By Jordan, Film and Television Studies major; Junior
We started out our morning by taking the train from Nijmegen to ‘s Hetogenbosch, which was a pretty big challenge because of how many bikes we had to fit into the little train cars. Once we arrived, we made our way to a popular market and ate fresh stroopwafels for breakfast. The St. John Cathedral featured angels in its architecture, and one of the figurines unique — one statue depicts an angel wearing jeans and talking on a cell phone — a more modern interpretation of an angel. After a brief scavenger hunt around the cathedral, we were able to find her! Our next task as tourists was to eat traditional herring, a raw fish that is gutted and covered in onions.
On our boat tour, Hugo was incredibly kind and funny, allowing us to engage in enriching conversations. Hugo’s discussion about the Binnendieze in Den Bosch and how it relates to the Water Authority really was one of my favorite presentations thus far — he took so much time out of his day as a volunteer with the museum to show us around the water system, and I think overall he just went above and beyond. In terms of the environment and sustainability, one of the things that really impacted me was when he said nature keeps surprising the citizens, so the engineers have to continue to change their plans over time. He talked about how previous natural flooding disasters have promoted water management officials to take action almost immediately, which I think is really impressive.
Before setting off on our bikes for Waalwijk, we made a quick stop and had some Bossche bollen, a unique pastry filled with whipped cream, outlined in bread, and covered in chocolate. This definitely gave us our carbs and sugar to get us biking! I look forward to our upcoming meetings with even more folks, as their valuable knowledge will help us connect different aspects of environmental, social, and economic sustainability to water management in the Netherlands and allow us to reflect on how it is managed in the United States.
Today’s biking distance: 20.9 km (13 miles)
Provinces we have visited we have visited or biked through (of 12 in the Netherlands): 5