My husband and I leave for 5 weeks in Europe on Thursday. We end up in Amsterdam for 4 days, and my engineer-husband has just mentioned that he would really like to see some of the Dutch dike system. Does anyone know where we could do this?

Many thanks.

I recommend that you go over to Haarlem. Visit the Cruquius. See http://tinyurl.com/386nb96. The Cruquius is an original vacuum principle steam engine that was used to pump out Lake Haarlem, the Haarlemmermeer, in the 1840s and 50s. This is where Schiphol Airport now sits in a polder 15 feet below sea level. It was the site of a naval battle between Spain and Holland centuries ago. Schiphol can be translated as *ship's hole* for all the ships that went to the bottom. A dijk surrounds the polder. The Cruquis Museum includes a hydro map of Holland showing how the whole system works. This is a unique and utterly fascinating museum for me. I am also an engineer.

The North Sea Canal from Amsterdam to IJmuiden is also interesting.

The largest dijk is the Afsluitdijk which enclosed the salt water IJsselmeer and made it into the fresh water Zuiderzee. It is very impressive. It was built in the 1930s.

spaarne, thanks for the recommendation. We looked at the web site, and DH is excited about seeing the steam engine and related stuff (while I noted the Frans Hals museum in Haarlem!)
We'll have a good day, I'm sure.

There are dikes everywhere, mostly of peat.
The Afsluitdijk was completed n 1932 and opened to to traffic a year later. You need a car to visit it really.

The Deltaworks are also impressive and may appeal to your husband. www.deltawerken.com

Should you visit Zaanse Schans or Volendam you will see dikes.
Not big high impressive dikes, but essential small dikes with ditches and small wind pumps to drain the land. Volendam and all the old Zuiderzee villages relied on dikes to protect them, and indeed to a certain extent still do.

hetismij,

Thanks for your suggestions. Bryan is looking forward to seeing as much as we can in just a few days. We will have to plan a longer visit to the Netherlands in the future.

spaarne - How interesting!! Thank you for the link to the Cruquius. We might just have to make a trip in to Haarlem when we are in Amsterdam next April, just to see this fascinating piece of machinery. My husband is a plumber/heating technician, and steam is one of his specialties.

Robyn