The Netherlands and Belgium

What else did we do in the Netherlands and Belgium?

·         Alkmaar Cheese Market – Took Greg and Michelle to see the traditional cheese market put on once a week for tourists that we visited in 1990.  Very touristy but fun to watch.  Not that any cheese is traded I - it’s all for show!

·         Explored Zaanse Schans - very quaint.  Five working windmills all with different functions.  Grinding spices or pigments for paint, making paper or milling wood.  And I thought windmills were only used to pump water in Holland!  Especially enjoyed the information on clogs.  So many different sorts.  Girls did you know that when you became engaged your betrothed made you a pair of intricately carved clogs for you.

·         Visited Volendam a pretty fishing village

·         Zuiderzee Musuem – think a huge version of the Howick Colonial Village with lots of traditional activities to convey what life was like.

·         Drove across the Alsluidijk – all 32 km of it.

·         Highlight for me Aalsmeer Flower Market.  An early start but worth it.  It is the world’s biggest flower auction with 21 million flowers and plants changing hands for about 6 million daily.  13,000 types of product from Europe and Africa pulled into place by worker on motorized vehicles like 100s of umperloomper! (reference to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for those of you who are wondering what she’s talking about)  Anyway ‘organised chaos’.  We viewed this from a very long catwalk suspended above the warehouse floor.  We were able to watch the auction process through windows on the walkway.  Buyers sit in rows similar to a movie theatre and enter their bids electronically as the flowers glide past.  Bidding is done in decreasing amounts.  The auction leader sets a price which instantly begins decreasing until a buyer puts in his bid.  A slip of the finger could be very expensive!  Anyway we all found the whole process fascinating.

·         Zeeland – checked out the Eastern Schelde Surge barrier, the last part of the Delta Project Works which is a system of dikes, dams and other constructions built to tame the North Sea on the S.W Netherlands.  A massive undertaking.  ‘As they say god made the world but the Dutch made the Netherlands’.

• When travelling back through Belgium to Dunkirk to get the ferry we stopped at Ypres.  There we visited Passchendale, the site of the 1917 battle where NZ experienced the largest loss of soldiers in a single campaign (5000 casualties).  The Tyne Cot Cemetery has the largest number of Commonwealth War Graves in the World.  Beautifully kept with flowers planted around the headstones and manicured lawns.  520 NZ soldiers are buried there and the names of the NZ soldiers who died there are etched on the remembrance wall.  The Information Centre details the sequence of events, who was involved with memorabilia and also has an interactive NZ section.  Once again what a waste of young men many - the age that Michael and Hayden are.