Day 8: Fighting the water

  Today we moved from Belgium to The Netherlands.  Along the way, we made several stops to learn how The Netherlands battles the sea.   1/8 of the country is below sea level.  Half of the country is just three feet above it.
 
  The pumps are working constantly, and need a foolproof source of power.  One of our local tour guides told us she could not believe the blackout that left much of the Northeastern U.S. in the dark for days in 2003.  If the power goes out in The Netherlands for 72 hours, they DISAPPEAR.  And the water isn't just coming from the sea, it's seeping up from below them.

  Storm surges from the North Sea have caused many devestating floods over the years.

  After one especially deadly and destructive flood in 1953, engineers floated large concrete structures called caissons to the area to plug a breached dike.  The structures were originally supposed to be used for an Allied landing in Belgium that never happened.  Instead, they were moved to the flooded area, filled with sand, and sunk into the water.  This stopped the storm surge.  Today, the caissons have been emptied and turned into a museum.  You can walk through them and see what happened.

  We also saw a marvel of modern engineering - the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier.  It's "the largest set of doors in the world."  Each one is the size of the Eiffel tower.

      The idea is to be able to swing the doors closed the doors in an emergency, preventing another disasterous flood.  But the structure also has to stay out of the way of  ships in the second-busiest port in the world.  After six years of construction, it was finished in 1997.   In the nearly 10 years since then, it's been used ONCE.  That's because, by the time it takes to open it again, millions of dollars of business has been lost.  So they will only close it when the storm surge reaches three meters.. about 10 feet.  That means the water basically has to be up to the second floor before they swing shut.

  We got an up-close look.  This was my favorite part of the trip so far.

    Next, we stopped in Zierikzee, a cute town with shops and restaurants.

  Here's the whole gang - a great group of people.

    Hilbren, our guide, recommended the apple pancakes at one restaurant.  Nat got one:

    Finally, we arrived in Delft.  Hilbren warned us that our new hotel was extremely "creative, though often at the expense of being practical."  He was right.  This was the hallway leading to our room:

    I banged my head on it several tmes.  Other people did too.  I noticed small amounts of plaster that were vacuumed up every day.

    Each room is decorated with a different, extravagant theme.  This was ours:

    Other rooms had themes of an African safari, the garden of eden, underwater, etc.  Crazy.  Our shower had a built-in "sun shower" - basically an upright tanning bed.

    The weather was wet and very windy today,  But on the walk to our group dinner, there was a sign of hope.