Water, water everywhere

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Geo: 52.0119, 4.36026

I think we were all a bit reluctant to leave the Hotel Adornes and Bruges this morning. I know I was: I barely even got to look at any of the shops, and the hotel was so nice. Unfortunately, Rik wasn't at the desk this morning; he looked after us over the weekend. He was what you might call "a hoot." You'd ask him one question and he'd answer it, but then he'd give you the answers to five other questions you didn't ask. Also, he loved to teach us Dutch phrases. He's a real gem for that hotel.

Our first stop today was at the Watersnood Museum dedicated to the flood of 1953. In January of of that year there was a huge storm, and the dikes protecting South Holland failed. A huge swath of the land was badly flooded, and people's homes were destroyed. It was essentially the Netherlands' Katrina. I'm glad to say that the US did its part in sending aid to the people of South Holland. But just imagine: The war is less than 10 years in the past. You've finally got your life back together, rebuilt your home, are feeling normal again. And suddenly it's all swept away by the sea. So many people lost everything but the clothes they were wearing and maybe a few things they were able to grab. There were a few heart-breaking scenes in the newsreel that was shown of young children clutching the family cat or caring for a baby doll. Queen Juliana visited the region after a few days, and that had a huge, positive effect on the people. She came back not too much later with the princesses to help cheer the children. In fact, the future queen, Beatrix, handed out white rabbits to the children who had lost their pets. Because, of course, not only was property damaged or lost, crops, cattle, dogs, cats, etc. were lost too.

The losses of 1953 helped spur the government to pass the Deltaworks act, which put up money for various water-management projects all around the Netherlands. The Dutch, in fact, are masters of water management and were instrumental in advising after Katrina devastated New Orleans. Controlling water is so important that the Dutch have very sensibly taken it out of the hands of politicians and invested power in a water board, the members of which are practically aristocracy. When you learn that 40% of the Netherlands is beneath sea level, and 60% of the population lives on that land, you understand why water is a constant, never-ending concern for these people.

We then went to the town of Zierikzee to have lunch. The fun part was that we got to have it in the garden of a family that Rolinka only recently met. The Douws had a neat little house and a lovely garden that included a pond with frogs and salamanders. They had ordered sandwiches from a bakery for us, and I had ham and cheese with boiled egg, cucumber and pickles. It was impossibly tasty. I think it's all down to the bread. For dessert there were … I don't remember what they were called, but they were kind of like flat cinnamon rolls. Again, seriously tasty stuff. Rolinka said that Sjaak and Liesbeth (and their son Frank) were more excited to have us than we were to be there. I can't imagine why. Think of inviting a horde of 26 American strangers into your home and then feeding them!

After lunch, we went to the beach, but only for 10 minutes. The tide was out, so the beach was huge. It would've taken a full minute at least to walk from the parking lot to the water line. Rolinka roped in a German tourist to take our group photo against the dunes. I'm pretty sure I've got my eyes closed!

Driving along, I saw lambs, baby cows, goslings, pheasants, and even alpacas and ostriches. Everywhere has a bike lane, and people will ride for miles and miles and miles. Everyone has a bike, and you will even see old ladies in pleated skirts biking to do their shopping. In town, when there is a bike coming toward our group, someone shouts "Fiets!" and we all move to the right to let the bike pass. The funny thing is that all the bikes look ancient. Only about one in every 20 bikes looks new or special. Everyone else seems to have one that was built in 1956. Heidi and I speculated that an old bike could be less of a temptation to a thief, or it could be that the bikes are used so much that of course they look ancient.

Rolinka told us that when she was a kid, her father insisted that the family camp in the Netherlands for vacation. And then they would have to bike to wherever he wanted to set up camp. Rolinka and her little brother didn't like this because their friends would go to exotic places like Italy. But her father insisted that they should get to know their own country before they went traveling. Now, of course, she's grateful for that, but at the time she absolutely hated it.

After driving through the port of Rotterdam, we visited the Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier, where our guide, Thoraya, gave us an interesting presentation on water management. The barrier was completed in 1997 and consists of two HUGE arms that swing out in the port's waterway and block surges coming in from the North Sea. The operation of the arms is all computerized so there is no human intervention. The computer takes measurements of the sea level every ten minutes and will only close off the port if certain criteria are met. Its purpose is to save lives, not property, so it's likely that the land would still flood. However, it is unlikely that there would be any loss of human life. Each arm of the barrier is nearly as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall. It cost hundreds of millions of euros and has so far only been put into use once (in 2007). It did its job, and all the engineers, welders, etc. who built the thing breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I had thought "water day" would be dull, but it turned out to be very educational. Not to mention we got to have lunch in the home of an actual Dutch family. That wouldn't happen on a Globus tour!

We arrived in Delft just after 6:00 and are staying at the Hotel de Plataan, situated on a small square. Most of the rooms are themed, so we left doors open after arriving so that people could go around and see others' rooms. Ralph and Ivery are in a room with bunk beds, Kris and Tom are in an aquarium-themed room, and Judy and Steve are in an African safari-style room. The single rooms (which I have) are boring in comparison. There is a plane tree theme, but that's about it. However, I do have a statue of a cow outside my door, and the room looks out onto the square. I'm looking out right now at a huge table lamp glowing in the night.

The square is a bit noisy, however, so I may have sleep troubles again. Fortunately, our guide doesn't come till 9:00 tomorrow morning. Huzzah!

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