Waking up with the most amount of sleep on this trip yet, I was ready to take on today. With a later breakfast we were on our way to the Watersnoodmuseum with a 1 hour trip. It is the site of one of Netherland’s worst floods in history. I was able to learn more about what had happened and how the Netherlands learned from this event to better prepare themselves from the future.
On February 1, 1953 an intense storm hit the Dutch coast and it led to the failure of many dikes. Some were able to be repaired fairly quickly with the use of sandbags, clay, and other resources but others were not so lucky. With a massive hole in the dike, Dutch engineers had to act fast to close off the water. In the end it was decided to use caissons, which were enormous concrete blocks. Four were used to plug the dike. What I found most fascinating was that they were all brought from England. The caissons used here were concrete and hollow, when they were pushed into place with tug boats, workers opened a set of valves in the cassion. This partially flooded it caused it to sink into place. After the valves were closed boats dumped rocks on both sides of the cassion to help keep them in place.
After the historic part of the museum we entered another section where we learned more about the Dutch land, the danger of floods and the potential future impact of climate change. The Dutch learned a lot from the flood. The construction of the Delta works, and creates a more immersive layer of protection.
After I finished touring the museum I took a small walk towards the coast. I saw a huge coastline which made me realize how extensive this network of dikes and protection from water has to be. (I made a cool time lapse). Another thing I noticed was the sheer amount of windmills. It’s created to see the Netherlands capitalizing on wind energy especially where we were since it was really windy there. Seeing the modern windmills is another fascinating piece of engineering especially when compared to the old windmills of the past. The most obvious differences are the size, height and capabilities of each turbine. The blades of modern windmills have a curve to them and there are these racks near the tips of each blade. There has also been a change in their purpose. Today wind turbines produce electricity. While the older turbines were connected physically to some kind of machine like grinding wheat.
That is all for today. I’ll see y’all tomorrow