Amsterdam Part 1: Floriade

 Once again, the blog is being finished a few days after returning home. Funny how real life things like laundry and cooking get in the way...

Our first day in Amsterdam, or shall we say in the Amsterdam area, was our final day on the Esprit. The dockage in Amsterdam would not be ready for our ship until 7:30 p.m., so we sailed instead for the city of Utrecht. From there, we were all visiting the Horticultural Exposition of Floriade, in the town of Almere. Once our tour was done, we would be rejoining the ship in Zaandam, and would sail to our berth in Amsterdam from there.

Floriade is the big International Exposition for Horticulture, and it only takes place once every 10 years, between April and October. We found out that it is one big event that was not rescheduled due to COVID, and always happens on the '2' year of the decade. and this is the 7th such exposition. It moves from city to city around the Netherlands. Each city that wants to hold the expo submits a plan for using new space for the expo, and also what they will use it for afterwards, so the infrastructure is already in place before the space is officially turned over to them. All of the buildings and structures don't have to be kept, but the city has to adhere to the plan for development that they originally submitted.

This year's theme is Growing Green Cities; sustainability, reusing and recycling materials, saving water, saving energy. We were actually allowed to go into the expo an hour before it opened to the public, so we got a bit of a tour around and a lot of information from the guides there.

As an example of sustainability, this building is a school for environmental studies. Not only does it have this gorgeous living wall, but all of the rooms inside use reused materials as much as possible. Buildings like this are already part of the plan for the Hortus area of Almere, which will be combined residential, commercial and educational once Floriade is over.

A closer view of the living wall. It serves as both insulation and green space to recycle oxygen. Given the amount of rain in the Netherlands, the watering system doesn't have to be used to full potential, but there is rainwater collection on top of the building and a system to distribute it to the plants.

This building is made completely of reused and recycled materials, inside and out. It is an example of the extent to which material can be kept out of the garbage stream. The outer wood is all reused from other applications, and everything in the room from the walls and floor to the cups, bowls and plates is recycled.

An example of vertical (sort of) gardening in
these small pots on a stand. Great idea for a
winter herb garden!

Reusing materials for insulation and growing.
The plants in the water are growing inside
cork bricks...

Everything here is made from recycled materials

Throughout the park there are flower beds and plantings that will be left as part of the Hortus District. They're already quite pretty; I can imagine how they will look in 5 years.

This is an international exposition, and many countries have full pavilions where they showcase their own sustainability successes. This is a photo from the Chinese Garden pavilion. All the structures in the garden are made from bamboo, and so is the pavilion itself. 

This pavilion is actually made from mushroom roots! It feels a little squishy, but it is totally recyclable. There seems to be no end to what we can do with stuff that normally goes into compost.

This building with a lovely floral mural all around the outside will be apartments after Floriade. According to our guide, the apartments are listed for viewing, but there's no price attached yet. She figures they will be quite expensive as the Hortus area will be in high demand. There will be other apartment developments in the area though.

This sculpture, called Beehold, is made from steel in the form of 10,000 bees engulfing 2 figures. It represents the dependence we have on bees to pollinate many species of plants throughout the world, and that we need to ensure that they continue to thrive. It will remain in the public square after Floriade is done.

The Rose Garden is a beautiful oasis in the park. Over 3000 different rose species are showcased here. Just spectacular! One of our fellow cruisers, Danny, is a really good photographer and spent a lot of time taking pictures of plants. He was having a field day in the rose garden.

There are a couple of ways to get around Floriade without walking - the Hop-On, Hop-Off Floriade Explorer train and a Cable Car that goes from the south-west to north-east areas of the 60 hectare park.

Our tickets included access to both and our guided tour ended at the Cable Car station. Even the natural

growth in the area was very pretty.

The washroom, souvenir shop, and fast food
area also had some really cute sculptures. I loved this
cow!

The cable car installation, which will not be part of the Hortus district after the expo, has already been sold to a company that will reassemble it in a town in Switzerland.

This was a really interesting map of Floriade, made entirely of Lego bricks!

Our final stop at Floriade in our free time was in the Green House, where many of the more exotic plants and interior design ideas were showcased. There were some really interesting displays in here....and Danny seemed to be taking pictures of just about every plant!

This beautiful mural looks like it is made from painted stones, but
I can't find any info on it anywhere. Nonetheless, it is a
lovely piece of art.

The orchid display was amazing, especially the
blue ones. 

Suggestions for using plants as part of interior design. Great
if you have lots of light!

A living wall inside a vertical terrarium. Another
fantastic idea.

Some of the artwork inside the Green House

Another display of bromeliads and
epiphytes

The garden outside of the Thailand Pavilion

Our visit to Floriade was quite an interesting one. We can see just how far Europe is ahead of us in North America on the sustainability and reuse front. But of course with the large population in a relatively small area, they always need to be developing ways to use alternative energy sources and avoid throwing things away. One of the buildings that we didn't take any photos of here is Flora, a residential home for Alzheimer's patients that is already occupied and will remain after Floriade is done. There are bright yellow areas of the building that are balcony and common areas for residents that were made from recycled bicycles, many of which had been fished out of canals.

This was a really interesting visit, and we're glad we were able to experience this once in a decade show. The amount of thought and experiment being put into recycling everything possible is amazing, and has certainly given us something to think about.

Back to reality - after the show we went back to the ship in Zaandam and packed our bags for Sunday morning's disembarkation.