In “Travel to the Netherlands with Me I,” Episode, #202, Meredith Curtis invites you to take a trip with her to the Netherlands. Discover why it is said that God created the world but the Dutch built the Netherlands. We’ll visit canals, windmills, dams, and Delft. We’ll learn about wooden shoes and delft pottery. This is the first podcast in a 3-part series.

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The Netherlands is a plucky little nation in Northern Europe with a fascinating history and an ability to tame the sea. You might think of windmills, tulips, wooden shoes, and pretty blue and white porcelain, but there is so much more! .

Holding Back the Sea

Dikes, canals, dams, levees, and pumping stations.

Life has always revolved around the sea.

Delta Works is a massive engineering project to keep Zeeland from flooding.

For a bird’s eye view, watch this video: “The Dutch Deltaworks by drone 4K” (Mike Zwijgers https://youtu.be/zkyHR8_ZCvs

The goal of building Delta Works was to:

Canals are used for irrigation, drainage, and transportation. When farmers need water for their crops or animals, they can get water from the canals. When rains come down or floods come up, the canals catch the extra water. Dutch life revolves around the canals of the Netherlands – fishing, boating, skating in the winter, traveling by boat, and even living in houseboats.

A lock raises and lowers boats and ships between stretches of water at different levels on waterways. Boats enter the lock, and the lock takes them to the other level.

It’s fun to make a model of a lock to see how they work. The are different kinds of locks but this is the basics of how a lock works.

Dutch wooden shoes, or klompen, date back to the 1200s, or 13th century. By the late 1500s, there was a guild of clog makers in Holland.

Wooden shoes protected the fishermen, factory workers, artisans, and builders from fishing hooks, nails, and sharp tools. Nothing could penetrate those wooden shoes.

Dutch windmills date back to the 1100s (12th Century AD). There are windmills that were built in the 1500s that are still in use.

The Dutch ride bikes to work, cycle to the supermarket, and even go on bicycle hikes for fun. It’s a great way to stay healthy! They don’t have a bike lane; they have bike lanes – lots of them!

Join me for a 4-week unit study touring the plucky little country that holds back the sea!

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