After breakfast this morning, we had a talk on Tulipmania. The lecture was very interesting as it told of the 17th century tulip bulb investment craze. And we also saw a short film on the harvesting of the tulips today. It is all very automated. And interesting.
Then we took a short ferry ride out to the Zuiderzee Museum. This is an outdoor museum that shows life as it was in the early 1920's. The Zuiderzee in English is the South Sea. But the area around the Zuiderzee would flood so that in the 1920's they decided to dam the Zuiderzee and now it is a lake. They have been able to reclaim land around this area. The fishing industry dried up because the lake is now fresh water. So the fishing villages were no more. So the museum was built to tell visitors what life might have been like back then.
We walked all through the village. We visited a house of that time, a school, a church, etc. All rebuilt from actual buildings.
We took a short ferry ride to the museum. This is Judy with Frank behind us.
This is the ferry that took us to the museum site.
They used these kilns to melt the shells in order to make the mortar for building the brick houses. Shells were all around so it seemed like the right thing to do.
They had no refrigeration so they would either smoke the fish or use salt to keep it for eating in the summer. In the winter, no problems as it was very cold.
This is one of the streets in the museum. Small row houses.
Another street in the museum. Two families live in the museum houses. I guess they act as security for the village.
Inside one of the houses.
The house was really only two or three rooms. A very small kitchen, a bathroom and a larger living space that was dining room, living room, and bedroom.
Another view of the larger room. This one has a sewing machine.
When the water would rise, the bottom floor would flood. So the family would climb up the ladder to the attic with as much stuff as they could fit up there and would stay up in the attic until the water receded. Then they would move down stairs again until the water returned.
For drinking water, they would collect rain water via the gutters. This was a row house so there were two families collecting water.
Typical dress of the time. Notice the wooden shoes. Not too different from crocs of today except they are wood and our crocs are rubber.
They use sheep for the wool but also as lawn mowers.
Baa, baa black sheep have you any wool? This is a black sheep but he had brown wool. I guess they call him black because he has a black face.
This is a fellow smoking the fish.
The school house with desks. They painted the wall blue to fool the bugs.
Notice I am sitting in the front row. Could just barely fit in the seat.
They reconstructed the church. It can be rented for weddings but only civil ones as the church is not a "real" church.
The wealthy members of the church would have their names written on the backs of their chairs.
Not sure what he is making but is working with an anvil. Lots of hammering.
The weather today was cold and windy so we got back on the ferry and returned to the boat. The gang was together for lunch and we never laughed so hard. This has been a great reunion.
After lunch, naps for all and then Bob walked back into town and I stayed on the boat to work on the blog. Some of the passengers are off on an optional excursion so I use this time as not as many are on the internet.
Will post this now and post more when Bob returns with more pictures. We stay here overnight.
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