Netherlands Diary

Page Contents - Netherland Facts - Westkapelle Dykes - Maeslant storm surge barrier - Rotterdam Telecommuseum - Rotterdam Zoo - Kinderdijk Windmills - Vianen and Utrecht - Amsterdam

29-9-2011 Thursday
Drove across the border into the Netherlands this morning. Tried to get into a caravan park in Middelburg that was listed in our 2010 caravan book but we found out that it was closed 3 years ago! On the way we went down a road that had a sign at the front of it and we wondered what it said as it was in Dutch, but we soon found out, as a little way down there, the road was closed off for road work! The street wasn't all that wide either but luckily there was a house with a bit bigger driveway that we could use to turn around. Finally found another open caravan park called De Vlaschaard but with the words "mini camping" after it. I was a bit worried about the word "mini" but it was ok - fitted us in ok. Found out later that it just means the place has a small number of pitches compared to the bigger parks. Some of these mini camping places can just be farms supplementing their income with a few pitches for rent.

It was another beautiful sunny day (got to 28 degrees) so after we got ourselves set up, we got the bikes out and rode for about 20 mins to the town where they had a market day. Cycle routes are everywhere and often don't share the road. Some of the cycle routes are just like normal roads (but a bit narrower) with a white line down the centre. One of our books says "it would seem that everybody gets on their bikes in the Netherlands" and it's true - there are people on bikes everywhere, much more than in Belgium! And hardly anyone wears a helmet. Also here, and in Belgium, they have bike crossing lights alongside the walk lights at crossings - very civilised. On the way we passed a big old restored windmill that seemed to be just a tourist attraction now. We walked around the market and bought some fruit and some lovely unusual cheese from this large cheese only stall, that had a big selection of cheeses. One stall sold fresh and cooked seafood so we had battered fish for a late lunch.

Some facts about the Netherlands :-
- In 1815 prostitution was legalised by Napoleon who wanted to control STDs.
- Cannabis was decriminalised in 1976 and in 2003 the Netherlands became the first country to legalise prescriptions of medicinal cannabis.
- In 1992 members of the European community assembled in Maastricht to sign the treaty that created the EU.
- In 1993 the Netherlands regulated doctor-assisted euthanasia, and in 2000 it was legalised under stringent guidelines - again, the first country to do so.
- Also in 2000, the Netherlands also became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriages.
- 60 percent of the population choose to live in the 27 percent of the country which is below sea level -
Dave has been particularly interested in finding out "how they keep the ocean out".
- The danger of floods is most acute in the Zeeland province. In 1953 a high spring tide and severe
storm breached Zeeland's dykes, drowning 1835 people. A massive engineering project was built to
prevent the tragedy from ever happening again.
- The Netherlands has spawned a realm of celebrated painters, including Bosch, Rembrandt, Vermeer
and Van Gogh.

We have found the people to be extremely friendly and very helpful; We find the drivers and riders to be a bit less so and maybe even a bit forceful, but that is probably a difference in culture and they have developed a traffic movement system that works for them and we visitors must accept that and work with it.

30-9-2011 Friday
Another lovely sunny day so we rode into town again and checked out the 2 large windmills built over 300 years ago to pump unwanted water off the land - now decommissioned and operated for the tourist trade. Went for a half an hour boat ride on the canal where we had to duck down as we drove under a few low bridges. The driver spoke English very well and got us to sit up near him so he could repeat the commentary. Rode to the 2 churches in town (didn't go inside), one Catholic, the other Protestant, and both had some skulls in their external wall statues/decorations (which we've seen before). The Protestant church had a full skeleton, reclined, above the front door so it would seem that it was supposed to be Jesus - which is bit garrish by today's standards. Had an early, enjoyable dinner, el fresco, at one of the side cafes before riding back home. It's good the Dutch are good at riding their bikes as they can easily manoeuvre around my wobbly riding, especially when I have shopping in my basket.

In 1940 Middelburg was heavily bombed by the Germans, with more than 600 buildings being destroyed. At the beginning of the 17th century, Middelburg was the most important city after Amsterdam. 336 large trading ships were built in the ship-building dock owned by the Dutch East India Company, which generated the era's wealth (between 1580-1740), in its travels to the Far East for spices and other exotic goods, colonising the Cape of Good Hope and Indonesia, and establishing trading posts throughout Asia. Many of the quays in Middelburg are named after the cities and lands that traded with Middelburg. London Quay was named after London City because of the wool trade between Middelburg and England. There is also Rouen Quay, named after the wine trade with Rouen in France. Middelburg had privileged distribution rights on all wine that came from France to Holland. The wine had to first be shipped and warehoused in Middelburg for further distribution throughout Holland - the town became rich from exercising these rights.

1-10-2011 Saturday
We are parked below sea level!! Don't worry, we're ok, we're on the dry side of the dyke. We drove to the town of Westkapelle (in Zeeland province) and to a museum called Polderhuis Westkapelle, situated at the most westerly point of the Netherlands. The museum shows the history of the dyke-protected village which went under water during the bombings by the Germans in WWII, when the dyke was damaged. What houses weren't destroyed by the bombs, were ruined by the sea water. Westkapelle's sea dyke runs for 4k and it is massive! When you stand on top of the dyke, you are higher than the tops of the houses! It is amazing to see just how low the town is. A cycle track graduates up the side of the dyke to the top and then cyclists can pedal back and forth along the top, which we did. Cars and m/homes can also drive up onto the dyke (not along the top) and down the very graduated sea side of the dyke. There were many cars and mhomes parked along the waterline, fishing or just had their deck chairs out and sunbaking in the lovely sun. It was an amazing sight to behold.

The town (the people refused to move elsewhere) was eventually rebuilt after the end of the war and after the dyke was eventually closed and rebuilt. The dykes continue all along the Netherlands coastline where needed, although I doubt they are anywhere near as awesome as this one. We drove over bridges that have been built between large land masses separated by water, and large flood/sluice gates have been built alongside the bridges, to control the ocean flow between and around these land masses - this is what Dave wanted to see - how they keep the ocean out! We drove to a town called Hellevoetsluis and booked into a big caravan park for 1 night - 'TWeergors. Had dinner at a nice restaurant on site.

2-10-2011 Sunday
Drove to Maeslant storm surge barrier on Rotterdam Harbour. It was a 660 million euro (approx AUD 1 billion) project to really "keep the water out". It's basically made up of 2 swing arms with 10 metre high curved pieces on the end (all painted white and made of 2 cm thick steel). When necessary, the arms swing out across the mouth of the shipping channel, the curved pieces are pumped with water which sinks them down to the bottom, stopping any flow of water, in or out. They expect to use this barrier only once in every 7 years when severe storms coincide with exceptional high tides, but to answer what you're thinking, they test it annually. Sounds a lot to go to for once in every 7 years, but without it there would be immense flooding and much loss of life and property damage - in some places land lies over 6.5 metres below sea level. With the advent of global warming, it's expected the barrier would be used every 5 years.

It's a very impressive engineering marvel and it's difficult for the photos to show the true magnitude. Drove to a caravan park called Stadscamping, where we'll stay for 3 nights as it's conveniently located 2k from the town centre of Rotterdam.

3-10-2011 Monday
We rode a couple of kilometres this morning to the Houweling Telecommuseum in Rotterdam, run by volunteers and named after the big boss who allowed the area to be used for the museum. The chairman, Hans, a very nice man, gave us a private tour and it was great - we were there for about 4 hours. The museum is in the same building as the working exchange for the city. They even had the larger part of a room set up for kids to demonstrate the technologies, using fun things that had lights, bells, whistles and buzzers. They do showings for schools pupils and anyone else who is interested.
The museum's strong point was the wide range of working telephone exchange equipment. The first thing to see is the huge cable entry - still in use for copper where the cables travel up a rise before return to the street to stop floodwater entry. Some excellent examples of early Ericsson magneto switchboards, and Netherland telephones and business systems from about the 1920's. They had working step by step equipment from Strowger in the 1930's, Siemens, Rotary, to Ericsson (ARF, ARD, AKD) - too much to list, look at the pics if telephone technology is of interest.

Just a word about the differing shower/toilet facilities at the caravan parks we've stayed at so far - in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.
- in the Netherlands we've come across places where there are 2 doors, 1 for the Dames and 1 for the
Heren but when you go inside, you can walk across from the Men's to the Women's as there's no internal
wall (sounds like a cartoon I've seen);
- but then it was lucky you could see into the men's as the washing machine was located in there! I
wonder if the men do the washing in this country? I don't think so!
- some have no time restriction on the shower, some have a push button (ranging from 10-20 seconds) to
operate the shower so you have to keep pressing it;
- some have a small device which sits in a corresponding holder in the shower cubicle, and is electronically
loaded with a money amount that counts down as you use the shower (hot water mainly);
- some (in Belgium and Netherlands) have no restrictions on the shower water but you have to bring your
own toilet paper! That last one is by far the worst especially if you're in a hurry and you forget!
- in Antwerp, on the street, there was a structure that looked like a 4-sided phone box that was actually
a 4-sided urinal for men (and talented women). We saw a bus driver use it. It had sides only enough to
provide a little privacy and nowhere to wash your hands - it was a bit disconcerting to see. Dave had
heard of them and believes they're common in France - oh great!.

4-10-2011 Tuesday
Dave's birthday today and the weather has turned cool and they expect rain tomorrow. We rode into the main town and to where we were going to take a 3 hour excursion boat along the canals. We arrived about 1 and a half hours early so rode around looking at the local sites, buildings and old boats, dodging the rain which didn't last too long. There are so many canals and small and large bridges in Rotterdam. Around every corner you will come across another bridge opening up to let vessels through where vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians have to wait. When it was time to go to the boat we went to the ticket booth and found that the boat wasn't running today!

So we had a coffee at a local restaurant and rode back to the Rotterdam Zoo which is just around the corner from where we're staying. It was really fantastic! We felt it was probably the best zoo we've been to. We had 3 and a quarter hours there and still didn't see everything and we were rushing as it closed at 6pm. We could've had another hour there. As it was we missed the lions and the gorillas which I was sad about as I love the gorillas best. They remind me so much of humans.

All this time I didn't realise I knew some of the Dutch language! We passed a shop that advertised on their window "Eten & Drinken" - I say that all the time! "Cafe" here means pub, not a place to have coffee and a sandwich. We rode the cycle path all the way - they are great. They're coloured red and I have to keep reminding myself that I have to ride like when I'm driving i.e. indicating turns, watching for cycles crossing your path from a different direction, passing and oncoming cycle traffic. And having dedicated cycle paths is fantastic - keeps you right out of the normal traffic 99% of the time. The only problem is motorised scooters also use the paths and some of them drive too fast to be on the same path as cyclists. Traffic doesn't like to stop for you to cross the road on a paedestrian crossing either. You can be standing there for ages - you have to step off the kerb to get them to stop.

5-10-2011 Wednesday
It's overcast and a bit rainy today. Drove to Kinderdijk, about 25ks south east of Rotterdam and home to as many as 19 windmills located close together. We had to park down the road a bit so got the bikes out and rode back to the site. The windmills, built in the middle of the 18th century, were used in a system to keep the land from flooding. The entire complex was placed on the World Heritage List of Unesco in 1997, because of its "exceptional and universal value for all humanity". The area was paricularly low lying and water drained into it from all around. The windmills pumped the water into the Lek river. We were able to go inside one of them and see the workings and how the people lived.

After doing a big grocery shop in a nearby shopping centre, we drove about 30ks to an Aire (which is in a big car park) in a town called Vianan. There are 4 places reserved for mhomes.

6-10-2011 Thursday
We walked around the quaint little village of Vianen. It was quite a windy and rainy day. Then drove to a caravan park at Utrecht called De Berekuil and it's in the middle of being sold and obviously, not as a park, as it's pretty run down and disgusting! The shower and toilet block stink and it looks like they don't bother cleaning them at all! And we paid 25 euros which is among the more expensive ones. Oh well, we expected to come across this at some time.

7-10-2011 Friday
Another rainy, windy and cool day. We rode the bikes about 3k in to the Utrecht city centre. The streets in the town are very windy and like most of the towns we've been in, have pavers or cobblestones on the street and the footpaths instead of bitumen (don't know why) - not very good for the high or thinner heels. The houses we see here and in Belgium, are the lovely, traditional shaped houses, with steep, slanted gables so the show slides off.

We then drove 45ks to Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. We'd booked in for 3 nights to a park called Camping Zeeburg which is actually on an island, and takes up the whole island, but close to the mainland over a canal. There seems to be more mhomes here than caravans, and quite a few tents. The pitch that'd been allocated to us was right on the end of a row near the water, wasn't hard standing, was sloping and with the rain, Dave felt we might fall into the water! So luckily there was a different one available and also hard standing. We had a nice dinner at the restaurant on site, and it was nice and warm in there with a log fire going.

I decided to do some washing and found with this site's washing machines, you don't have to put in detergent or fabric conditioner as it's already provided inside the machines! That's the first time I've ever come across that! It seemed to do the job ok.

8-10-2011 Saturday
Happy 60th birthday to my brother Les! Hope you had a great day. After about a 300 metre walk we caught the tram into the centre of Amsterdam. We were going to go to the Anne Frank Museum but it was closed for Yom Kippur - a Jewish holiday - the only day in the year the museum is closed and we picked it! We walked around and stumbled over the Red Light District where the prostitutes sit scantily dressed behind glass in their cubicles. I was surprised as they were posed and dressed fairly tastefully. When a customer showed interest they let him in, close the door and pull the curtain across for some privacy. There's even a Prostitution Information Centre that organises evening Red Light walks and sells a handy map of the district. It's a pity some of the postcards we saw outside shops weren't a bit more tasteful - some were totally pornographic and for all the world to see, even children walking past.

I said in an earlier diary, that "cafe" in Amsterdam means "pub". Well "coffee shop" here means "a place one procures and smokes cannabis/marihuana or marijuana" and there are plenty of them. I wondered just how many people were walking around here today, who were completely stoned and not really aware of what they were doing - because I would imagine there were many first timers who wouldn't know how it would affect them. I think you can probably buy coffee or alcohol in the "coffee shops" as well but don't eat the cookies or brownies! You could smell the pungent dope smell coming out of the shops. There's even a Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum. Oh, if you want a real coffee, you can get one at establishments called "coffee company".

There are also shops that sell cannabis seeds and give you all the information about how to grow and nurture them. There are other shops where you can buy lolly pops, drinks, and other consumables laced with cannabis. There are many sex shops (to buy anything you want to satisfy all your needs), and dope shops and groups of young men wandering around probably eager to try all that's offerred. Of course, Amsterdam is more than just an X-rated theme park for Weekend Warriors and Hooray Henrys - it's also one of Europe's most breathtakingly scenic cities, with beautiful, heritage-protected 17th century buildings and some of the continent's best museums and galleries.

The Van Gogh Museum houses the world's largest Van Gogh collection. The Rijksmuseum boasts a collection valued in the billions. Rembrandt House Museum is where Rembrandt van Rijn ran the Netherlands' largest painting studio, only to lose the lot when bankruptcy came knocking. The museum has almost every etching he made. The Stedelijk Museum features around 100,000 pieces, including works from Monet, Picasso and Chagall. There are sightseeing buses and canal boats and horse and buggy rides. And of course, there are bicycles everywhere. This city seems to be a backpackers paradise with many budget accommodation hostels. This park we're at also caters for them with tent areas and there are a few combie van type vehicles among the mhomes.

9-10-2011 Sunday
The day started out quite nice and sunny so we made the trek again, to the tram and back into the town centre today. It didn't last though and the rain started and kept on and off for the rest of the day. We made our way to the Anne Frank museum again today as it would be open but the line waiting to get in was so long, we decided to give it a miss. I'll check it out on the net instead. We hopped on one of the covered Canal Cruise boats and enjoyed a 1 hour city tour. One interesting fact we found out was that all the houses in the old part of the city, have a hoist built into the very top of the building. This is used to hoist up, or down, all the furniture and large items, to the required floor (often 3 stories), when people move in or out - this is because the 17th century houses were built, some 3 metres wide, a few 6 metres wide or 12 metres wide (for the rich and famous), and so have very narrow and winding staircases as space was at a premium.

We had noticed that buildings here in the Netherlands weren't very high, and that's because the ground is quite spongy due to the water content. They have to put the foundation poles down about 12-20 metres through the peat until they reach sand level to get a stable base to build upon. Buildings are usually no more than 3 levels as higher levels can't be supported. We have seen a couple instances where buildings are visibly leaning over and suspect this is due to the foundations becoming unstable. Westerkerk church was officially opened on Whitsunday 1631. It is one of the oldest Protestant churches and is the largest church in the Netherlands. Rembrandt, one of the world's most famous painters, and his son Titus, were buried at Wester. Near Westerkerk and in view of the tower, Anne Frank wrote her diary in the secret annex, her hiding place from the Nazis.

We'd bought 24 hour tram tickets which allowed us to hop on and off as often as we liked during that time. So when we were finished in the heart of Amsterdam, we hopped on and went a few stops to an interesting area we'd seen earlier. You have to watch out for the trams as often their tracks are not far from the footpaths and are often on the same level, so it's easy to wander onto the tracks. We had an early dinner about 4pm of nice pizza in a restaurant. We then hopped back on the tram and hopped off at a Lidl shop to resupply beer and special Holland cakes for dessert. Then back on the tram to home.

Monday 10-10-2011 Monday
In the park we're in, there's a shower block up one end with separate male and female sections. At the other end, closer to where we are and the tent/backpacker people, there's a small 2 toilet and 6 shower block that are unisex so there's a male figure and a female figure on the door. I had a shower in this block this morning and in the cubicle next to me were a man and a woman! Well I figure these young people mustn't understand that the male/female picture on the door means "or" not "and"! I must tell reception to put clearer signs up! Or maybe they were just being money and water conscious(?)

We left the park this morning and drove about 50ks to Remco's place at Nijkerk. Dave and he knew each other (only on the internet until today) through the US Telephone Collectors International club of which they are both members. Remco very kindly and generously opened up his home to us for over 4 hours and showed his extensive phone and phone-related collection. We then drove to an Aires at Wijhe, about 75k north east of Nijkerk. It is on the wrong side of the dyke as it could flood in winter (it's only autumn now but it's been raining a bit......now I won't sleep!) but makes it a pleasant spot with canal views, boat mooring, slipway and steps into the water.

Tomorrow we leave the Netherlands and head into Germany, our first stop expected to be Bremen.