Adventures in the Low Countries

Our previous (and only) visit to The Netherlands was in 2000, a two-week bicycle ride around the country.  This trip I’m focused on history and culture of the 12 provinces, including North Holland and South Holland.  

We have visited several locations over the past ten days, beginning with a stop at Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are 28 windmills remaining in the region today (down from apprx 150 at its highest), with eight windmills surviving since 1738.  

       

(Wooden shoes are still worn, but not so much.). The windmills were built with Dutch bricks and are called ‘bonnet mills’, with large sails which come very close to the ground when operating.  UNESCO says the “…mill network is an outstanding manmade landscape that bears powerful testimony to human ingenuity…”

On this trip we were in Amsterdam for four days, giving us time to see a number of interesting things.  We went on two guided canal tours, which were helpful in get the the ‘lay of the land’ before heading out on foot to see the sights.  (The oldest canal in Amsterdam was constructed in 1340.) We also did quite a bit of walking between sites, with visits which included the following:

• Central Station - This is the main train station for Amsterdam, which opened in 1889 and serves the area with both local and regional trains.
• The Rijksmuseum - There is SO much to see in this museum and it is fabulous, IMO.  Night Watch by Rembrandt is being restored and we were able to see it with scaffolding and restoration experts at work. 
• The Maritime Museum - More than 500 years of Dutch maritime history can be viewed here, including a VOC replica ship the Amsterdam, a steamship built in 1900, and the royal barge built in 1815. 
• The Museum of the Dutch Resistance - here we saw exhibits from the WWII era and learned how the Dutch people survived those difficult days. 

Since leaving the capitol city, we have toured several charming cities/towns including Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Nijmegen, and Maastricht.  Hoorn was our favorite, an adorable town north of Amsterdam where we  learned from historians about the 1920 plan which created a 20-mile-long causeway and dike for protection from the North Sea, forming the Ijsselmeer — Very important since quite a bit of The Netherlands is at or below sea level.  Land reclamation and flood defense systems are a huge business here!

Enjoy your day, dear readers!