Sound the Hoorn

We sailed through a beautiful sunset on our way to dock at the town of Enkhuizen, close to Hoorn, our next exploration destination. Look carefully at the horizon and the endless string of wind turbines. We’ve seen them by the hundreds all along this journey. As the Dutch say, “God created man, but man created The Netherlands.” In their constant contest with water the Dutch learned early on about the power of wind – and the ability to harness it. Let’s make sure we learn from them.

I think it’s fair to say that the charming old town of Enkhuizen is enamored with sailing. Indeed all of The Netherlands’ charm, history, and commerce is imbued with moving across waters. Think of the Dutch East India Company established to manage trade with Asia, Dutch imports and exports, and Willem Schouten, from Hoorn, who sailed around the tip of South America and named Cape Horn (Hoorn).

Back in the saddle again. We loved our e-bike tour of Kinderdijk yesterday so much that we opted to do a peddling tour on the important dikes outside Hoorn and into the beautiful city’s suburbs and downtown.

Hoorn was built around the horn-shaped harbor on the Zuiderzee (former inlet of the North Sea). The Zuiderzee silted over and flooded frequently with exceptionally high tides. In 1920 the Dutch hatched a plan to build a 20-mile long causeway and dike rising 24 feet above sea level. What a strange treat it always is to ride a dike along fertile, reclaimed land on one side, and the sea looming feet above on the other. Awesome and scary.

A thatched working mill near a building originally part of the Zuiderzee Works (The Netherlands largest hydraulic engineering program of the 20th century). The small windmill is among many others that work constantly to keep the farmland workable.

We continued off the dikes and into the local traffic (negotiating the roundabouts was a little intimidating) while we stopped here and there to regroup and see some “landmarks” of interest. A bit hard to shoot any photos from the bike, but cruising along with autos, motorcycles and other local bikers gave us a good perspective of the local real estate, supermarkets (Aldi’s is everywhere), shops, schools and parks. Life goes on – beautifully – there.

A welcoming little coffee and snack shop along the water (isn’t everything) gave us a chance to rest our bottoms and join/watch the local folks beat the heat (still unusually hot for this part of the world) at the adjoining “beach.” A short ride took us back along the dikes to where we started for the short bus ride to the ship. Hard to believe, but tomorrow we’ll be in Amsterdam for our last full day of the journey.

It’s always fun to ride the top deck as you go through locks and under drawbridges. There are also many fixed bridges that have just a tiny clearance for the ship. The chairs are put down, the rails are on swivels to lay flat, and even the pilot house is on hydraulics so it can be lowered below the level of the upper deck. Of course passengers are verboten when “we’re comin’ to a bridge.”

After dinner, as the sun was setting, we took a stroll on the top deck to burn a few calories. We did a simultaneous double take, surprised by the image in the distance that appeared to be a man squatting on a narrow strip of land. None of us had any idea what it was or how it got there.

Another amazing sunset seemed to make the figure come to life…

… in fact illuminated a beating heart.

“Exposure” is a site specific installation by the inspired British artist, Sir Antony Gormley. It’s set on a thin strip of land in Lelystad – on our way toward Amsterdam. It’s really worth your time to check out Gormley’ incredible body of work.

With some unexpected, even surprising images in mind, we let ourselves drift off with thoughts of our last day — tomorrow — as we reach our final destination, Amsterdam.

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