Today was the last excursion of the course. We went with a small group of students to Waterschap Groot Salland – one of the 25 regional water authorities in the Netherlands. We learned about the work of the water authority and about some of the projects. We then visited the flood defenses in Kampen and […]

Today we looked at some of the dams and storm surge barriers associated with the Delta Plan. This plan was set in place after the disastrous flood of 1953. Our excursion included stops at the Eastern Schelde barrier, Brouwersdam, Haringvliet sluce complex and the Maeslantkering. We ended the day with the offer of a free smoked eel […]

Today’s excursion was through Europoort. This is one of the largest port facilities in the world. We started in Rotterdam and worked our way out to the Maasvlaakte II at the North Sea. 

The Vecht River excursion follows part of the Vecht River between the city of Utrecht and the town of Loenen a/d Vecht. We looked at some of the large country estates along this section. Our friend Sander Griffieon led us on a walking tour the town of Loenen a/d Vecht. After the walk we warmed […]

Today our focus was newtowns – specifically IJburg and Almere. IJburg was constructed over the past 10 years on artificial islands. It is located within the city of Amsterdam. Almere is in the southern Flevoland polder. A new city center was built in the last decade. 

Today we got another late start due to fog. Once the fog burned off we had wonderful (but cold) weather for our excursion. We started by traveling through three of the 17th century drained lakes in the area just north of Amsterdam. We visited a windmill museum in Schermerhoorn. We then took a look at […]

We started the day with a one hour delay due to snow. On the news we heard that the country set a record for the longest traffic jams ever. So we shortened our planned excursion a bit. We first traveled to the town of Wijk-bij-Duurstede where we were met by Laura’s great uncle Harry van […]

Monday 1/14. Today we traveled with the students who did not do the last weekend home stay. We traveled to the dune area to see the dune infiltration works which is part of the city of Amsterdam water treatment process. We explored the dune infiltration area by bike being led by hydrogeologist Theo Oolsthoorn. After that […]

On Thursday we explored the Zuiderzee/IJsselmeer reclamation. This reclamation involved turning 640 square miles of sea bottom land into dry ground. We stopped at 3 former Zuiderzee islands – Wieringen, Skokland, and Urk. We visited the site where the German army blew up the Wieringermeer polder dike at the end of World War II. We […]

Today’s excursion allowed the students to explore the urban heart of the country. We brought them to Dordrecht and bought them a train ticket to Weesp. Along they got off the train at Rotterdam, Delft, Rijswijk, Den Haag, Leiden, Schiphol, and Amsterdam (south) to explore this highly urbanized core of the country.