Holland has a lot of sea and a lot of fishing villages.
Fishing still is a florishing trade - yes, I see your raised eyebrows here - but now I'm talking the old fishing villages that are scattered all along the Dutch coast and the former Zuider- or 'Zuyder'zee.
I'm not going into deep history here, but it's nice to know a bit about this part of Holland.
So here we go.
In the early Middle Ages there was no such thing as a proper sea in the (upper) middle part of Holland.
Just a lake, bordered by peat that was quickly excavated for fuel purposes. As the peatbog settled the land lowered and a couple of fierce floods in the 1200's did the rest: in about a century the lake was now a sea, connected with the North sea and hence named Zuiderzee: Southern sea.
With it whole new vistas opened: fishing and trade (we've always been good at the latter!).
From the late Middle Ages until early last century many villages along the borders of the Zuiderzee thrived.
Trading resulted in the Hanze cities (a string of cities connected by trade) that ran from Russia via the Scandinavian countries and Germany deep into Holland - btw, that is why some of these old Hanze cities so strangely resemble cities in Northern Germany and Sweden!
But this came to an end (please note, this is a very concise history). Silt and storms ruined harbours and trade. Reclamation started as early as the 17th century, closure of the Zuiderzee was thought of at the end of the 19th century. The fishing villages of course fiercely protested, but safety and need of farmland prevailed - and in 1932 the Zuiderzee was no more, due to the Afsluitdijk (Closing Dam) that made the former sea into a (huge) lake: the IJsselmeer (meer is lake, the IJssel a river that runs into it).
On the now sweet water lake fishing started again, and with the salt water fishes vanished now mainly on eel, plus some sweet water fishes like breem and pike (to name but a few).
The fishingboats of the IJsselmeer are famous in Holland: low on the water, ruggid and beautifully carved wooden ships with brown sails, hence named the 'Bruine Vloot': the 'brown fleet'.
They can be seen in abundance in the harbour of Spakenburg, a fishing village at the southern point of the IJsselmeer.
We visited Spakenburg last week and made a couple of pictures we'd very much like to share with you.
Spakenburg also hosts a wonderful museum that shows how people used to live in the old days.
Please note: this is one of the villages where (some) people still dress in costume!
Each village had (has!) it's own distinctive costume and they're all very beautiful. That's why I've included some pictures of the costumes as well, this time only on dolls in the museum - we didn't spot them IRL.
I must admit I've included quite a lot of photos from the Spakenburg harbour: we so like the seemingly (!) disorganised air of these century old harbours.
Ah - almost forgot: while strolling along the harbour twenty of these beautiful boats left for a sailing competition. An extra bonus for us, and a couple of very Dutch pictures for you, to end my blog!
Fishing still is a florishing trade - yes, I see your raised eyebrows here - but now I'm talking the old fishing villages that are scattered all along the Dutch coast and the former Zuider- or 'Zuyder'zee.
I'm not going into deep history here, but it's nice to know a bit about this part of Holland.
So here we go.
In the early Middle Ages there was no such thing as a proper sea in the (upper) middle part of Holland.
Just a lake, bordered by peat that was quickly excavated for fuel purposes. As the peatbog settled the land lowered and a couple of fierce floods in the 1200's did the rest: in about a century the lake was now a sea, connected with the North sea and hence named Zuiderzee: Southern sea.
With it whole new vistas opened: fishing and trade (we've always been good at the latter!).
From the late Middle Ages until early last century many villages along the borders of the Zuiderzee thrived.
Trading resulted in the Hanze cities (a string of cities connected by trade) that ran from Russia via the Scandinavian countries and Germany deep into Holland - btw, that is why some of these old Hanze cities so strangely resemble cities in Northern Germany and Sweden!
But this came to an end (please note, this is a very concise history). Silt and storms ruined harbours and trade. Reclamation started as early as the 17th century, closure of the Zuiderzee was thought of at the end of the 19th century. The fishing villages of course fiercely protested, but safety and need of farmland prevailed - and in 1932 the Zuiderzee was no more, due to the Afsluitdijk (Closing Dam) that made the former sea into a (huge) lake: the IJsselmeer (meer is lake, the IJssel a river that runs into it).
On the now sweet water lake fishing started again, and with the salt water fishes vanished now mainly on eel, plus some sweet water fishes like breem and pike (to name but a few).
The fishingboats of the IJsselmeer are famous in Holland: low on the water, ruggid and beautifully carved wooden ships with brown sails, hence named the 'Bruine Vloot': the 'brown fleet'.
They can be seen in abundance in the harbour of Spakenburg, a fishing village at the southern point of the IJsselmeer.
We visited Spakenburg last week and made a couple of pictures we'd very much like to share with you.
Spakenburg also hosts a wonderful museum that shows how people used to live in the old days.
Please note: this is one of the villages where (some) people still dress in costume!
Each village had (has!) it's own distinctive costume and they're all very beautiful. That's why I've included some pictures of the costumes as well, this time only on dolls in the museum - we didn't spot them IRL.
I must admit I've included quite a lot of photos from the Spakenburg harbour: we so like the seemingly (!) disorganised air of these century old harbours.
Ah - almost forgot: while strolling along the harbour twenty of these beautiful boats left for a sailing competition. An extra bonus for us, and a couple of very Dutch pictures for you, to end my blog!
