Day 29: Zuiderzeemuseum!

This morning after breakfast we said our goodbyes to John and Cordula. What a gift it was to see them both! It was like no time had passed since we’d walked together in Spain.

Today we enjoyed a special trip to see the Zuiderzeemuseum. The museum has been in place for 75 years and as the Zuiderzee has been dyked and slowly drained for almost the past 100 years. When the decision was made to put the first main dyke in place this essentially killed the fishing industry in this part of Holland over the following years. In an effort to preserve this history the government of the day decided to centralize some of the buildings and daily businesses in a museum.

During the drive out we passed numerous banks of wind mills. During the day we saw hundreds. Europe and much of the developed world are much further ahead of Canada in the development of alternate sources of energy. This is slowly changing, but we have a long way to go to catch up due in part to our strong oil lobby.

*By chance we saw a propeller blade along the way. 90m long!!*

We arrived at the museum and once on a boat that would transfer us to the museum we passed the local village.

Another North Sea boat under sail. They have a shallow draft allowing them to cross shallow areas, but they have a drop keel on both sides of the boat one of which is dropped depending on wind direction.

It’s getting late here and I think for the most part I’ll simply post some photos from the museum, which was excellent! Thanks to our hosts Ton and Monique for hosting us!

*These were cleverly built with rain water delivered into the house and the excess into a barrel for further use.*

*Eel net. Still used today on the boats, though stocks are low and appetites high. Now farmed.*

Fortunately we were able to go on board if desired. The lower deck was very tight with extremely low ceilings which would only allow one to crawl into a berth. It was a long time dream to go on board one of these. I spoke with a crew member and another time it would be possible to go out on one of these. Another dream!

Tomorrow we depart here after a wonderful visit with our kind and accommodating hosts. We drive on to Amsterdam for an afternoon of shopping and looking around. Dinner with more family and then we head home on Wednesday. I’ll try to fit in a post tomorrow!

Ciao!

Geoff🍻