Two Fer

As Ernie Banks was fond of saying, let’s do two!  Kind of like that, but we’re not talking about baseball, but touring.  I keep trying to compress things and then see some of my pictures, and say gee, somebody might enjoy seeing these (he said, in his own little dream world).  Anyway, I forced myself to cover a couple of days, and it will be picture heavy so shouldn’t take you long.

An interesting day began with a stop at the little village of Veere in Zeeland pretty much staring at England.  It is a quaint little village with all the usual buildings and so on

It had a pleasant little market with little shops

And being on the sea across from England, it had its share of military remnants (I’m always a sucker for “doorway” shots)

After leaving the town, we stopped in at the “waterworks” where they have machinery for operating the dikes that keep the land dry.

Note the umbrella, and the fog was so dense you couldn’t see the ocean even though we were standing on a dyke not far from it.  After a brief stop there we went to an interesting museum

In February of 1953, there was a perfect storm situation wherein the combination of wind, tide, and a raging storm that ultimately bridged and destroyed some of the dykes the ocean came pouring in.  There wasn’t much of a warning system, and people didn’t believe it anyway, with the result that many people perished and this museum was meant to tell the story and remember the victims.  It was constructed out of several WWII Caissons from D Day, with each commemorating one facet of the incident. 

If you have the interest and time, you might poke around their web site some.  Good stories.  After touring and going through the sobering museum, we returned to the ship and there was a little reception for the Cole Travel people with the crew

Speaking is the manager of the cruise Kornelia Pfeiffenberger, with the purser and tour guy “Barry” who led the daily adventures.  Of course there were appropriate libations

The next day began with a visit to the National Open Air Museum, which recalled our experience in Wales at St. Fagens.  I show you a picture of our guide, which proved to be accurate..

There were examples of buildings from different areas and cultures of the Netherlands

With of course examples of the famous structures

One of the period houses we looked in had an object which is very familiar to archaeologists from St. Mary’s City.

All of these sites are very close to the city of Arnheim.  Film buffs might remember that there was a film documenting Arnheim as the site of one of the fiercest battles of WWII and the liberation of the Netherlands.  The film was “A Bridge Too Far” and it documented a failed “Operation Market Garden”. There was a massive airborne effort dropping many paratroopers with a goal of breaking the German Lines, seizing several bridges to outflank German defenses and end the war by Christmas of 1944.  .  The story is told in the National Liberation Museum. 

It is a powerful exhibit, with many pictures of people fleeing the enemy with their belongings in a wheelbarrow, the clothes on their backs, and not much else.  The looks on their faces are depressing.  I suppose it is trite but we are so very lucky.  Imagine living your life and some soldiers from a foreign country come in, brandish weapons and tell you to leave.  Unimaginable.   It is no wonder there is such respect and thanks for our (and the Allies) troops that helped them put their life back in order.  We found the same thing on our trip to Normandy.  The Americans do the right thing..

After leaving the museum we visited a cemetery where the soldiers that participated in the liberation were laid to rest, in an all too familiar setting

Picked at random, a 22 year old Polish soldier who never saw anything past that year.

As General Sherman noted, decades before:  "War is Hell"

Tomorrow we’ll leave the Netherlands… I promise

Okay, hit Publish and go

DFD

Tomorrow is Beer Fest at Historic St. Mary’s City!!