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More stuff Anneke had to show me: this creepy house she used to live in. You can see it looks spooky even from the road. Up close, it's even got those little Munster-esque lightning rods on the points of the dormers. We were greeted at the gate by the duchess who lives there (really), riding out on her motorcycle. Back on the grounds, we were lead around by her pleasant son and a nasty ferocious but well-meaning dog.
Bossebollen is the Dutch word for "cream-puffs". This really sweet friend of Anneke's Ron, took us all around his south-western corner of Holland; we saw a castle, rode ferries and a tour boat...and he told us the tale of how his entire section of Holland was nearly wiped out by floods just four years earlier. The river-side floods are still a serious danger, but the ocean-side has been pretty well dealt with, finally after centuries of disasters. I got a full education of the ingenious and dedicated methods used to build dams, dikes and gates. You see here the old photo of rubble being dropped from the air, in building up a dike. Next picture is the Delta Works, fantastic gates that allow the tide to pass in the ecologically sensitive regions. And finally, a complex water park, where the next generation playfully learns about it all.
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