We had a very, very good day today that started off with a late start for us which was 12:45 which allowed a lot of recovery time from exploring Rotterdam the night before. I started off my day with a great shower and breakfast around 10:30 and got myself ready for the calm rest of the day. After a hour long bus ride, we made it to Watersnoodsmuseum which commemorates the creation of the dam system that currently still holds the water back from flooding the Netherlands again.
The dam’s creation was made because of a flood that occurred in 1953, which devastated the Netherlands in its entirety. 1863 people were killed during the flood and it absolutely destroyed everything in its path. In order to fend from the waves, the Dutch came up with a dam system that essentially consisted of four large dams that created up into one barrier that essentially blocked all of the water. The dams were lowered into the water then were set into the land by also forming a layer of rocks that would be in a triangle formation to then create a layer that would keep the dam system in place.
One aspect of the dam that I found interesting was the formation and the weird shaping of how the dam was blocking the water. Since most modern dams usually are in a straight line, this same consists of essentially a row of straight lines put together in a weird fashion. However, Frank had explained to me that the Dutch didn’t truly know the diameter of the straight of water that the floods were coming from so overcompensating for that distance was the best way to essentially make sure no more water came from that line. Which looking back is a very good way to do so since they were in such a crisis that everything had to be done in a rush and to ensure that no more damage was going to occur on top of the already existing problems.
Overall this day was a day to relax but also came with a lot of information that is crucial to many climate change topics that are surrounding the world today and also about the culture of the Netherlands and how everyone banded together for a common cause.
