Once during our winter we went on a trip to Holland to attend a conference in Amsterdam. In doing our due diligence we scoured the Internet for suitably cheap accommodation nearby and found a campsite at Uitdam offering small cabins at a reasonable price, so we booked one for two weeks. We flew out of a cold and wet Cape Town to Amsterdam via London.
After picking up our rental car we motored about 20 km to the Jachthaven campsite near Uitdam on the large Markermeer in Waterland. It is into this large body of water that the surrounding polders drain their water and its level is a few metres higher than the dry land!
Dykes, drainage and pumps keep out the water and in the old days windmills were solely used; we had the opportunity to visit a working one nearby.
After the conference we explored this part of Holland and spent our time driving to the picturesque villages of Monnikendam, Vollendam, Hoorn and the island of Marken all on this huge lake that was once open to the sea and called the Zuiderzee. Ships of the Dutch East India Company bound for the east would set sail from Hoorn on the trade route.
Although the weather didn’t play ball we enjoyed the rest of our stay in the Netherlands by taking bicycle rides along the dykes, a drive to the island of Texel in the north and Hoek van Holland in the south. We concluded our holiday with a day in Amsterdam where we visited the Van Gogh museum and enjoyed a fascinating canal tour that was rich in architectural history!
Credit: My own blog and photos.
