This morning we woke up, had a delicious breakfast, and then took an hour and 15 drive to the Watersnood Museum in Zeeland. On the way there we saw some beautiful scenery. We got to see some of the dikes, sheep, cows, windmills, and water. All those features combined with a bright blue sky made it a beautiful day. Something I was surprised about when we first got off the bus was the amount of wind there was. Although that makes sense as to why there are so many windmills, it’s very different than Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
The Watersnood Museum focused on the huge flood that happened on February 1, 1953 at 2 am. The museum itself was actually housed in the old dikes that were used to close the last remaining breach after the flood which is really cool because that means we were just above the water. Inside the museum we were able to read about the storm from survivors of the disaster and removed those who were lost. While reading about the stories I realized most people had lost at least one person they knew and loved which I’m was really heartbreaking. As you continue through the museum you see different artifacts from the time which is interesting. Finally we got to the reconstruction section where we could see how the people engineered new and improved dikes to stop this from happening again and to also stop the water as they were rebuilding. Overall, it’s amazing how well these people were able to rebuild fairly quickly and stop the water from attacking this small town.
Our next stop of the day was at Delta Works. The first thing we did at this museum was a 3d simulation about the night of the flood. This was really cool because we got to see and feel what happened during the flood which we had learned a lot about at the previous stop. We then went on a guided tour where we learned more about the dams and sea walls that are now in place to prevent another disaster. In The Netherlands, there are a series of arms extending from the into the country. These are what cause the flooding but you can’t completely block them off because it would close a trade port in Belgium making the supply chain much more difficult. Instead they came up with a fam the had a door that can move up and down at the push of a button to close the door in case of a storm or keep it open so trade can continue. This solution is meant to last for over 200 years and it’s only been closed around 30 times since it was put in.
After this, we had lunch and went back on the bus to go back to Amsterdam. After we got back a few of us got dinner at an Italian restaurant and it was absolutely delicious! We also walked around and checked out the little boutiques which were really nice. Something I’ve noticed about Amsterdam is that the second-hand shops/ vintage shops seem to be hand-picked and then resold because they all seem to have a nice and clean store with nice clothes compared to the US.
