Schokland Museum 2

Continuing our visit to a remarkable little museum...

Vicki touching actual mastodon parts

At least 7 foot tall Ice Age bear--Ursus Really
Horribilis

Cast of neolithic human remains

Paleo tools

Neolithic settlement depiction

Neo foot print casts

Neo pottery

Largely intact Neo canoe

More recent archaeological finds

Wooden shovel

Waders

Mini sleigh

The usual mannequin diorama; we think it's an important part
of the museum experience to participate in these displays...

Propeller from an RAF Lancaster bomber that came down in
the vicinity

Not the only plane that came down in these parts...here, a
B-17E, whose crew hopefully walked away and were rescued
by Dutch Resistance

Interior of the beautifully reconstructed little church

And finally, today's wedding photo shoot

Schokland Museum 1

Schokland was an island in the Zuider Zee, and the waxings and wanings of the North Sea since the middle ages enabled it to be variously a fishing village, a fortress, an abandoned fortress, a fishing village, a destitute fishing village, then, by royal order in 1859, an abandoned destitute fishing village. The sea was too dangerous and unpredictable. Prior to the middle ages (much prior), it was high, dry land, with much evidence of paleolithic and then neolithic human habitation, plus, earlier habitation by your standard Ice Age and post-Ice Age varmints...giant bears, sabre-tooth tigers, wooly mammouths, etc. Presently, Schokland, well inland, is home to the Schokland Museum, perhaps the smallest of all UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but the first of Netherands' many sites to be so recognized. It is a succinct but powerful statement of what the Zuider Zee was like, of the Zuider Zee Works, and of their aftermaths. It's a longer day trip from Amsterdam, but worth it in every respect. The 15 minute video presentation (in English too) is excellent.

In olden days, prior to 1932, it was here

Aerial view, nowadays, from which you can see the outlines
of the old island; in the north-east polder, north of Flevoland
(did you know that Flevoland was named after ancient Flevo
Lake, which was named after Caius Julius Flevo, a Roman
who explored and wrote about the area?)

Another view, driving up, you can see the tiny island mass
rising above the sea (now grass)

Entrance

Approaching the entrance to the tee-niny museum

Netherlands is flat partly because it is the estuary of the Rhine
and associated great rivers; and partly because the glaciers
from Scandinavia scoured the land; these are glacial erratics
from Norway

Thus; amazing the things you find when "reclaiming" land

View of the museum; the church, a few house-structures, the
restaurant, the reception...

Coastal artillery...the coast now way out of range

Ditto

Remnants from the old cemetery

Important previous flood levels...it was the 1916 flood that
provided the impetus for the Zuider Zee Works; also the fact
that technology was now up to the task

Shipwrecks, other archaeological sites in the immediate vicinity
of Schokland

Start of the excellent video on Schokland and the Zuider Zee
(and in English, too)

Driving The Zuider Zee

If you are of my generation, you heard about the Zuider Zee, as I did, in elementary school. It is that southern arm of the North Sea that invades the Netherlands and whose wild ways flooded cities and towns and villages and killed hundreds of thousands over the centuries. Marken was an island in the Zuider Zee; now it's more or less an island in the Ijsselmeer (or more properly, the Markermeer), the vast fresh water lake that the Zuider Zee became when finally dammed off in 1932. A later and larger dam was constructed much further north in the mid-20th century. And amidst all this, land was created ("reclaimed"), specifically Flevoland, home now to nearly half a million people and untold millions of cows. We've seen the dikes and dams and waters on previous trips, but I wanted to see and learn more, specifically at the Schokland Museum, part of the northeast polder, north of Flevoland. Thus, our crossing.

Beginning the drive over the dam near Enthuizen; that's a concrete canal we're
driving under; everything has the lookof the massive engineering feat it was

Pretty typical of the 30 or so mile road over the dam; that's the Markermeer on
the right; on the other side is the bigger part of the Ijsselmeer; boats and ships
everywhere

And now we are looking at reclaimed land, in the northeast polder, just north of
Flevoland; Flevoland itself amounts to somewhat less than 600 square miles

Alkmaar Without Cheese

So after the museum we strolled a bit around the largely pedestrianized old town, much of it dating to the 17th century. Not pictured: buying a cheese sampler plate. It was to be a day of street food.

Me, downing some Dutch sushi (pickled herring. with onions
and pickle)

Really nice bicycle in a wine bar

Street scene

Time for a frites-fix, so we stopped here

And then, just outside the great church, Olie Bollen! Deep-fried spheres of dough,
filled with fruit, chocolate, whatever; we had not seen Olie Bollen since the 1967
Leon County Fair, in Tallahassee, FL; more street food!

Centrum signage: rather more for bicycles than pedestrians

We now think that "Eten en Drinken" might be a chain

Moving right along, we are in Alkmaar's
Grote Kerk, another ex-Roman church that is
now excitingly stark; the timber barrel roof is
of interest, however

As is the great organ

As is this, a clock, high up on the ceiling right at the crossing; evidently so you
could check the time while raising your eyes toward the heavens

View from crossing to bow, elevation

Helpful model

Library, on city square

Poetry on alley walls

Outdoor bookstore in boxes

Impressive contemporary architecture too (so why wasn't it
shaped like a round of gouda?)

Alkmaar Cheese Museum

The mini-pancake master; 18 different toppings available, then covered with a layer
of confectionary sugar; desperately need a cup of strong black coffee after this

We are in the cheese museum now, having passed through the cheese shoppe and
sampled young, mature, and old gouda; the great secret of the cheese museum is
that it is on the lst (American 2nd) floor and you can simply gaze out the windows
and watch the market action (!) that others have stood five-or- six deep to see;
there appears to be a break in the action, perhaps a TV time-out

Free samples for those who bought reserved seats

The museum is full of interesting and educational exhibits on both traditional and
contemporary methods of making cheese; here one can see the cow eating grass,
converting it via three stomachs and mammary glands into milk, which then
becomes cheese (next exhibit)

Output: milk; other outputs are not addressed

Part of the interest of the place was its decor and humor; thus

And thus

The mouse motif got a little old

Thus

But there was plenty of useful information all around, such as the above, and
that Netherlanders consume more than 20 kilos of cheese a year (European
average: 17; 1 kilo=2.2 lbs)

And interesting old-time exhibits

Meanwhile, the action, as it were, continued below

Vicki decided it was time to go when I started getting too friendly
with the cute cheese babe mannequin

Parting shot

Ditto