On the Flowers and Photography trip, there were so many tours and historical sites that the faculty planned on the program. Still, my favorite thing I was able to experience was the paddle boat ride my friends and I decided to do when we had a free afternoon in Amsterdam.
One of the key takeaways from the entire trip for me was the connection in the Netherlands to water. In Amsterdam and Delft, streets line the canals with businesses, apartments, churches, and so much more. The canals were intertwined with the daily routine and life of these cities and the people who lived there.
It was amazing to see how instead of trying to keep the water out, these communities embraced it. I think the use of windmills encapsulates this idea perfectly. On our way from Delft to Antwerp we had the opportunity to visit the Kinderdijk Windmills, and we even got to speak with a miller about their importance still in the Netherlands.
The Dutch have been utilizing water for over 1000 years, and there is no plan on stopping any time soon. Now, you may be asking why the Dutch needed windmills over 1000 years ago, and that is because most of the Netherlands is below sea level, and the windmills are used to pump water out, or into canals so that the land can be utilized.
This beautiful understanding between the Dutch and their environment, I think, is what makes the canals so special.
On our ride through Amsterdam, we passed houseboats, families with young children learning how to steer, and teenagers pushing to see if they could just go a little faster. We saw the city from the water’s point of view, with the Rijks Museum towering on our left, and a swan floating past on the right.
The city’s beauty from the water was better than seeing it from the street, and I got to experience it with two of my best friends at the University of Georgia. It was an immersive cultural experience that made me have more appreciation for the nature around me after I came home, and I am so glad we spent our free afternoon on a paddle boat in Amsterdam.
