Today came very early.
I was not sure either one of us was going to get out of bed, but the
alarm kept ringing, so we got up. We
lost an hour last night and it was an early call. A quick light breakfast and we met up with
our group.
It was about a two hour drive
north of Rotterdam. Much of the way to
Zaanse Schams, the area we were headed for, is below sea level. You remember the dikes and the little boy
holding his finger in one to keep the water out. The thought crossed my mind. They have government departments to do that
now. Lots of pumps to move the water
and they are very good at building dikes.
Some are over six hundred years old.
Maybe our Corps of Engineers could take some lessons.
In Zaanse Schans we found working windmills, very scenic. One of the windmills is still used to grind
wood or rock in to fine powder to use in dyes for paints. We saw a
demonstration of how they now make wooden shoes and how it use to be done by
hand. It takes about 5 minutes to make
one shoe now. Doing a shoe by hand takes
about 2 hours. They do this with wet
wood. After making a shoe for us, he blew
into it and water came out everywhere.
They have to slow dry, so as not to crack.
We then visited a cheese making facility. Boy is their Gouda good. We bought some for use on the ship. We cannot bring it back to the states because
they did not use pasteurized milk. So we
will enjoy it for shacks until we return home.
Leaving Zaanse Schans, we traveled to Volendam. This old village is built on a dike that
forms the largest lake in Holland. The
village has been there for six centuries and the characteristic small houses
are very unique and very well maintained.
We walked along the dike and through the area of houses and shops. It was about lunch time and Judi and I had
taken off on our own to view the area.
We found a nice restaurant and again had some very good fish and chips,
along with a nice beer for me.
Leaving Volendam we headed for our last stop,
Marken. Marken is a small fishing
village on the other side of the lake.
At one time it was connected to the main land, but a severe storm cut
away the land and it became an island.
In the late 1990’s a dike was constructed to the village and it is now
again a part of the mainland. The houses
here are built on stilts about ten feet high to protect the homes from the
water.
The ride back to the boat took a little over two hours. The traffic was awful, this had us worried about getting back on time. We made it OK and were on the boat in plenty
of time to make the sail away.
Judi and
I passed on going to the dining room tonight and instead had some fruit and our
good cheese. It was warm and we set on
the deck and watched the harbor and waved at the people as we departed. Rotterdam has one of the largest ports in the
world. The ship had to back down the
channel for two miles, until we could turn around and head out. We left at 6:00 PM and departed the channel
around 9:00 PM.
It was a good day, but tomorrow we have a sea day and we
are going to take full advantage of doing nothing.
We are now in the North Sea and half way through our
cruise. We have traveled 4,945 miles
since leaving Ft. Lauderdale and are 400 miles from Oslo, our next port of
call. We will arrive in Oslo tomorrow
morning.
GEOGRAPHY LESSON:
I asked how come so many town and cities have dam in
their name, such as Amsterdam. Our guide
explained that the Amsel River runs through Amsterdam and back in the 6th
century a dam was built across it and a small village of Amsel was built on it
therefore the name Amsterdam. The same process
for naming other towns and villages was used.
Click below for pictures.
Fantastic pictures. We feel like we're there with you guys!!
ReplyDelete