Today we had a later start to the day so everyone could get some well-needed extra sleep. A small group of us went out to a small café a few minutes from our hostel for breakfast, where I had what I would say were the best pancakes I’ve ever tasted, and for only €9! We will certainly be returning for another delicious breakfast.
The group headed out on the bus right after to the Watersnoodmuseum, a commemoration of the 1953 flooding that occurred here in the Netherlands. It was immediately striking to see a sign right past the front doors that showed the statistics of the tragedy. The thought that a single storm could cause such immense destruction is unbelievable now in the modern world where we have so many additional resources to fight natural disaster aftermaths. The most striking statistic was, as expected, the death toll of 1835 lives lost.
Further down in the museum, there was a display that truly was striking and showed further the scope of this disaster. Inside, blue lights lined the room and the name of each victim rolled across the sand on the ground. I stayed there for a few minutes, and though the names moved relatively quickly, I only got through half of the last names starting with B.
I was also struck by the name of the display and the story behind it, 1835 + 1. The reason for that name is because there was a baby born on January 31 that later drowned in the flooding the following day and was never found. This tragic story is yet another example of the true tragedy that occurred here in 1953.
After we wrapped up our tour through the museum, we grabbed some food at a café before heading back to Rotterdam. The had a small display cabinet of some items that had been donated by family members of victims of the floods. I noticed something that truly put the tragedy in scope for me, a teddy bear. This natural disaster is a reminder of a continued commitment in the Netherlands to ensure that everyone, especially children, are safe from such avoidable things as infrastructure failures.
On the drive back, we saw some windmills pretty close to the museum and probably in the largest quantity I’ve seen on this trip. This reminded me of the Netherlands’ commitment to sustainability and clean energy production.