Day 9 – Hindeloopen

Judging from the noise still emanating from Johan’s sinuses, we aren’t out of the woods yet. Still, our time is up at the Oosterland farmhouse. Riet and her husband Stef will come in later in the morning to deep clean away our sniffles and germs and make the apartment ready for their next guests, arriving later in the afternoon.

So we pack up and bike to the bus stop in Den Oever, where a free shuttle will take us across the Afsluitdijk. The legendary dike (which is technically a dam not a dike) is getting a facelift, two meters higher, and a reinforced wall on the windward side, made from mammoth Lego-like concrete blocks.

On the other side we walk through the new Afsluitdijk Wadden Center. An outside exhibit shows photographs of several places around the world which are suffering from the ravages of sea level rise, including Bangladesh, the South Sea Islands, Miami, Florida, and of course the Netherlands. The proactive high-tech (and expensive!) approach Holland is taking makes other countries protection measures look meager and pathetic, including Miami, which doesn’t really have a plan even though the projection is that 60% of its inhabitants will need to relocate by 2100.

Inside the center is a high-tech multi-media interactive display complete with an audio guide we can access through our own phones. The exhibit is interesting and educational, but an overload on our senses. In less than an hour we’re both feeling light-headed and slightly nauseous.

The dip down the east side of the Ijsselmeer is pleasant with only a few brief spits of rain. We arrive in Hindeloopen mid-afternoon and find a lovely café to eat some classic Dutch pannenkoeken. By the time we’re ready to check in to our B&B rain is falling heavily and consistently. We take our not-yet-quite-well bodies to bed for a good rest and warm-up.