For more information contact Michele at:

mkoomen@gustavus.edu

or 507.933.6057

Beyond Wooden Shoes and Tulips:
Water in the Netherlands
January Travel Course 2014
With Michele and Johannes Koomen

 

Leave January 2, 2014

Return: January 24, 2014

 


In this course, students will study the impact of water and water management in the Netherlands, including water as engineered through the country’s vast network of canals, dijks,

windmills, and polders in different locations through the Netherlands. Students will look at water in commerce – including the VOC or the Dutch East Indies Company;

the changing ecology due to water management; conservation efforts to restore wetland; human expression of water through the visual arts and winter recreational use of water.

This course will foster a shared Dutch experience with opportunities to prepare meals and engage in conversation throughout the course.

Students will have the opportunity to experience a home stay with a Dutch family.

Top Ten Reasons that the

Netherlands 2014 is for You!

 

10. English is the second official language in the Netherlands.
However, learning a little Dutch will be part of the course: begin now by rolling your “r’s” to say grrrrr.

9. Lekkers: the Dutch mastered the art of baking sweets, including the delicious gevulde cookie

8. Ice skating on the canals (weather permitting) or on an Ijsbaan (oval rink)

7. Cycling on some of the world’s best bicycle only designated paths

6. Building cross cultural awareness with a home stay

5. Heineken Brewery

4. Koffie tijd

3. Cook Dutch food together

2. Becoming a self reliant traveler

1. As the Dutch saying goes: If it ain’t Dutch, it ain’t much!

 

Water, Water: Everywhere there is water in the Netherlands!

 

Travel through the country by train


Learn about the great engineering projects like the Delta Werk


and the
Afsluitdijk that made the former Zuider Zee into a fresh water lake


Spend many days in Amsterdam


See for yourself how this beautiful city was laid out around canals

In Amsterdam we will stay in the Sinterklaas Hotel

Travel around the city by tram


:
Visit local markets


Explore the role of water in conflicts including WW II and the Dutch Resistance Museum


Visit the Anne Frank Huis


West Friesland: Medemblik, Onderdijk and Hoorn
In these small villages you will learn about the role of water in the Northern
provinces including the small lakes and canals that are part of this old polder region.

Learn the importance of water in the Dutch flower industry


Visit a castle in Medemblik

View beautiful art work about water throughout the Netherlands

 

Ride bikes in the small villages and in Amsterdam just like the Dutch!

Use designated bike paths to ride through the countryside!

Try speed skating at the oldest outdoor ice rink in the Netherlands: the Jaap Eden

Medemblik

Beautiful historic Hoorn

West Friesland Museum in Hoorn

Shopping street in Hoorn

If you are looking to get a more close up view of a culture and country through a thematic study of water,

than this trip to the Netherlands may be just right for you.

Enjoy cycling?

Than the Netherlands 2014 maybe just the one for you.

We will tour West Friesland (34 miles) over one day on great Dutch bikes (weather permitting).

If feasible, we will cycle to the beaches of North Holland to the sand dunes and Schoorl (weather permitting).

These are the kinds of bikes we will rent for our bike trips

 

In Medemblik we will stay in these houses where we will cook many of our meals together.

The kitchen

The living and bath rooms

Tentative Course Readings:

Brochure for January 2014 Course to Netherlands

Estimated cost of the trip: $4300-4600 as of 3.25.13