Middleburg and Veere

We have arrived in Zeeland, in the Netherlands and although the weather forecast was for a cold, possibly rainy day, it was lovely sunshine and a cloudless sky.  This is the area that Abel Tasman came from so hence "New Zealand" was named for this area.

We walked around the small laneways of Middleburg and the pretty quays and even scurried across a small bridge just before it opened for a boat to go through.

It was Sunday so the town was very quiet, not like in former times when the East India Company used it as am important trading post and shipyard.  Some of the apartment blocks are named after ships of the East India Company because a shipbuilding yard used to be there.

We walked through the Abbey courtyard and admired the huge tower named "Tall John".  Unfortunately we could  ot peep inside because it was Sunday.

                                                                     The Abbey

                                                                        Town Hall

                                                         Rob meets one of the locals


After lunch our boat moved on to Veere, close to the North Sea.  From here we went by bus to the high tech "Delta Plan".  This is a series of dams and devices to preserve the country's coastline from the sea.   It was developed after many dykes were breached in 1953 with the loss of 1800 lives in 1 night.  Completed in 1986, The coastline was shortened by 700 km. It is one of the Worlds most impressive engineering feats.

                                 To the left is the North Sea and to the right the River Schelde.

There was a long series of these gates that are closed when storms on the North Sea would flood the country.

Most of the windmills are modern style like we have for wind power. Tomorrow we will see lots of old windmills. If they stopped pumping water then half the country would be flooded in 3 months.