You will find Andijk near the historical cities of Enkhuizen and Hoorn . Visit the Museum for Seeds and Herbs adjacent to the Poldermuseum and find out why some seeds are literally worth their weight in gold! Hire a bike and peddle along the road on top of the dike to one of the many vantage points. Or rent a boat at the harbour. Summer and winter there are active kiting, surfing and sailing enthusiasts to be found at the Vooroever site.
Andijk, village of your choice
Andijk, literally ’on the dike’ is a stretched village, with typical houses. It curles for miles like a serpentine along the IJsselmeer coast, every turn of the path on top of he dike providing a fresh panorama. With its measurements of 12 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide is probably is the longest village of its kind in the Netherlands. Climb or -better still- bike the dike and gaze on one side at the IJsselmeer water and its everchanging face. This is the restless part of Andijk where you will meet kite-surfers and skeelers the year around to show their moves. A bit further you see windsurf and sailing addicts perform their balancing acts against the wind. Plenty of quiet picknick places are available in the Vooroever area, where you can stroll the shores and admire passing yachts.
Turn your back to the waterfront to overlook Andijk and gaze at miles of neatly drawn ditches between the green patches, interspersed with colourful bulbfields or cauliflower depending on the time of year. But be sure of one thing: nothing was taken for granted on either side of this manmade dam. You can go back to the 12th century and read about lifethreatening storms. Just a handful of simple livelyhoods of fishers on one and farmers on the other side and their daily struggle.
An unforgiving place for many centuries with the threat of unexpected dikebursts at the doorstep. Such circumstances breeds people of strong believes. That is also why deep religious belief thrived here for centuries and made the clockwork tick of old Andijk, the most eastern part. It is also here where the most exuberant Calvinistic church was built, as contradictory as it may sound. And surely a visit to the Gereformeerde Kerk during service or during opening hours in summer will make you aware of the intense way in thinking and coping in Andijk.
First fighting water masses, now making it for the masses
People here learnt over time to fight the watermasses, even with their bare hands. With anchored sails stretched for hundreds of meters on top of their dijk they succeeded time and again to avoid dikebursts take place. At one point the core of their dam was weakened so much that it had to be rebuilt with the help of new techniques and materials. This happened after the dike almost collapsed again in 1916, when part of theis province was inundated after a flying storm ruined several dikes. More than 300 houses in Andijk were torn down, a measure to avoid weakening the newly constructed dike ever again. In many cases entire houses were rolled or shipped hundreds of meters to a new location. Pictures of that period show us spectacular examples of that. Your will find the utensils and snapshots of it in the local Poldermuseum.
More economic relief for hardworking Andijkers was found in cultivating tulips and cauliflower, in the aftermath of tulipomania that rocked Amsterdam as a financial centre, when speculators frenzied over this trade. After Worldwar II many farming families chose to leave Holland and emigrated to North America, Canada and Australia to find a new future. Others continued to try their luck at bulbgrowing and the production and international trade of specialty seeds. New agrobusiness has now become one of the centres of excellence and laid the groundwork for a number of companies in Andijk with literally worldspanning activities. The unique drinking water treatment plant at Andijk serves 500,000 people and treats approximately 25 million cubic metres of water per year. It is expected to be the largest UV technology micropollutants treatment plant in Europe.
More information about Andijk and Holland?
Click here for general information about Holland
Look here for information about Andijk in Wikipedia
Alll you want to know about staying longer in Holland (permits, taxes, employment, education etc.)
Andijk Tourist Office for more information
The Tourist Office at Andijkvakanties, Proefpolder 4, 1619 EH Andijk
is open from may to october on wednesday to friday from 14.00 tot 17.00 hours and on saturday between 10.00 and 17.00 hours.
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