a day trip to Munster, Germany, a town with a large population of students, many museums, and bike lanes galore. While the Netherlands is famous for its bike-friendly infrastructure, Munster also does a great job of implementing biking into the city in a safe and accessible manner. Bikes have…
Runoff, Running, and Rotterdam-bound
On our final day in Enschede, we got to finally see around the main town area. As previously mentioned, the Netherlands used to be mostly water and is currently mostly beneath sea level making it susceptible to flooding. Even a slight elevation needs to be taken into account in a town like Enschede where runoff…
Education, Energy, Edelberg
Another day in Twente, another college tour—but centered around sustainability! As mentioned in the last post, Twente has a closed campus that allows for more nature than most Netherlands universities and as a result has more biodiversity than other campuses. They even won a competition for it. While their location is favorable towards it, biodiversity…
Campus, Conservation, and Current
Departing from Amsterdam, we arrived in Enchede where we will be staying for 3 days in the University of Twente Campus. For the first time this year, we got to relive the experience of touring colleges as students were kind enough to give us a tour around their campus. Similar to Amsterdam, bike lanes littered…
Horticulture, Heritage, and Hors d’oeurves
Our final day in Amsterdam began with a visit to Zaanse Schans, a historically preserved village known for its wooden windmills and farmland. Walking through the town, we arrived at a lookout point where our tour guide, Enno, discussed the development of the former farmland. Initially, the region, and most of the Netherlands, was mostly…
Horticulture, Houses, and Human-Focused Buildings
After another morning of bread, yogurt, and cheese, our group departed for de Tulperij, a family-owned tulip farm in Voorhout. Grown there are a variety of tulips for the purpose of selling their bulbs and stalks locally and nationally. A unique aspect of the farm is how it utilizes the environment of the Netherlands to…
Canals, Chocolate, and Coats of Denim
After a short stop in the hotel, our first day in Amsterdam began at Centraal Station with a canal tour across the city. As the boat tore through the rivers, the history of the city revealed itself in the tilted, brick structures. Located next to the ocean, the city has served as a trade port…
Netherlands: A Hop, Skip, and a Jump Away
Hello! I’m Winaida Flaherty, a freshman engineering major at the University of Pittsburgh. I grew up around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and developed a love for travel from travelling with my family. I’m looking to study Civil Engineering, with a concentration in either transportation or structural engineering, and I’m working to obtain a sustainability certificate. At Pitt,…