Hello! This morning we traveled to the the Watersnood museum. The bus ride there was incredibly beautiful. The sun was finally out and the landscape was just stunning. There was flower farms, countless windmills, and cattle. The region we traveled to today is the deltas of The Netherlands. This area is completely below sea level and surrounded by water. The Watersnood museum was a museum surrounding the flood of 1953 that took place in this very area. It was very interesting to see how the country responded to the flood. One exhibit in the museum was a literal house representing the “gift houses” that other countries sent to help rebuild the area. I learned today that 60% of the country is susceptible to being submerged under water. The rest of the museum, and theme for the day, was the urgency needed for engineers to fix the imminent danger of flooding. We got to see firsthand later today what the engineers implemented in response.
After the museum, we took the bus through the countryside to visit Delta Works park. This park is a tourist attraction about Delta Works, a series of dykes and dams. These dams were put in place after the flood of 1953 to insure that it would never happen again. Essentially, the delta area of the Netherlands is cut off from the ocean, and thus from destructive storms. We got to experience a tour of the amusement park and stand in some seriously strong wind. I couldn’t help but think that the water park would be freezing if it is always this windy.
The main attraction of this park is the massive dam put in place. This dam is very interesting because it allows water to flow through freely. If a storm is detected, however, the dam will shut its doors and block the storm from the mainland. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go too in-depth on the engineering or business of the dam at this location (or test out the waterslide). However, I did pull a valuable lesson from the day. While the dam was immensely complicated to construct, the core idea is just a simple piston-door. The lesson I learned from this is that sometimes the best solutions are the simplest. You don’t need to overcomplicate a problem to solve it effectively. One other thing I found very cool was the way they placed the huge pieces of the dam in the water. They constructed massive boats that would have a unique system to carry and place supports.
After visiting the Delta Works Park and grabbing some lunch, we traveled by bus back to Amsterdam. This is where we will stay for the rest of the trip. The rest of my evening I am planning to spend outside, enjoying the weather. Tomorrow we are travelling to Europe’s largest vintage market! I’m looking forward to this, however, my wallet is not. But, as a friend of mine keeps saying, euros don’t really count.
Until then, doei!
