Holland windmills & dykes

    In this tour we marvel the Zuiderzee which originally was a huge sea lagoon created by successive floods in the past two millennia. Its 300km long shore was under constant threat of flood and following disastrous floods just before the First World War, the lake was cut off from the North Sea in the north-west of the Netherlands by the construction of the Afsluitdijk. The dyke is an astonishing 19 miles long and is one of the world's great engineering feats.
    Zuiderzee name means "southern sea" in Dutch, indicating that the origin of the name can be found in Friesland to the north of the Zuiderzee. In the 20th century the majority of the Zuiderzee was closed off from the North Sea (leaving the mouth of the inlet to become part of the Wadden Sea) and the salt water inlet became a fresh water lake that was renamed the IJsselmeer

    We then drive to the The Zaanse Schans, a delightful old hamlet on the banks of the river Zaan with characteristic green wooden houses, charming stylised gardens, small hump-backed bridges, tradesmen's workshops, historic windmills and engaging little shops. This enchanting hamlet gives an excellent impression of how a typical Zaanse village must have looked like in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Apart from the cluster of windmills and houses there are also several museums, restaurants and a visitors' centre to be found. The Zaanse Schans has become one of the top tourist destinations in the Netherlands.
We take a boat trip on the river and have lunch in this peaceful hamlet.

    I'll be glad to visit Holland together. I would like to offer you one of the most interesting places in the world - Zaanse Schans and Zuiderzee.

    Join my tailor-made tours in Belgium and it suburbs! I am tourist guide Belgium and it suburbs and a private driver guide. Transporation may be organised up to 7 persons upon request.