Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Jan 20 New Towns
Today we went to two new cities in the country, Ijburg and Almere. These cities have been built up from nothing. Ijburg was built up in the middle of the IJ river from sand that was taken from the bottom of the river. And the city of Almere on one of the polders that was reclaimed by the sea. Here are some pictures from the day.
Jan 19 North Sea Dunes & Lake Haarlem
Today we toured around the North Sea Dunes and we to a water purification plant using the dunes.
There was such a beautiful sunrise in the morning.
There was such a beautiful sunrise in the morning.
North Sea dunes. It was really windy there and there were guys para-sailing/gliding there.
North Sea
After the North Sea dunes we went to a water purification plant that pumps water from the Rhine river and purifies it for drinking water using the dunes. This is one of the holding areas for the water.
The dunes where they purify the water is also a nature preserve.
This is one of the pumps to help collect the water after it has gone through the dunes.
Matt was attempting to take a picture over the van, it didn't really work out.
And again, didn't work out well.
Then he just decided to take a picture forward.
This is one of the old steam powered pumps that pumped the Haarlem polder dry. This polder has the airport in it. The airport is about 6 meters under sea level.
And another pumping station for the polder.
Jan 18 Lek Dike
Today we went on a tour of the Lek River system. We looked at different management of the water in the area.
This is a lock system that we saw on the Lek river. It is different than most lock systems that I have seen before. For this one the big metal doors that you see lower down into the water on both sides and the water is pumped in or out.
And here is a picture of one of the doors close up.
After a tour down the Lek river, we went to a pair of visor dams. There are three sets of these in the country to control the amount of water that is in all of the rivers in the Netherlands.
And this is what we had to drive across to get to the parking lot for the visor dam. It was about 2-3 feet deep. There had been a lot of rain lately, and in the winter Netherlands normally gets more rain.
This is us crossing the flooded area. The white building in the distance is the control center for the dam.
So we walked out to the side of the dam. And just as a reference as to how much water there is, you see all of the water below the walkway. During the summer that is dry and grassy.
Once we got to the side we went down and under the river to get to the middle of the dam. This was the tunnel that we walked through to get to the middle.
This is the view from the middle of the dam. That line of dirt in the middle of the water is the summer dike. The winter dike is where the water is up to now. Yeah there is a lot of water.
This is one of the 8 motors that lift the visors or lower them. There is a gear ratio of 1:40,000 and the motor that turns the gears is the size of a lawnmower motor, oh and if the motors fail you can crank the visors up or down by hand. (the visor dams are made of solid steel so they aren't light)
This is the stairway to get up to the motor rooms. Matt kept saying that I was going to fall down. but I didn't. :)
This is a lock system that we saw on the Lek river. It is different than most lock systems that I have seen before. For this one the big metal doors that you see lower down into the water on both sides and the water is pumped in or out.
And here is a picture of one of the doors close up.
After a tour down the Lek river, we went to a pair of visor dams. There are three sets of these in the country to control the amount of water that is in all of the rivers in the Netherlands.
And this is what we had to drive across to get to the parking lot for the visor dam. It was about 2-3 feet deep. There had been a lot of rain lately, and in the winter Netherlands normally gets more rain.
This is us crossing the flooded area. The white building in the distance is the control center for the dam.
So we walked out to the side of the dam. And just as a reference as to how much water there is, you see all of the water below the walkway. During the summer that is dry and grassy.
Once we got to the side we went down and under the river to get to the middle of the dam. This was the tunnel that we walked through to get to the middle.
This is the view from the middle of the dam. That line of dirt in the middle of the water is the summer dike. The winter dike is where the water is up to now. Yeah there is a lot of water.
This is one of the 8 motors that lift the visors or lower them. There is a gear ratio of 1:40,000 and the motor that turns the gears is the size of a lawnmower motor, oh and if the motors fail you can crank the visors up or down by hand. (the visor dams are made of solid steel so they aren't light)
This is the stairway to get up to the motor rooms. Matt kept saying that I was going to fall down. but I didn't. :)
Monday, January 17, 2011
Jan 17 Europoort
Today we went to Europoort in Rotterdam, it is the
largest harbor in all of Europe and the fourth largest in the world. We started out by taking a driving tour of the area. Sadly though today we didn't have very good weather.
Europoort has a huge oil refinery area.
While we were taking our tour of the port when we were crossing one of the channels the bridge was up on a
draw bridge. It was different than most drawbridges because the road didn't become vertical, it just went straight up horizontally. It was cool though and we saw a bunch of ships go under.
I really liked this sign that I saw. :)
Europoort also has a large chemical area. Later we took a tour of one of the plants that makes propylene oxide and the process that they go through to make it.
Europoort still needs more room so what do the Dutch do, reclaim land from the North Sea. There is already a section of Europoort that has been made in the North Sea, Maasvlakte 1 and now they are creating Maasvlakte 2. Here are some pictures from the air that show the progress over the last 9 years, I think.
And today was Matt and my 6 month wedding anniversary. So we went down to this small little restaurant in the town that we are staying in and had some really good food. The entire menu was in Dutch, and even though we know some Dutch we don't know that much. So the waitress translated it all for us. I had steak (of course) and Matt had veil, and we also had a glass of wine. It was a great night.
largest harbor in all of Europe and the fourth largest in the world. We started out by taking a driving tour of the area. Sadly though today we didn't have very good weather.
Europoort has a huge oil refinery area.
While we were taking our tour of the port when we were crossing one of the channels the bridge was up on a
draw bridge. It was different than most drawbridges because the road didn't become vertical, it just went straight up horizontally. It was cool though and we saw a bunch of ships go under.
I really liked this sign that I saw. :)
Europoort also has a large chemical area. Later we took a tour of one of the plants that makes propylene oxide and the process that they go through to make it.
Europoort still needs more room so what do the Dutch do, reclaim land from the North Sea. There is already a section of Europoort that has been made in the North Sea, Maasvlakte 1 and now they are creating Maasvlakte 2. Here are some pictures from the air that show the progress over the last 9 years, I think.
And today was Matt and my 6 month wedding anniversary. So we went down to this small little restaurant in the town that we are staying in and had some really good food. The entire menu was in Dutch, and even though we know some Dutch we don't know that much. So the waitress translated it all for us. I had steak (of course) and Matt had veil, and we also had a glass of wine. It was a great night.
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