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Rotterdam and Zeeland Our second, multiday group trip while in Maastricht, was to Rotterdam, Netherlands, and the area south of there known as Zeeland. Rotterdam was entirely destroyed during World War II, so all of the buildings have been built since 1945. That means that this city is a very modern, clean, and beautiful city. Rotterdam also contains the largest seaport in the world. The first three groups of photos are of our trip to Rotterdam, a view of the city, and a tour of the harbor. The second day of our stay in southwest Netherlands included a tour of Zeeland and the enormous engineering project that protects much of the Netherlands from being flooded. Almost two-thirds of the Netherlands is below sea level so it must be protected with dikes and dams. In 1953, large portions of the Netherlands were flooded when an exceptionally high tide and a North Sea storm struck. After the storm and floods subsided, the Netherlands undertook a massive project to build a series of dams and sluices to protect the country. The last three groups of photos are of our trip to and through this area. |
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Our travel path north of Maastricht took us through Tilburg, Breda, Dordrecht, and then to Rotterdam. You can see these places in the right-center of the map. To the southwest you can see islands and inlets - this is the area of the Netherlands called Zeeland. If you look carefully, you can find Zierikzee. That is the small town we explored on our way to tour the flood control facilities. |
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Rotterdam - enroute
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Our trip to Rotterdam began Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. Sjoerd, a Dutch student who lives in the Rotterdam area, traveled with us and was our guide. Here he is telling us something. |
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This is the main highway between Maastricht and Rotterdam. It passes through Eindhoven and Breda. I call this highway "Interstate 40 Netherlands." Look at all of the trucks. Because Rotterdam is such an important port city, many roads in Europe are filled with trucks headed toward or away from there. |
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Bradley (left) and Brad relaxing on their way to Rotterdam. You can see Britni in the background. |
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Here you can see Britni, Shanna, Corrine, Ben, and Katherine. Jason's bushy head is also visible. Our trip to Rotterdam took about 2 1/2 hours by coach. |
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From the back of the bus, we see Ben, Katherine, Megan, Whitney, Ashley, and Rachel. They are having a great time on their way to Rotterdam. They are happy, healthy, safe, and having a great time. |
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Corrine, are you cold? The weather in the Netherlands during the last few days has been quite cold. Our second day in southwest Netherlands was very cold with a stiff wind from the northwest! |
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Now you can see Brittany to the right. There is Shanna again!! |
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Here we are only 45 kilometers from Rotterdam. You can see our coach driver, Peter, in the rear view mirror. He did a great job getting us to and from Rotterdam safely and navigating the streets of Rotterdam. |
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Yes, the Netherlands is a land of windmills. Occasionally we see one, but we have not had the chance to get very close. |
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Rotterdam - the city The next section is a collection of photos of the City of Rotterdam. As noted above, it is a very modern city with a wide range of modern buildings and shopping areas. |
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Rotterdam - the harbor This next set of photos shows the group on a tour of the Rotterdam harbor. We were on a rather large boat with hardly any other people on board but us. It was really cold, so we spent most of the time below deck looking out windows. These photos also show hundreds of cranes used to load an off-load cargo containers, several ships, dry-docks, hundreds of containers, and other port and harbor features. |
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This photo is worth commenting on. You will recall that the Pilgrims were forced out of England before they left for the New World. During that time, they stayed in the Netherlands. It was from this site in Rotterdam that they departed for Plymouth, England, from where they departed for the New World. |
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Zeeland Our trip through Zeeland took us southwest of Rotterdam. We made three stops: 1) a short tour of the small town of Zierikzee, 2) a stop at the beach near Renesse, and 3) a tour of the extensive dam and dike system that keeps a large portion of the Netherlands from flooding. The photos below show those three sites. |
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This is Zeeland. Again, if you look carefully, you can find Zierikzee. It is on the large full island in the lower center. To the west of Zierikzee, you will find Renesse - toward the northwest coast of that island. That coast is where I took the photos of the beach. Traveling to the next island north, find Stellendam. Just north of it in the middle of the water was where we stopped for the tour of the dam and sluice. The North Sea is the body of water in the upper left of the map. |
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The engineering project to keep the North Sea off of the Netherlands was one of the largest and most extensive in the world. It took 14 years to complete, but now much of the Netherlands is safe from flooding. That is important because much of the country is below sea level. Our tour of Rotterdam and Zeeland was very interesting. They are both different from other areas we have seen! |