TREKS AND TRAVELS Speaker Series

This is a view of the Netherlands that few tourists see. In 2006, as part of their passage from the Bay of Biscay to the Baltic, June and David Phillips took their yacht through the Netherlands from the South to the North by way of the inland waterways. Because they did not want to take the mast down to pass under bridges, they took a route where there were opening bridges all the way. The route took them to corners of the Netherlands that few outsiders see.

Entering the inland waterway system at Vlissingen in the southern province of Zeeland, the route passed close to the site of the WWII Battle of the Walcheren Causeway, through the locks and waterways of the mighty Delta Works, into the waterways of South and North Holland and across the northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen to exit into the Ems River that forms the border with Germany.

This presentation covers the history of places, the social mosaic they passed through and an intimate connection to the natural world. So come to explore the side of the Netherlands that is not tulips and windmills. You will find it fascinating. (Photos courtesy of D. Phillips)