The Afsluitdijk

Yes, it has been a while since I've posted something new - but I have not fallen off the face of the earth - nor drowned in the almost-entirely-below-sea-level country that we now call home. Thanks, in large part, to the engineering miracle called the Afsluitdijk.

A side note - it is snowing here today! And actually, right now it is coming down in big, fluffy, sticky flakes. Fortunately it is Sunday, a day in Holland set aside for relaxing and family time, so the snow is not a problem as we're not likely to leave the house but putter around the house, enjoy the fire and just have some down time. It is also no problem because it wont' be the kind of snowfall that requires shoveling - something neither of us misses about New England this time of year :)

Yesterday we decided to drive up to the Afsluitdijk (Closing Dam - pronounced af-slout-dike) which connects the provinces of Noord-Holland and Friesland, is what blocks the salt water North Sea and the fresh water lake of the IJsselmeer (formerly the Zuiderzee) - so on one side of the dam is a lake that used to be the sea! The dam is 330 feet wide and 23 feet above mean water level, and 20 miles long. I think that is just incredible. As my friend Roberta says, it is one of the engineering miracles of the Netherlands.
The Zuiderzee itself was an inland lake until Roman times, but during the Middle Ages the level of the North Sea rose resulting in storm tides that broke through and made the Zuiderzee an inlet for the North Sea.

The Netherlands wrestled with the problem of recovering the land drowned by the sea for many, many years, but it was not until the 19th century that the technological resources for carrying through such a project became available. After severe food shortages in the Netherlands during the First World War and further heavy damage caused by a storm tides in 1916, the government approved a plan devised by a water engineer named Cornelis Lely (see the picture of the monument here).

The dam was built to reclaim land for agriculture and to prevent further flooding. It is really an engineering wonder. Imagine, they have actually closed off the sea here!

Unfortunately, many communities along the shores of the Zuiderzee lost their livelihood when access to the open sea was cut off. Some of the fishing boats that now sail the IJsselmeer fly dark brown sails as a sign of mourning for the lost fishing industry.

The Netherlands is really quite interesting (and a bit scary in this time of global warming) in that much of its land has been reclaimed and the majority of the land here is below sea level, protected by dikes. The Netherlands is among the most densely populated on earth. I won't go into more detail here - if you're interested you can find plenty of information on the landscape of the Netherlands, and the country's expertise in water management. It is really something.

If you watch the movie clip I've created here, you'll see views of the low sky for which this country is nick-named. I sometimes swear I see mountains in the distance, but it is just the way the clouds and colors of the sky create that illusion across this extremely flat landscape. You may also notice the windmills (those shown here are the ubiquitous modern windmills that are critical to managing water here.) Keep in mind that we were in a moving car when I took the majority of these shots - not shooting the same group in one spot - they really are everywhere. I'm sure that the locals think it odd that tourists are so fascinated by something which has simply 'always been' for the Dutch.