Calvin weekend in Middelburg
Trip Start
May 17, 2008
1
18
22
Trip End
Aug 24, 2008
Middelburg,
Zeeland,
Netherlands
Monday, July 14, 2008
On Friday evening Mike & I boarded the train to Middelburg, a city in the southwest side of the country. With connections it was nearly a 4 hour trip, so we didn't arrive in Middelburg until close to 1 am on Saturday morning. After arriving in Middelburg we were met by Becca and Heidi, 2 other Calvin engineering students staying in Europe for the summer. Becca lives & works in Middelburg, and Heidi is in Germany. After arriving at the station it was a short walk to Becca's host parents house. Becca's host family is gone for the next few weeks, which meant that we had our own rooms and bicycles for the whole weekend!
On Saturday we woke up late in the morning and took a tour of Middelburg before lunch
In Middelburg
. After lunch we relaxed for a while & waited for Beth, another Calvin engineering student, to arrive. She is staying in Hillversum (near Amsterdam) for the summer. With all of us together it meant that 5 out of the 9 calvin engineering students spending the summer in Europe were there for the weekend; which is not a bad crowd! In the afternoon on Saturday we rode bikes to Veere, a town about 40 minutes by bicycle away. This weekend Veere was host to a traditional Dutch festival where many people dressed up in traditional costumes and they rode horse and buggy around. There were also games such as getting a small ring on a stick while riding past it on a horse (see pictures). We had a great time just walking around and seeing the nice scenery for the afternoon. In the evening we were all pretty tired so we just watched some tv then went to bed.On Sunday morning we walked around the corner and attended the church that meets in the school very near to Becca's house. The service was pretty contemporary, and there were some familiar tunes, but of course, no English. But it is nice to just be around people worshiping and to be in that kind of atmosphere. In the afternoon we traveled, again by bike, to Vlissingen, a city with a beach on the ocean. It was a beautiful day (actually, the entire weekend was beautiful; very rare in Holland) and so we just sat on the beach for a few hours and swam in the ocean a little bit
View from tower in Middelburg
. That evening back at home we just sat around and talked and shared stories of our experiences here so far.On Monday, yes, MONDAY Mike & I took the day off of work! So we stayed in Middelburg Sunday night. Monday morning we had an appointment at the Delta Works. To give some background information: The Delta works are a series of over 300 dikes and dams built after a large flood in 1953 to protect the country. For those interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works. Specifically, we had a tour of the Oosterscheldekering (Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier), see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oosterscheldekering. This barrier is over 5 miles long (3 sections connected by small islands) and has movable gates. So typically the gates are in the "up" position allowing water to flow through, but when a storm comes through the gates are lowered to prevent flooding. The reason for this design as opposed to a standard dam is that since it is salt water everything would die & the environment would be dramatically changed (among other reasons) if they used a non-movable barrier.
So Becca works for the Waterboard down in Zeeland, and they are part of the network of Waterboards that manages the Oosterscheldekering. They got us an exclusive tour of this barrier
Riding bikes through Middelburg
. It was really amazing because nothing was off limits (as we were being led by the head maintenance manager) and we were able to see some really neat things that the public never sees. We were even able to go in the room where the controls are to lower the 5 miles of gates, and we had lunch in the board room where the decision to lower the gates is made. It was a really great experience and I think the whole time we were all just amazed that we had that opportunity. We left the barrier at about 3 pm and started making our way back home since it was a 4 hour trip by train. On the way back we stopped in 2 cities: 's-Hertenbosch and Nijmegen. In these cities we just walked around for a little while to see what they were like. Nijmegen is world famous for its 4-day walking tour. Every summer for 4 days people walk on planned routes for several miles a day, and in the evening party. We happened to stop in the city on the first evening of partying, and so that was neat to see as there were a lot of people around, bands playing, etc. We didn't get back home until about 10:45 pm, though, so it was a long evening.... and an early morning on Tuesday for work.
Mike and I had such a great time this weekend. It was wonderful to spend time with the other Calvin students and get to know them a little better. We are all having varied experiences here in the Netherlands (and Heidi in Germany) and it was a lot of fun just to tell stories. It was also such a great blessing to have a whole house to ourselves, and to have bicycles to use. The weekend couldn't have been better!
And now I am slowly catching up w/ emails I received over the weekend, and this week already almost coming to a close. We have another fun weekend planned next weekend, so I'll be sure to update about that on Sunday or so!
Comments
Stories
Hey Nate --
It was great hearing the stories over the phone. You did a great job writting them too. Always, love the photos.
Talk to ya soon,
-- Dad