"28th ( 29th) AUGUST 2004 MIDDELBURG... " a Middelburg Travel Page by eden_teuling

After 4 years of being a VT member (and the relaunch of VT) I finally can build a page about my home town....... MIDDELBURG, the CAPITAL of the PROVINCE of ZEELAND in The Netherlands.

Zeeland is one of the 12 Provinces we have!

Now both, Zeeland and Middelburg, are in the list of names.......so pages can be made and I shall do so with much pleasure.

I wasn't born here in Zeeland or Middelburg but just moved from busy THE HAGUE to this pleasant, quiet, agricultural province years ago!
We are still here which means it is good to live here!

After the GERMAN bombardment 10th May 1940 that destroyed ROTTERDAM , we had to surrender but......in this, my Province of Zeeland WAR was still going on because there were also French soldiers fighting here, to help us...

But we had to pay dearly for this courageous attitude:
Germany threw so many FIRE BOMBS on beautiful, precious MIDDELBURG (17th May 1940) and destroyed most of it, like in ROTTERDAM.

Over 600 HISTORIC BUILDINGS WERE DESTROYED , the fire bombs swept through the city and swept away CENTURIES of ART AND HISTORY: a CRIMINAL DEED, NO MORE, NO LESS.

But this wasn't the only CATASTROPHY on this island of WALCHEREN: in 1944 the DYKES WERE BOMBARDED and WALCHEREN was again part of the us surrounding sea till the Summer of 1945! Imagine that!!

The reason for this ALLIED action was to chase away all GERMAN soldiers and it worked, albeit that the price was enormous....... THE GARDEN OF ZEELAND changed into a part of the sea and after the water was again behind dykes, no tree was left on Walcheren....the soils was too silt and so it took decades before we had some trees and gardens again and......crops!

But people worked hard, extremely hard and restored the city to its former glory.......almost all 600 historical buildings are back and all in all we have 1100 historical buildings on THE HERITAGE LIST , which is never to be seen anywhere else in The Netherlands...

When you decide visiting here, after reading my pages, I shall kiss you WELCOME .....just tell me when!!!

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The Province of Zeeland consists of a number of Islands and I live on the Isle of WALCHEREN .....surrounded by beaches and sea, as you can see in the picture postcard!

There used to be over a 100 little ferries but nowadays we have a Railway line and Railway Stations, 3 on my little island that measures some 20 x 20 km. ......

After the disastrous FLOODING in 1953 we got higher dams and dykes, new ones and the famous DELTA WERKEN OOSTERSCHELDEKERING .....whenever you pay me a visit, I shall show you around with pleasure as I have already done for several VT friends, from e.g. India, America and more countries....

Changing places is GREAT....

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Here you can see MIDDELBURG with its old defence works.....
The water, called "DE VESTE" lies like a star around the city, although.....one piece is missing.

At the time the Railway was constructed and a canal dug part of DE VESTE disappeared, which is such a pity!
But in those days, 19th Century, no one thought about saving it because of its historical value!

But only a little bit is missing......next to the water is HET BOLWERK , which was part of the defence works and now is a lovely place to walk; it is on the city side of the moat.

In winter, when we have ice on DE VESTE we can go skating there, which is so lovely because there are also 2 wind-mills ......which I pass by every day while cycling to the city centre.....

Now there are also lots of houses outside the VESTE, which you can clearly see.

We live in one of those neighbourhoods and right around the corner are the fertile fields and orchards , places where I can cycle to get my fruits and vegetables!

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