Discoveries in the Netherlands part 3
Hello friends from here and there ! We are in Denmark youhouuuuuu ! On the island Møn that we will leave behind us tomorow to go on Ærø island, in a permaculture centre. We are happy ! We are in Mai now and spring is coming only now here, there is wind and a lot of stars in the sky ! We camped all the week in our splendid tent that we called Fatoumata. Some pictures from our week in this extraordinary landscape.
FORT 1881 Annette, our host of the moment, took us at Hoek Van Holland where we met the director of Fort 1881. We were lucky enough to have a private tour. Fort 1881 is an ancient bunker built by nederlands people to protect themself against England. Situated at the entrance of Rotterdam channel, it was built to take care of his harbor which is the biggest in the Netherlands. It's a huge building constituted of many floors and kilometres of big corridors, it's a real labyrinth ! Today, this bunker is a museum, a cave, there are bedrooms, place to do seminars and also a brewery soon ! The renovation, in the purpose of being ecologic, wants to become neutral about energy use. Which is not easy for a bunker that is kind of under ground and humid. His director has more than one idea behind his head: Every lights are Leds lights, there is a special system to heat the building with wood pellet heating. This system allows very low energy waste and heats the whole building. Because this region of the Netherlands is one of the most windy in all the country, they want to build a new kind of windmill on the roof. To be continued ! Something that really amazed us, and it's there since the construction, is a rainwater filtering system. The column of the bunker are dug so that water can drain inside of them. It's previously filtered on the roof by plants, sand and rocks. This is a never ending drinkable spring, available just by opening the little column "windows".
ECODORP BERGEN We visited the ecological village of Bergen. This village takes place on an ancient military land with a lot of huge buildings. It is three years old, actually, it's the beginning. Around ten person live there. Georges guided us throught this strange village, between forest, flat landscapes and huge abandoned hangars. Him, Georges, lives here in a caravan since one year, he works two days a week in the town like most of the inhabitants here. Their main goals are to become selfsufficient and to be able to host 80 people. Frequently, they organise some participative workshops week-ends where everyone can come to help in order to develop the project. Such as a permaculture garden, a sweetlodge construction, the maintain of a little second hand shop, renovation of abandoned building, creation of new ecological building as well as the management of the camping place. There is a lot of work in progress and to come, it was for us instructive to see how we need determination, courage and help to reinvest and transform a place like this where there is already a history. YANN HUIS Yann and Mieke welcomed us in their really special house ! This couple was used to live in a community during all their life and now they live alone in an ancient school building. Since they live there, Yann renoves and reinvents their house. He decided to work with used material, old material mostly. It's a test laboratory where we can find several inventions all more crazy than the others. Like their 4 metres hight chimney, not to disturb the neighbourhood but to continue to have nice evening near the fireplace. Mieke is an artist, she works with threads, photography and rust objects that she picks up everywhere. This house, really welcoming and cozy taught us that we can always find a new life for everything we think is expired. Thanks
During our little life in Den Haag, we found three interesting initiatives: -ZEEHEL DEN TUIN. A participative garden where everyone rents its piece of land. The tools are shared with everyone. -MAKE IT ART WORTHY. A group of artists who work together in an atelier and recycle old objects. They organize Repair Café with kids, aiming at making them more aware on reuse of material, by building new objects with used ones. -HAPPY TOASTY. A toasti restaurant held by handicaps. There we can eat on swings. Their motto: "A little mistake is better than faking perfection". Another feeling is there and the good atmosphere as well.
To conclude, all these discoveries in the Netherlands taught us two things. The first one is that, having open eyes with the ecological "filter" we are trying to have during our trip, allows us to really find very creative initiatives all around us, in town and in the countryside. The second teaching is that all these interesting discoveries are very close to us, no need to wait for governments and reforms, the world is concretly moving, in front of our eyes, and between our hands. Good evening to you, and bon appétit (we are eating crêpes tonight). Bye A&A