Wednesday, 15 May to Thursday, 16 May 2019
We left Willemstad and headed roughly west – again with a NE tailwind. We went over 3 huge locks where Warren unfortunately had a tumble after another rider went down. Luckily both were ok and we continued along a dyke to the nearby island. We were now riding past fields of crops over quiet country roads.
Quo Vadis entering the lock
Our morning tea stop was at the worst hit town of the great flood of 1953. Over 300 people lost their lives at the small village of Oude Tonge. We visited the cemetery where the victims were buried in a mass grave on the dyke, the only dry land in the village at the time. It was 9 months before the holes in the dykes were repaired and the people could return to their homes.
From here we cycled across another long dyke and into the province of Zeeland. Lunch was a picnic beside the dyke before we headed to the Watersnood (Flood) Museum.
The museum was built inside the 4 concrete caissons that were used to close the last breach of the dyke after the flood. There had been 67 breaches in total and this last breach was not closed until November 1953, 9 months after the storm. 1836 people lost their lives and the government responded with the Delta Works project to prevent a recurrence.
After our visit we headed to Zierikzee after 57km on the bike.
On Thursday we rode from Zierekzee along the dykes stopping to view the Zeeland bridge and a tower that is all that is left of a village washed away during a storm.
We had a morning tea stop overlooking the islands and the Delta Works barriers that can be lowered to prevent storm waters flooding the delta. They are 15km long and close automatically if the water level gets to 3m above the Amsterdam standard. It is an amazing feat of engineering and we appreciated it much more after yesterday’s visit to the flood museum.
We then cycled to the beach for lunch and then on to the busy tourist village of Veere. A few more kms and we arrived at Middleburg after 55km.
We had another small city walk with Rikko, about an hour around Middleburg. It was bombed heavily before Zeeland surrendered, 3 days after the rest of the Netherlands.
Hi Debbie & Warren, we are just loving your blogs and feel we are with you, you write so well Debbie. We are “doing” a Baltic cruise in October and visiting Rotterdam, and only yesterday we booked on a ship’s tour for that day that travels to Amsterdam and we are travelling through the canals as well as other sightseeing, so of course we were particularly interested in your photos, so good.
Can’t believe how far you ride in a day, good on you both.
Showery weather here but not too cold.
Cheers from us both,
David and Margaret
Thanks David and Margaret. Sounds like a great trip – you will love it here.