LES PAYS-BAS: L'EAU ET L'AIR

Anco Pure "Vanda" company is located in Wateringen. There are 60 employees. They work on 6 hectares of glasshouses. We need more than 20 million euros to build this type of company. And it earned between 8 and 10 million euros per year. As the name suggests, this company produces only a special variety of orchids: Vanda. It exist a lot of colors for this type of orchids like Rasberry cerise, Salmon, Retro red... To have more and more orchids they buy bulbes in Thaïlande, that's how they have between 700 000 to 800 000 flowers now. The speciality of this variety is that it doesn't need ground, it's lives free in this air. For growing, roots have to stay green. For that they put roots in water twice a week. The Vanda can survive without water between 4 to 5 days because roots stock water. Pesticides are not allowed so they use bags whith insects. The growing conditions are specific: the atmosphere have to be hot and humid this is why they keep 26°C in the gl

Netherlands haven't got enough territory to welcome all the population. To arrive to give an house to all the population, the Dutch decided to spread their territory on the sea and the rivers. Since always, Netherland have been fighting against water because it's a very flat territory located under the level of the sea. All the water of this country is controlled by bridges, dykes or locks. The name of Amsterdam come from the dyke (« Dam » in dutch) on the Amstel.  The district we visited is called Ijburg. In the floating district we visited, the homes are built through to the ecological materials. In those districts, the are different types of house. In fact, the basics houses are all similar and target the people who have no many money like students or young couples. This type of house represent 30 % of the houses in this district. The houses with a different style are more expensive and target more the people who have many money like the upper class ; it represents also 30

StayOkay has been our place to stay during the whole trip. This hostel is situated on one of the most beautiful districts of Utrecht, Netherlands. Our first impression when we arrived was really positive, it seemed clean, modern, cosy, cuchy : we couldn't wait to set inside our rooms and enjoy all the sofas that were waiting for us ! To start, first floor ! Here is where stand the kitchen, the dinning-room and the living-room. Let's talk about the kitchen and the dinning-room, where we spent most of our time and actually our favorite place in this hostel. The reason why we enjoy it as much is, most of it, the atmosphere that, thanks to the modern decoration, the personnal, and the cushy sofas, makes us feel comfortable. Who says kitchen, means food of course ! The hostel food was tasty, always composed of vegs, soup, meat or fish, and a great cream for desert, for dinner ! Breakfasts then ! Lunches and breakfasts w

Pour finir notre voyage, nous sommes montés à bord d'une mini-croisière nommé ' Michel-Angelo' pour se promener sur les canaux  où nous avons pu nous émerveiller devant les belles façades des maisons d'Amsterdam qui longent les canaux. Grâce à cette excursion, nous avons pu apercevoir la ressemblance entre Amsterdam et Venise, parfois appelé la ' Venise du Nord', avec ses 250 ponts ne détrônant pas la ville italienne qui en comporte 400. Alors que nous nous laissions entraîner par la beauté du paysage environnant, nous avons appris beaucoup de choses du point de vue culturel et historique. En effet, ancienne petite ville de pêcheurs, la ville d'Amsterdam a connu au Moyen-Age une forte croissance faisant d'elle l'un des principaux ports du monde. Nous n'avons pas manqué de voir la maison d'Anne Franck, jeune fille juive pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale connue pour la rédaction de son journal, qui ne cesse d'attirer les tour