We made a complete circle around the Ijsselmeer, a fresh water lake that was created by blocking off part of the North Sea (salt water) with a man-made dike that was fully constructed by 1933. The dike is 20 miles long and is called the Afsluitdijk. Also, on the east and south of the Ijsselmeer (lake) there is reclaimed land, Flevoland (South) and Nordoostpolder (East) as a result of the dike. We drove along the Afsluitdijk and made a stop on it to climb the tower that has a view of the dike, the lake, and the North Sea (England is across the sea). On the satellite map you can see the long, straight line is the dike in the middle of the top-half.
We stopped at two beaches, Bergen aan Zee and Schoorl. Both were extremely windy, but we wanted to give Matt a feel for what the Dutch coast looks like. Then we went to a couple small towns and had traditional Dutch pancakes. On our way back we stopped in a little town called Urk that used to be an island until 1939 when the dikes and land reclamation connected it to the mainland.
We had a great time driving through all the different cities especially because we listened to a radio station that featured the top 40 hits from November 7, 1998. It was fun because Matt and I knew all the songs like Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" and Savage Garden.
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