Cold and Rainy Day

It didn't matter much that it rained yesterday - the museums were dry. However, today we took a half day tour to Volendam, Marken and Zaanse Schans, and we wished for brighter weather.

Volendam is a touristy village on the shore of Lake IJsselmeer, which was created in 1932 with the closing of the Zuider Zee. The lake is now fresh water, and the towns along it are protected from floods.

Lining the dike on the walk into the village were pretty houses. To a Canadian, these looked like miniature houses.

But looks can be deceiving, as these houses extended far back, and had at least one floor below the main level. Note the pretty garden in this one in a very compact area.

Marken was altogether less touristy, with a distinctive house style. Canals ran through the village and once again there were compact gardens.

We ended our trip by visiting Zaanse Schans, an open air museum which showcased 14 windmills salvaged from the thousand or so that used to be operating in this area. The industrial area grew up to produce finished goods from raw materials being imported from around the world when Holland was such a urge trading power in the 17C.

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Water, Water, Everywhere

Storm Surge Barrier at Maeslantkering near Rotterdam To tour the Netherlands is to marvel at Dutch ingenuity in water management. With one quarter of Holland below sea level and one half at one metre or less above sea level, the Dutch have lived with the threat of flooding for their entire history. The country boasts over 17,000 kilometres of dikes, along their rivers, intended to protect residents from flooding. But one night in 1953, the confluence of an especially high spring tide and a wind storm over the North Sea struck just after midnight and caused water levels to rise more than 5 meters above normal, breaching the protective dikes. Radio was off the air and government agencies were not staffed; there was no warning for the residents of low-lying land and islands. By 3 a.m., more than 1,800 people had lost their lives. The Netherlands decided to get serious about a new era of flood control water management. They wanted to have defences that would handle once-in-a-t...

Naarden

Naarden is best known as a star-shaped fortress town. It's a very compact town of 17,000 inhabitants with the walls and moats very well preserved. We walked out through the town gate to admire the fortifications. We walked out through the town gate to see the walls and the moat: The town itself is very pretty and not surprisingly is considered one of the prettiest towns in Holland. We just loved the church. Those paintings on the ceiling are quite spectacular. We spent some time wandering, and having a very pleasant lunch. One thing that surprised me was the number of very nice clothing stores. It seems retail is alive and well in the small towns of Holland. This observation was underscored in other small towns we visited. Very nice clothes too!

The Perils of the Wrong GPS settings

So, we're leaving our B&B and heading to Kinderdijk (next post) following the directions of our excellent car GPS. But we seem to be driving back where we came from. We try to intervene with the map and the GPS keeps taking us in circles. What can be going on? Finally we determine the GPS is set to avoid ferries and there's only one convenient way to get across the Lek (Rhine) and it's a ferry rather than a bridge! The ferry is considered part of the road. This is just one of the perils of driving in Holland. Then there are the narrow streets, especially difficult with the big car we have to give Wayne leg and head room: Many road have two bike lanes but only one car lane, like this example: Note the houses here well below the road built along the top of the dike. Sometimes there is a separate road for bikes nearby, sometimes there's one bike area, with painted lines separating the two directions, sometimes there's a concrete separation, sometimes there's ...

Netherlands 2017

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