Side Trips to Dikes, Dunes and Windmills
The Hondsbossche Zeewering is a 5.5 km long dike between Camperduin and Petten , where in the Middle Ages a storm broke through the original sand dunes. The current dike wasconstructed in 1880 and has since been increased in height and broadened several times since.
North Holland is protected from the North Sea by a barrier of sand dunes except in this location. The land behind this dike is considerable lower than sea level at high tide. In fact Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam is 4 meters below Sea Level. You can see the sand dunes along the horizon in this picture.
The Dutch Government is currently working on raising this dike in anticipation of the rising sea level. They intend on pumping sand from the bottom of the North Sea and creating sand dunes over top of the existing dike. This work is currently underway. You can see one of the ships pumping sand on the horizon in the middle of this picture and you can sea the waves breaking over the first row of sand.
Bergen aan Zee
Sand Dunes at Bergen aan Zee
View from the top of the Dunes at Groet
Cleaning another 'Hollandse Nieuwe' for a customer.
Can't even wait to get home to cook it !
We visited three working windmills in the Scchermer Polder.
The windmill on the left and the the one in the centre pump the water collected in the polder up
about a meter and the one on the right pumps the water into the canal. The canal empties into the
North Holland Canal and that water is then pumped into the North Sea atDen Helder.
All this pumping is now done by electric pumps.
Inside the windmill. The central axel transmits the power of the wind down to the water screw.
Note the thached walls of the windmill in the background.
Aldert trying out a manual Arcimedes Screw.