 |
| This is an historical marina with lots of old wooden boats. |
We drove as far north as Oldenburg in Germany and then headed west into The Netherlands.
We drove north to the dikes protecting Holland from the North Sea - quaint villages, sheep grazing on the dikes and a few small resort/marina areas. We stayed at a nice campground/resort on a inlet with an historical marina, a couple of good restaurants and a grocery store. Nothing else for miles around.
 |
| View from the campground |
The scenery is absolutely flat, except for the dikes with farmland as far as you can see. The farmland is grazing land and a lot of corn and a few other crops we do not recognize...the tulip fields ablaze with color in the spring are far to the South. This is part of Holland that still sees iced over canals for the famous Dutch skaters.
 |
| Sheep grazing on the dike |
 |
| View from atop the dike next to a quaint Dutch village |
 |
| This roads in this entire village were brick. The paved path on the right is for bicycles. I do not think there is anywhere in Holland that is not connected by bike path to everywhere else. |
 |
| Typical small village home - this one has both the thatched roof and the swan gable decorations on the peaks that we saw everywhere. |
 |
| Yup, Jack with his finger in the dike...... |
 |
| A typical canal in a small town with fishing boats, sailboats and houseboats. |
 |
| The stepped roof typical of medieval Dutch buildings |
After spending a few days roaming around the northern countryside, we headed south along what used to be the Zuider Zee to Enkhuizen. This is an outdoor museum where they have rescued ancient homes from around the ZuiderZee villages and recreated a farming village and marina.
 |
| The marina just outside the historically recreated town |
 |
| Goats and swans are everywhere throughout Holland |
The main part of town also had an indoor museum that dealt with the terrible Zuider Zee flooding that has occurred throughout the centuries and the history of the many small towns on the former Zuider Zee. It also talked about how a dike/dam was put in that slowly converted the Zuider Zee into an inland fresh water lake.
 |
| Fascinating room that provides a multi-sensory experience of being in a storm and flooding |
 |
| No museum in Holland is without ships and these side paddles (forgot the name) are unique to the Dutch. Because they needed to be able to sail in very shallow water, they could not have a deep keel and these paddles were lowered into place in deeper water to provide the equivalent of a keel. |
 |
| These wooden boats were gorgeous. |
We headed west to the small city of Alkmaar, famous for their Saturday morning cheese market, recreated just as they have done for centuries.
 |
| Gouda cheese rounds |
 |
| The guys in the different color hats sling the straps for these carriers over the necks and then run, not walk, the cheeses into the weighing house. |
 |
| Weighing the cheese |
 |
| View of the Cheese Museum in Alkmaar - a pretty city with lots of canals, of course. |
 |
| Alkmaar canal houses |
The cheese market brings all kinds of vendors to make a festival every Saturday. This one was making wooden shoes, all by hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment