After spending the night tied up near the organ grinder museum, the barge cruised up a canal for a few kilometers, then we unloaded the bikes and rode a short distance to IJmuiden (mouth of the IJ river), which is where the North Sea Canal, which was built to directly connect Amsterdam to the North Sea, emerges via some large locks.
First, though, we stopped in Spaarndam to see a monument dedicated to a fictional character from the book Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates.
As mentioned in the Wikipedia link above:
For tourism purposes, statues of the fictional dike-plugging boy have been erected in Dutch locations such as Spaarndam, Madurodam and Harlingen. The statues are sometimes mistakenly titled "Hans Brinker"; others are known as "Peter of Haarlem". The story of the dike-plugging boy is, however, not widely known in the Netherlands — it is a piece of American, rather than Dutch, folklore.
…so it was kind of funny to see the Dutch going to the trouble of erecting a monument to a fictional character that is not well-known in Holland. Tourism really is an industry here.
At IJmuiden we visited a museum of the canal pilots, where one of the Bike and Barge tour guides now volunteers. They served free tea and coffee, and we watched a well-made video from the 1990’s showing the history of the North Sea Canal, operations of the lock, and logistics of getting huge cargo ships in and out of Amsterdam. There were also some good displays about the construction of the canal and the town, and shipping and water rescue operations which were made more interesting by the explanations of the volunteers. They had a replica of a ship’s bridge.
(Photo courtesy J. Puckett)
One of the more interesting stories that went with a museum display was that after the canal was opened, the local North Sea fishery collapsed. Many of the fishermen began a sort of long-distance commute – they would spend a couple weeks living in (or in the harbor of) a town in England near some new fishing grounds, and visit home on occasional weekends. At that time, these little ceramic dogs were very popular in England.
Prostitutes in the English town began a practice of having a pair of ceramic dogs on their doorstep. If the dogs were facing outward, the woman was “available.” If facing inward, “occupied.” It’s a practical tradition and is a cute story by itself, but the funny part was that many of the fishermen decided to bring ceramic dogs home as gifts for their wives. Eventually some of the wives learned about the ‘tradition,’ and I think some of those ceramic dogs met sad ends.
The town of IJmuiden itself was built as part of the construction of the North Sea Canal, which took place from 1865 to 1876. The town is carefully planned so that the lighthouses marking the breakwater entrance are visible from every street intersection. From that Wikipedia link:
The canal was dug using manual labour. The workers lived in horrid conditions, being housed in huts built from twigs, driftwood, sod, and straw, where disease, fights, and alcohol abuse were rampant.
Part of the museum was dedicated to showing those terrible conditions, and honoring the men who put so much labor into digging the canal.
Then we rode across the locks and through a large industrial area.
Then we rode through some smaller towns and back out to the dunes along the coast. We ate lunch at an interpretive center in the dunes which is where fresh water for Amsterdam is treated. The first step is to filter the water through the sand – very practical.
It was another very warm day, but the breeze was fresh while we were near the sea. We stopped for ice cream in a small town, then met the barge in Alkmaar.
The dinner on the barge was “French night”, and really delicious. Afterwards we walked to the Alkmaar fish and cheese markets. In the center of town there was a cool underground parking garage for bicycles only.
They even had an air compressor there to re-fill low tires.
This statue memorializes a small town carpenter whose town was seized by the approaching Spanish army. He snuck out and used a long pole to vault across some canals away from the bridges being guarded by the Spaniards. He came to Alkmaar and told the local Dutch commander where the Spaniards were located. The Dutch army then broke through some dykes to flood the fields approaching Alkmaar. The Spanish were not equipped with many boats, and marching an army through waist-deep water which could suddenly become much deeper when crossing a canal was too dangerous for the Spanish to continue advancing, so the carpenter is credited with saving the city.
These old cities were usually either walled in, or surrounded by canals, or both, for protection over the years of changing governments. With limited space inside, houses were built very close together or touching each other. This makes fire a huge risk and problem, so over the years most cities required brick construction. However, this old wood house is allowed to remain because it was struck by a bullet in 1573. (View full-size image on Flickr to see the bullet.)
Our captain and co-owner of the barge was in the mood to talk late that night. The Angeline was built in Germany in 1910. He described how extensive the renovation and remodeling has been – very little of the original ship remains above the water line. I think the story started when I mentioned how hot it was and he said he was thinking about installing air conditioning…