Never On A Sunday

Last weekend we set out to explore Zeeland – the Dutch province south of Rotterdam.  For those interested in geography nearly half of Zeeland is water. The fact that anyone would choose to live there at all is a tribute to Dutch resilience and their engineering ingenuity. The fact that the province’s coat of arms features a lion half submerged in water gives you a good picture of what these people have been up against over the centuries. Their motto ‘luctor et emergo’ translates as ‘I struggle and I emerge ’.

Nowadays, the low-lying islands of Zeeland are protected and connected by a series of dykes and very long bridges. The province has emerged from the threat of flooding to face a barrage German tourists. They come for the beaches – miles and miles of soft pale sand, and they come to windsurf on the breezy lagoons created by the modern day sea defences.

Having found ourselves in the land of the Deutsche camper-van we stopped for a toilet break at a windsurfing gala.  Where else but the Netherlands would you have a water-slide into a freezing cold lake and think it fun??

We gave the Delta Expo a miss – I’m sure for anyone interested in the history of pumps, drainage systems and hydro-engineering it’s a fascinating place to visit, but we decided we didn’t have time.  My Rough Guide to The Netherlands recommended starting a tour of the expo with the 30 minute information film – Mr T and I are speed visitors when it comes to museums – half an hour is often our max (in fact we have been known to give entire exhibitions a miss and just pop in for a snack and the loo). It sounded rather like the Delta Expo was a day-out in itself. Something to go back for, if we drive that way again. Which is highly unlikely to be honest.

Instead, we travelled on to Middleburg, the capital of Zeeland, a compact, pretty town but a town that is closed on Sundays.  Middleburg sits in the middle of the Dutch Bible belt and it was deserted. The inhabitants of Middleburg weren’t even out walking their dogs – the belt is that tight.   In the main square a few cafes were open, but not many. Elsewhere shops and bars were firmly shut, giving the town a somewhat eerie atmosphere.  We joined the few other bewildered looking tourists ambling around the quite cobbled streets and admiring the historic architecture and wishing we’d come on any other day of the week.

We selected a different route for the journey home just so that Mr T could enjoy the drive over even more dykes and very long bridges. Personally, I’m of the opinion that if you’ve seen one dyke and a very long bridge, you’ve seen them all. But at least we’ve ticked Zeeland off the list.