Zeeland 2010| page 1 | (go to Zeeland page 2) |
We leave around one o'clock on Friday 14 May. In the morning, after lots of research, Laura finally orders her smartphone. We drive through Rotterdam, and go over the Delta Works from one island to another. It's beautiful. The village of Wissenkerke is on the island Noord-Beveland, which is in the province Zeeland in the south-west of the Netherlands. It is easy to find, and without any problems we find the house we rented there.
On the website it was written as Noord-Beverland. On top of that, near Goes, there is also a village called Wissekerke (without the n). We joke about our holiday in the land of the beavers ("bever" in Dutch means beaver), in the village Wisserkerke.
A boat, somewhere along the road to Wissenkerke.
Laura behind the wheel.
Spacious fields and lots of sky.
And dikes of course.
And windmills.
Fishing boat with gulls.
Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier. Picture taken from the car.
It's a beautifully old and small village, with a mill and a church with a sharp spire. When we arrive at the house, there's nobody there, but there are post-its saying where the front door for the "Hendricx family" is. A while later the owner gets home and we meet. They've given us an extra large house because people had canceled. It's a house for five persons. That's friendly. The dog is called Bijtie (Dutch for: doeshebite). He doesn't bite. He is a big goof. Unfortunately we don't succeed in connecting our laptop to the wireless internet. Oh well, alright.
We walk in the surrounding area and we follow the road to the sea that leads via a meadow with llamas and rabbits. Well, sea, actually it's the Eastern Scheldt (Oosterschelde). Lots of water and lots of birds here, and bird watchers too. It's a small scenic area between dikes. Noord-Beveland is between the Oosterschelde and the Veerse meer (Lake of Veere). Nothing much happens here. The largest village, Kamperland, has no more than a few thousand inhabitants. According to the Dutch-language Wikipedia Noord-Beveland is one of the least densely populated areas of the Netherlands.
The road to the Oosterschelde, just outside our house.
The two llamas, one shorn and one unshorn. By the way, I think they're actually alpacas.
Sometimes when a dike broke, the people used to build another dike around the gap further from the coast to protect the weak spot. The land in between these dikes nowadays is a scenic area with lots of birds.
Shelducks with their young.
Laura looking out on the Oosterschelde.
A goose hiding behind a dike.
View of two sails of the mill of Wissenkerke.
Pollard willows.
That night we have pancakes in the village (one with banana, advocaat and chocolate sauce, and one with tuna and mais), and I drink a Peelander Korenschoof with it, a beer from Kamperland. We have brought a large box with DVDs and a lot of books. We hope to do a lot of nothing. Later that night we watch The Usual Suspects.
Because we don't succeed in configuring the wireless connection on the laptop, we decide to travel to Rotterdam on Saturday to collect Laura's smartphone. We park right in front of the shop but all the hassle with subscription takes a lot of time negotiating and deciding. At the end of the afternoon we drive back. The smartphone seems to be able to find the wireless network, so the problem probably is the laptop. Laura is very happy with her smartphone, a HTC Desire. That night we eat mais-soup and we watch (the second half of The Usual Suspects and) Volver.
Our car in the Europoort, on our way back from Rotterdam.
Pipeline in the Europoort.
On Sunday we do nothing. Laura is in bed all afternoon and I walk around the village and take pictures. I photograph the church, the cemetery outside the village and both the mills. In the evening we eat pasta with spinach and blue cheese, and we watch Tussenstand and Crazy/Beautiful. It looks like the DVD-player cannot play our DVDs we cut (to remove commercials), so we only watch movies we recorded from channels without commercials.
The windmill in Wissenkerke.
The windmill in Wissenkerke up close. Its vanes turn almost daily.
Below the dike, right outside the village.
The cemetery.
View of the steeple of Wissenkerke.
The other mill of Wissenkerke, outside the village.
A line of trees.
Two doves in the village.
There's a lot more sky in Zeeland than there is in the Randstad. View from our terrace.
On Monday I sleep almost until twelve o'clock. Laura has woken up before nine and already did our shopping. Today we go to Neeltje Jans, an artificial island in the middle of the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier. We also want to visit the Deltapark Neetje Jans. When we get there, we decide to not go in. Way too expensive, and we don't want to visit all those attractions. So we go and ask for a coin to get off the parking lot. But the man behind the counter suggests we go in for half the price. Hmm, well, okay then. We end up seeing almost every attraction there is to see. There are very few other visitors. We get to see the storm surge barrier up close. We climb one of the pillars and we walk a small part through the barrier. We also get to see a movie about the history of the barrier, an exposition, and a strange 3D-movie, we visit an even stranger whale, and we see seals. Around four o'clock we eat fries and then we go home. Laura makes a vegetable soup and we watch Eyes Wide Shut.
Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier.
Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier.
View between two parts of the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier.
Gull.
Seal, in a pool at Neeltje Jans.
Seal, in a pool at Neeltje Jans.
