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Published: September 16th 2013
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Radios are Not Used Here
You have to stop at the harbormaster before finding a place to “dock” your boat in Middelburg. Middelburg, the capital of the province of Zeeland was our next stop. We had heard from many that it was an excellent introduction into the Netherlands and after being here a couple of days we agree. The town is large enough to have all the services that you need all within an easy walk or bike ride away. Once we got settled in, we took our bikes off to go exploring. Most of the roads have bike paths running next to them, but if not, there were plenty of cobble stoned narrow streets that were easy to bike on. One thing that we took note of very quickly was the speed with which bicyclers ride and that most do not slow down at intersections or when pedestrians are crossing the street. With this in mind, when you do walk, you need to watch for the cars, but what is more important those on bikes. We learned that the law in the Netherlands protects the person on the bike. If there is an accident involving a bike, the car is always wrong.
As usual Janice headed to the visitors center, but found for the first time that very little information was
The Drawbridge at Middelburg
The bridge was opened hourly by the harbormaster for boats to enter & leave. given out for free. This is the first time we needed to pay for a map of the town. This was definitely a first as visitor’s information centers are typically eager to provide you with information. This looked like it was going to be a little more difficult to figure out – thankfully we had free wi-fi from the marina so used that to find out information, but it was also short on details. We wanted to check out a few places but the next day we found that they were closed with no indication of the hours they were opened. This is the first time we are finding it difficult to get information about the local sights.
In one of the free papers we picked up we saw that there was a tour of the very impressive Town Hall scheduled. Fortunately we were able to make it to that and the guide was excellent giving the information in both Dutch and English. The irony is that everyone you meet in the Netherlands speaks excellent English, but all the information and sign boards are only in Dutch. We were sorry to see that we weren’t going to learn much
Sunset In Middelburg
An evening view from our boat while in Middelburg. of the history of the buildings we were seeing this way.
Middelburg dates back to the late 8th century and gained city status in 1217. The original Town Hall was built between 1452 to 1520, however, in 1940 it and approximately 500 other buildings in the city were destroyed by fire that broke out from shelling. As the majority of these buildings were wood, they were irreplaceable, but fortunately the stone and brick buildings such as the Town Hall and Abbey were reconstructed back to their original glory.
It was a major trade center with England and during the Dutch Golden Age (17th C.) Middelburg was one of the major port bases of the Dutch East India Company. There were 300 ships built here over a 200 year period. These ships went to the Far East and gained domination of world trade, surpassing Portugal and Spain. Spices were imported in bulk and brought huge profit to them. In 1640 a monopoly to trade with Japan was set up with the Dutch East India Co. and was kept for two centuries. With their connection to Japan they were able to also set up trade with China. The Japanese had
Swans Everywhere
We saw many in the canals, but also here in Middelburg visiting the boats. many scientific Dutch books translated as well as imported items such as clocks and other western manufactured goods. When we toured the Town Hall we were able to view many of the items brought back from the Far East including Japanese and Chinese pottery, ivory and swords.
One interesting tidbit we learned while on the tour was that one end of the building was used to age meat. It would be hung high near the ceiling of the 2nd floor. An eagle was kept in the space tied to a perch. If the eagle refused a piece of meat offered it was known to be bad. Quite an interesting use for a town hall and interesting system of quality control!
We enjoyed the fact that we could explore easily on bicycle here, but found that they did have a regulation that you could not bike through the main downtown pedestrian shopping area during the daytime hours. With the number of people on bikes competing with pedestrians it was obvious why the rule was in place.
We decided to take a day and bike over to a nearby community, Arnemuiden. It had been a traditional fishing community and
Tsamaya & the American Flag
We always get lots of comments when people see the US flag asking if we sailed from there! many still wore the traditional dress. It was a pleasant day for a ride and a great chance to see the open farmland outside of the city limits. A Dutch woman that we had met in the Caribbean had told us that the Netherlands is flat for bike riding, but the wind will be against you for at least one leg of your journey. We found out she was right, but fortunately they weren’t too strong the day we went. It was a pleasant ride and we did see one woman in traditional dress riding a bike. We found the place in town where fishing boats had been built and it was now a museum. It was unfortunate that we didn’t have a bike map (they were sold at the visitors center) but with only a few wrong turns we had a lovely trip.
The town was originally built in a double star fort plan for protection from Viking invasions. Middelburg, just like the rest of this area had been Roman Catholic until they won their independence from Spain during the Eighty Years War which resulted in their becoming an independent Protestant nation of the Netherlands. The Eastern Church
built between 1648 to 1667 was the first to be built specifically for the Protestants. It has a unique look being an octagonal building with a dome roof. At first glance it is hard to decide if it was a church or not. To this point we had been looking at Catholic churches with their extremely ornate construction and elaborate ornamentation. The Protestant churches are extremely utilitarian and look more like town hall’s then places of worship. Unfortunately they were not open so we could not see the interior. The abbey complex was also closed and consisted of three churches and the tower called Lange Jan. The abbey was another one of the buildings that efforts had gone in to rebuild after the 1940 destruction.
Our first impressions of the Netherlands have been very positive based on our experience in Middelburg. The only down side if you could say that was the lack of information and the fact that everything has a cost. Our Dutch friends refer to this as “being Dutch”. This even included the fact that every time you wanted to use a public restroom there was a charge. This is the first time we have run
It Is Busy in Middelburg
This is a popular stop as you can see boats are rafted 3 deep here now. into this on our journey so far.
After a few days here it was time to leave and head up the canals to another well-known historic city, Willemstad.
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