Paul van Steen, my main professor for this semester has incorporated many excursion into our course to gain a deeper understanding how the Netherlands is constructed and functions. We have had a few excursions within the city of Groningen and the outer suburbs, along with a biking tour of the city (by now we are all pros at biking). The other two big excursions we have done were to visit the larger cities in the west and the second was to learn about the water management in the Netherlands.
During the excursion to the western cities we stopped in Utrecht, Amsterdam, the Hague and Rotterdam. We were able to walk around the inner city of Utrecht, the Hague and Rotterdam and learned about the difference between the cities.
Utrecht: conservative, compact city, unique community atmosphere
Amsterdam we only made one stop to "the Ghetto" but it wasn't what would normally come to mind when thinking of a ghetto this neighborhood was a group of high rise apartment complexes that were intended for middle-upper class people but then the planning didn't have the outcome they were intending so now a lot of immigrants are residing in the area and there is more crime than other neighborhoods.
The Hague: beautiful, old, historic looking city with a little modern twist
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Skinniest house in the Hague
Four stories and roughly 1 meter wide! |
Rotterdam: a more modern city, it was nearly completely reconstructed after WW2. Also home to the Rotterdam port, largest in Europe.
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The figure is the city and the heart is ripped away,
just like the Rotterdam's heart was ripped out during WW2. |
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"The white house"
One of four buildings in Rotterdam that survived bombing attacks during war. |
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| Quick drive by photos of the port of Rotterdam |
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| The selfie stick works all to well. |
The second major excursion was to learn about water management in the Netherlands. The country is built with a quarter of its land lying below sea level and the rest not far from it. Of the 24% of land below sea level, 60% of people reside on that land (see map below). Therefor they must be doing something right to keep the country from being taken to sea, literally. The water management in a nutshell consists of building dams, canals, terps and dikes.
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| The blue is below sea level and the green is above sea level |
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| Rather large dike |
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| Canals by the countryside |
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Church built on a terp.
Terp is a built up area for protection from lower lying land/water. |
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People are buried on higher ground,
if bodies are buried in a moist environment the bodies will not decay very well.
(I've learned lots of fun facts.) |
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| It would be a nice place to call home. |
Whoooooop whooooop WATER!
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| Bottoms up :) |
