Enkhuisen

Yesterday we took the train an hour out of Amsterdam to Enkhuisen a small town in the Northeast.  Upon arrival we grabbed a coffee at the train station restaurant on the water 

and then went in search of the Information Center across the street.  They suggested we take the ferry across to the living museum for the start of our day.  

Lime kilns located at the beginning of the village with the Introduction to the living museum

The museum is on the coast of the Ijsselmeer (that is not a typo).  Once known as the Zuiderzee, the village and town merchants of this area used the inland sea to reach the North Sea for trading in the Baltics.  The villagers were mostly fisherman and profited from the rich fishing grounds, which was their main source of income.  Until 1932, the ZuiderZee washed across this area wreaking havoc on the land and people. Storm surges and flooding not only took lives and land, but damaged the economy as well.  Finally in 1918 the decision was made to tame the Zuiderzee by building a dyke.  On May 28, 1932 the last gap in the Afsluitdijk was closed.  The turbulent Zuiderzee became an enclosed inland sea. 

The Afsluitdijk drastically changed the lives of the people around the Zuiderzee.  Many fishermen had to seek other work.  Occupations that depended on the fishing industry, such as sail making, fish-smoking and basket weaving began to disappear.  

People gradually realized that the Zuiderzee culture was disappearing and in 1948 the Zuiderzee Museum was founded to preserve the history of living, working and human interaction in the region.  Since then houses, and barns and buildings have been gathered from the entire region and placed here in an outdoor living museum.  There is a fishing village, a canal town and a church quarter.  The entire museum represents the old region.  Many of these homes and buildings were originally built in the 1700's.  The have been dismantled piece by piece and brought here and re-constructed as near as possible to there original look.

People volunteer in the various houses.  In one 1920's household a woman is busy doing household chores, such as cooking, washing and handwork.  As we walked down the street to this house we could smell something cooking.  We arrived at this one while she was preparing lunch on a paraffin oil stove.  

She invited us and another family of four to sit down and have a bowl of vegetable soup that she had prepared from the vegetables in her outside garden.  What fun.  She served it from what looked like a metal spackleware pot in tiny bowls with old heavy silverware.  

Note the silverware in the box by the pot

It was delicious.  The youngsters washed the dishes after we finished.  

On we walked through this wonderful museum village and took in all the different trades and crafts that were being worked at.  

Laundry pick-up, Basket weaver, Cooper (barrel maker)

Early Barbershop

School    (PLEASE remove your shoes before entering the schoolroom

The beds were quite interesting.  In these tiny houses they were built into cupboards and my first thought was that they were for the children.  NOPE for adults.  They slept half reclined in these little cupboard beds, sometines with a cradle attached to the wall inside.  Talk about cramped quarters.  The bed is in the green cupboard.

The fisherman repairing nets under the days laundry

The liar's bench.  "Do you believe it?  Each village on the Zuiderzee used to have a liar's bench, sometimes covered, by the harbor.  Or if there wasn't a bench, there was a special place where men would get together.  Here the fishermen would exchange bits of news and tall stories.  To this day fisherment will tell tall tales."

Me sitting on the liar's bench.  When we sat on the bench, it started speaking in Dutch, telling some tall tale we didn't understand.

The church

Children playing with old time toys

A young girl in regional dress.  She was from the Limburg area where our friend Erwin lives.

I'm not sure, but Terry and I may have been the only Americans in this village.  It was predominantly Dutch people that we talked to here.  This little girl was with her grandmother and sister.  The little sister was too shy for a picture.