Aug 25 (Monday) – Start of our Tour. Hoorn

After breakfast we finished packing up and watched as the tugs pulled our submarine away from its moorings and out into the harbor.

The harbor looks very empty today…incredibly empty compared to yesterday.

Erwin, our guide for the next few days, showed up right on time around 10:30.  It is Monday morning and with the Sail Festival crowds gone it didn’t take long to get out of the city. Our first stop of the day was Hoorn.  

Hoorn was one of the major trading cities during the height of the Dutch trading empire.  Mark was our local guide.  There were streets lined with wonderful old Dutch houses.

Some random photos from our walk. 

There was an impressive tower right on the harbor.  

One side looked very medieval…

and the other was of brick and looked rather 16^th century.

We took a few photos of the harbor... 

and other canals and waterways in Hoorn.

There was a set of water gates in the dike that are generally kept open unless there is a major storm or other problem that could cause water level issues.

And a couple of very old buildings that were original trading houses.

We made a brief stop at the central square…

and then headed back to the canals for lunch at a canal side restaurant while Mark headed out for his own lunch.

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More Hoorn
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After lunch we were back in the car and on our way to our next stop.  The drive took us over an extremely long dike that resulted in the creation of a large lake and enabled the Dutch to reclaim a large amount of land.  It is all so very flat.

The plan had been to stop at a view point midway across the dike so that we could see the dike.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  It looked like it was being taken down.  We saw a lot of wind turbines in the lake.  

We stayed tonight in the town of Leewarden and our hotel was in the old Post Office.  The hotel restaurant occupied the vast lobby of the old Post Office.  The ceiling was very impressive with the ornate wooden beams and struts and huge but simple chandeliers.