To the North

Over the weekend, the class traveled and stayed in the northern Netherland of Groningen. We traveled across a huge man-made island which is home to hundreds of wind turbines. These turbines lined the sheep pastures as far as the eye could see. Also on this island/province of Flevoland is the "sim city" of Almere. This city roughly being from the 1970's is one of the newest developements in the world. City planners and architects have had a hay-day working there. I would really like to return there at some point.


Arriving in Groningen, our group split in half. I went with the group to Aduard while the other group traveled to the city of Groningen. Here we met our host families and spent some time getting to know them at a church potluck. During our stay we went to a Dutch waterpark, ate traditional Dutch food, took a look at a Dutch military training village, and elxplored a nearby nature preserve. One of the funnest parts was spending time with the youth group at a 'new years' celebration. Their youth room had a bar and served beer, wine, and food. It was a different experience to say the least. One of the 19 year old 'bartenders' explained that if the church didn't have a bar, it would be very difficult to entice kids to attend. It was a good time and a lot of fun to talk with the Dutch youth and get to know them.


Some of you may know that the Dutch constantly have a project to keep water levels at an acceptable level. Roughly 25% of the country is below sea level, with about 50% just within a few meters above it. Thus, the use of huge dams, dikes, and sluice gates is always active to keep floods to a minimum. Below is a picture of one of the huge sluice gates used to allow and restrict water flow with the sea.
Along our tour of the north, we were able to see alot of the coast and some of the harbors. These areas are also nearby a huge nature preserve which houses a unique part of some of the world's birds. It was impressive to see an entire field covered in swans and geese.