Today, we went to the Zuiderzeemuseum. This museum featured an indoor and outdoor portion. The outdoor portion was 140 historical buildings that created a little village representative of the town a hundred years ago. The indoor museum contained antique items on display and types of fishing boats. While we did not get to visit the indoor museum, we thoroughly explored the outdoor museum.

The outdoor museum was divided into five different neighborhoods. The center was a village that contained authentic buildings from the former Zuiderzee area. These buildings featured businesses like an old-fashioned barber, a butcher, and a ship sailmaker. You could even buy herring at one building. The village itself was beautiful and contained a canal system. The canals were populated by many ducks and fish. Sheep and chickens were scattered across the village in pens. A windmill was located on the corner of town as well as a water collection system.

There were many informative games as well. Part of our group was able to go onto small rowboats and row just off the reservoir. We learned about water collection and how the water levels were controlled. I, fortunately, did not do any rowing and just rode along as my fellow classmates rowed the boat. Additionally, there was a maze that taught us more information about water systems and conservation.

We also learned about how water was filtered. The Zuiderzee Works was created at Zuiderzee as part of reclamation efforts. Zuiderzee is part of the IJesselmer area, an area of inland lakes. The reclamation efforts were created in 1891 and finished in 1975. The reason the land was reclaimed was due to the rising of sea levels. Zuiderzee was expanding rapidly until the Middle Ages when a dike was created to prevent this. There was another interactive activity that demonstrated the process where water was filtered and heated.