Class Trips

So I realized that I haven't really said much about the class trips we have been doing. So, this and the next post will be about the week of classes, which was my favorite week by quite a bit.
On Monday we toured through Lake Haarlem and the North Sea Dunes. Lake Haarlem, 42,000 acres, doesn't actually exist any more; it was drained in the 19th century and now is home to the town of Hoofddorp (population ~ 70,000), the Schiphol Airport, and lots of farmland. The picture below is of the Cruquius Pumping Station. It houses the world's largest steam pump. This station with the help of two other steam driven pumps drained the lake through a system of canals and dikes over the course of four years. We actually got to see it fired up (its actually run by electricity now) and put into action which was pretty phenomenal.


Tuesday our excursion took us along the Vecht river, where we took a look at various techniques and methods used to accomodate rising water levels in the river. We stopped in the cool little town of Wijk bij Duurstede for lunch and were able to do a little exploring. This first picture shows the castle ruins nearby which used to be home to a well off bishop! It was cool to see the moat still in place around the main tower.


This next picture is of me standing underneath the world's only 'drive-through' windmill! It was very big.


We also had a fun time feeding the ducks and watching them waddle around and 'argue' over the bread. I feel like the Dutch ducks here are like a better version of Calvin squirrels. They are fun to watch, don't attack people, and are really colorful.

On Wednesday, we went on my favorite field trip yet. We took the vans down to Rotterdam and drove through Europoort. Europoort is the busiest port on the planet and is considered by some as Europes most crucial entry point. The port is located at the mouth of the Rhine which allows for transport to Germany, Belgium and partially France. Most of the port is sectioned based on transport type. We visited the Fruit Port which is were all the fruit is shipped to and from. Another section seemed to be completely devoted freight containers. The picture below shows a glimpse of the mountains of containers. They were in every direction; left, right, up, down. We even got to see a gigantic container ship bringing more containers in to the port.

At the edge of the port was Maasvlakte I, the first of two man-made additions to the land for port expansion. It houses huge chemical plants, warehouse distribution centers (like reebok), and numerous railway loading stations. We went to a chemical plant owned by LyondellBasell (previously ARCO) and were able to get a tour of the control building and the plant itself. The plant is currently shut down due to the economic instability, but it usually would be operating 24 hours a day producing propylene oxide among other products. It was cool to see things like a distillation column or a steam input line in person rather than just drawing a box on paper. This visit really made me want to be a chemical engineer and set my mind dreaming.