I began my adventure to get to my first farm by heading to Amsterdam Centraal via tram. I was quite the sight on the tram with my big backpack – an older lady told me she was impressed (not the demographic I needed to impress, but we’ll take it nonetheless).
True to my word, I headed to the cheese shop inside the station first to buy some cheese for my journey – which I would give as a gift to my hosts on the farm. I of course sampled as many cheese as I could; I have to say that most of these were better than anything I could find back in the states. I ended up striking a conversation with the store owner (which of course started with him saying: “Be careful with your backpack!”), who was super nice. He gave me a few recommendations of what to do in Rotterdam (where I was headed through on my train journey) while I purchased my cheese. I ended up getting two types of older aged cow cheese (ie not young and not goat milk) for about $30 (lmk in the comments if that’s a good deal or not, I didn’t think it was too bad).
A short 45 min train ride later I was in Rotterdam. My total journey would include about 4 hours on public transport, so I wanted to break it up throughout the day. Since I arrived in Rotterdam at noon, I knew lunch needed to be my first stop. However, I also knew that I wanted to store my larger backpack somewhere, as I wouldn’t be too thrilled to walk across Rotterdam in the steady rain carrying an extra 55 pounds (verified by the United luggage scale at O’Hare). Thankfully, there was a luggage storage room within the train terminal (which is the coolest looking one I have ever seen).
After dropping of my backpack, I headed to the cheesemonger’s first recommendation: Markthal. Sounds like what it is: a giant market hall of food, similar to the Ferry Building in SF or Faneuil Hall in Boston. Even stacked against those two, Markthal takes the cake for coolest architecture in my book. The building itself is shaped like an upside down “U”, with the exposed portions entirely enclosed in a sheet of glass. The inside of the U is one large room with food stalls, and the entirely ceiling/wall is covered in artwork. The sides of the building are made up of offices, some of which seemingly stretch up to the top of the structure.
I got food at two different vendors within the hall. The first stop was for a herring sandwich – not because it sounded good, but because I had been told several times to try one (as it’s a typical dutch dish). The herring was served with onions inside a white hotdog-esque bun. It was actually pretty good, but not something I’d go back for again considering the plethora of interesting options in the hall. My second stop was at a turkish stand, where I tried pide for the first time. While it looked super cool, it tasted quite normal – basically a meat pizza with no sauce or cheese.
I had to decide what to do next after visiting the Markthal. My already 1 hr break (including the 25 min walk to the hall and lunch) seemed like a good enough respite from the train ride, but Rotterdam would be the most interesting place for me to stop along my journey. I also wanted to get to the farm before rush hour, when trains could start to fill up. Thankfully all of the trains and buses I would be taking run every 30 min until about 7pm (when they run less frequently) so I had a good amount of flexibility. I thought about downloading an architecture audio tour of Rotterdam for my phone, but the steady rain convinced me otherwise.
On my way to the Markthal, I listened to a podcast about Rotterdam that touted the Maritiem (maritime) Museum as the top place to visit due to its interactive exhibits and impressive collection of artifacts showcasing the rich history of Rotterdam as Europe’s largest port. In fact, Rotterdam was the largest port in the world (by ship volume) from 1962 until 2004, when Shanghai overtook its place (several other Chinese ports + Los Angeles have since also overtaken it).
I got into the Maritiem Museum with a student discount (woohoo $5 savings) and headed up to the first interactive exhibit after dropping off my smaller backpack and raincoat in the self-serve coat check area. The first exhibit was the coolest by far, and where I spent the majority of my 1 hour inside the museum, so I’ll spend the most time talking about it here. The interactive exhibit aimed to teach about offshore oil drilling (I know, doesn’t sound super exciting, or environmentally friendly). Even though I’ll begin working in energy consulting this fall, I realized I really didn’t know much about the day to day operations of an oil rig, so this exhibit was going to be both exciting and quite useful for me.
A side note here about the energy transition and my upcoming job – I’ve always maintained the stance that the best way to encourage a renewable energy transition starts with first learning how a fossil fuel driven industry operates. Until I understand the logistics that go into producing oil and natural gas, I’m not in the best position to explain how a switch to wind and solar will be best for a utilities company. Maintaining an open mind and an eagerness to learn while going through exhibits like this one will best prepare me to engage in thoughtful conversations in the future. Now back to the museum.
The exhibit began on the first deck (not floor) of the museum. In this area there were a few machines you could play with. The first let you input different types of activities you participate in regularly, and output your annual carbon emissions. I have done exercises like this in the past, so it wasn’t too exciting for me, but the activity serves as a good baseline for the exhibit to show museumgoers the end use of the oil extracted from the rigs.
The next interactive component of the exhibit featured a series turning wheels that looked to control pipes. Rather than letting more or less water through, these wheels controlled a variety of factors that affect oil barrel prices. For example, one wheel controlled production capacity, and another controlled geopolitical unrest (which is kinda hard to measure in a linear way imo). The 7 categories can be seen below. Somewhat ironically, the wheel controlling the economy happened to be out of order.
After playing with the two exhibits on the first floor, the centerpiece of the offshore oil exhibit was next. I entered a room with a few other people, where we watched a safety briefing video. Some Dutch guy did a bunch of crazy stunts, including an underwater rescue simulation (the same thing fighter pilots and astronauts train with), helicopter maneuvering, and lifeboat operating (where the boat launches off the 10 story oil rig platform into the North Sea). Clearly I would be doing none of these activities in the exhibit, but to the untrained 10 year old’s eye, this would have been insanely exciting. Also worth noting that there were almost no little kids (or other people for that matter) around – the museum would have had a much more hectic vibe if there were. That being said, the museum was clearly designed with children in mind: lots of room for stroller parking, and a closed off, dedicated play area on one floor. After the video, I could put on life vests and boots (which I didn’t), and then use my museum access card to unlock the door that led up to the platform.
Once atop the platform, on deck 2, there were a series of games I could play to learn more about different jobs on needed in offshore oil operations. I ended up playing three – driving a large ship, operating an underwater ROV, and planning logistics for resupplying a ship. The three games were all quite different, and were all hard to do correctly on the first try (it’s worth noting that before going up to the platform, I chose all the games to be put on expert difficulty level). The setup of all of the games was very impressive though – my museum access card had to be scanned at each, after which the game would address me by name and let me know how I did at the previous games (which was not very well for me).
I stopped playing after three games both because I wanted time to visit the rest of the museum, and because I was starting to get motion sick from the 3D elements of the games. I then took the elevator down 30 floors (only 1 floor in reality, the elevator liked to make noises simulating a big drop) and scanned my keycard once more downstairs to receive my certificate and final stats. I know I could’ve maxed out all my stats if I stayed there a bit longer.
After exiting the first exhibit, I had to rush through the rest of the museum to make sure I didn’t spend too much time in Rotterdam before continuing to mosey my way down south. Nothing too noteworthy to report from the rest of the museum. Lots of different exhibits showing the history of the port and how it has grown over time. Several smaller interactive components, but nothing as cool as the offshore oil section. The temporary exhibit on display showcased the stories of immigrants from across the world who moved to Rotterdam.
Once I finished checking out the museum, I headed back to the 1950s villain hq (aka Rotterdam Centraal station) and caught a train to Goes (pronounced hoosh). As I was leaving the train after the 1.5 hr ride, I didn’t realize I dropped my phone, but some girl was nice enough to run up and give it to me before I left the train. I wouldn’t know what I would have done if I left it there, so kudos to her for helping me out. Once off the train, I waited in the covered area of the station for my bus, which I then rode for another hour to reach Axel. In Axel, I got picked up by Kley, one of my hosts on the farm, who drove me to the farm in Overslag.
I’ll wait till my next post to talk more about the farm; this post has gotten pretty long as it is. By the time of writing my next one, I’ll have spent at least 2 full days on the farm. I’ll make sure to talk about the people I’ve met and the work I’ve been doing. For a sneak peek of what the landscape here looks like, check out my latest bike ride linked down below in the Strava section; it includes some photos. Turns out most of the land in this region is made up of polders, so the URL is living up to its name.
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