At 8:30 our host, John, brought up an excellent breakfast on a double-decker tray, and we chatted for a few minutes. As well as the normal Dutch breakfast fare, we enjoyed freshly squeezed orange juice, fresh fruit salad, and delicious croissants and apple turnovers from the local bakery. We packed up the leftover bread and cheese to take with us to the Zuiderzeemuseum, a two kilometre walk away through the scenic old part of town. There are two parts to the museum, the indoor Binnenmuseum, open all year round, and the extensive outdoor Buitenmuseum, open March to October.
Houseboats and other vessels moored along a canal near the museum in Enkhuisen.
Since the sun was out, we started with the outdoor museum. It opened in 1983 and consists of houses, farms, shops, boats and outbuildings trucked or barged in from all around the area to show what Zuiderzee life was like from 1880 to 1932 (when the Afsluitdijk was built to block the connection with the North Sea). There was excellent signage in English, and we slowly made our way along the paths and roadways through the various areas. The wind was blowing strongly from the south and it was quite cool, but the sun was shining. There were other people around, but the place didn't feel at all crowded. High season here is in the summer.
Reconstituted fishing village along the shore in the museum.
We stopped in the large pleasant cafeteria to warm up with several cafe macchiatos and some apple cake, and then continued on through boat-building, paint mixing, apothecary, and confectionery shops as well as a steam-powered laundry, rope making, blacksmithing and net repairing demonstrations and other technologies appropriate to the era. The attention to detail and the efforts that had been made to document a vanished way of life were very impressive.
Vintage pharmacy in the village with a decorative glazed tile facade.
By 3:00 we had visited most of the displays, and we headed over to the nearby indoor museum, which featured a huge collection of boats of all sizes and shapes. A heavy rainshower poured down on the glass roof while we were inside--good timing again!
Vintage boats on display in the large inside hall. A perimeter walkway allowed viewing from above, and it was also possible to walk down on the floor around the hulls.
After the rain stopped we walked back through the old town and couldn't resist stopping at the small Bottleship Museum, which contains more than 1000 examples of ships in bottles and features a video showing the secret of their construction. As we left there at 5:00, they were closing the doors. This had been a satisfying and informative day off the bikes, and the entrance fees for both museums were covered by our museumkaarts.
One of the many hundreds of ships in bottles at the ship-in-the-bottle museum.
For dinner we returned to the restaurant Eighteen, with its vaguely Asian menu, and we both had dishes made with tofu--the first time we had encountered it in the Netherlands. We packed up as much as possible before going to bed since we had an early ferry to catch in the morning.
