Water management

The eventful evening was followed by a quiet night at the Bed and Breakfast. All three of them woke up early, in a good mood and fresh for the rest of the journey.

After a nice and healthy breakfast, they packed the car and headed off to the North. They had tried to get James a bit tired, by making him crawl and move a lot at the B&B, so he soon dozed of in his chair. Much to Martin's liking, they drove quietely through the northern region of France and soon arrived at the Belgian border.

'Strange to see that there is no Customs here, but that's of course because we are in the European Union', Louisa said.

'Yes, it's nothing more than the blue sign with yellow stars on it and the name of the country you're entering in', Martin confirmed. 'And in not much more than two hours, we can be in the Netherlands.. We've only seen a fraction of France, but we will pass through the whole west part of Belgium from south to north. I suggest that we don't take the traditional route via Antwerp, but that we pass Bruges and then cross the border and visit the first province of the Netherlands, Zeeland. I like us to have lunch in Westkapelle and then visit the storm surge barrier called Neeltje Jans, is that OK with you?'

'Seems good Martin, as always you prepared the journey meticulously, hmmm?'

'Well, yes, we are traveling with a baby, so.. '

'It's alright Martin, no need to justify yourself. I am glad you did it..'. Louisa patted his left leg reassuringly.

Louisa glanced outside and saw the countryside glide away. Her thoughts wandered back to the evening before.

Arriving at the B&B, the tenant saw the state James' cloths were in and immediately suggested to wash them, which Louisa gladly accepted. So while Martin put his son under the shower, Louisa went back downstairs to bring the cloths to the landlady and to chat a bit in French with her. Louisa explained that the restaurant was lovely. She also briefly explained what had happened.

'So that's why the ambulance came racing downhill with all lights and siren!', the lady said.

They exchanged a few words about the weather forcast for the next day and then Louisa went back upstairs, where she found James comfortably installed on Martin's lap, clean and fresh, enjoying an evening bottle of formula. Visibly, Martin also enjoyed the peaceful moment with his son. Louisa smiled and wondered how it was possible that Martin was often so rude with others, but could be so terribly sweet with James and her..Not always of course, but the more and more often anyhow

Martin's 'We're nearly at Bruges, do you care for an early coffee?' brought Louisa back into the present. It was only 9:30, but Bruges was a nice place for a stop.

'Yes, Martin, that's a wonderful idea and much more fun than making a stop at a parking along the highway. It's a beautiful city and even if we cannot really visit it will be nice to have a coffee at the 'Markt' of this beautiful town. Did you know that the Medieval city center is on the UNESCO world heritage list?'

'You'll see, it's beautiful', Martin replied and chose the direction "centrum".

Twenty minutes later they enjoyed a nice cup of coffee with a view on the market place. James munged on his ten o'clock snack and flirted with the waitress, giving her his widest smile.

'Amai, what a sweety" , she cooed with a lovely accent. Martin sighed, Louisa burst out laughing.

'That 's promising for the future'.

They made a very small walk through the town, admiring the old building and too soon, Martin summoned Louisa and James gently to come back with him to the car and to continue the journey.

James seemed to like driving, he was quiet and looked around, babbled happily to his cuddling toys and snoozed a bit, soothed by the humming of the car.

'Martin.. Thank you for putting us before the medical emergency, yesterday. That was the first time ever...'

It also was the first emergency with two docters at hand! Pitts may be an arogant pedantic m...man, but he is a good doctor'.

'Because you trained him'

'Hmmm'.

'Aren't you curious to know how the operation on the little girl went?'

'I know it went well and they managed to get the infected appendix out before it bursted, so the little girl will get well soon'.

'But..'

'I put a card with my number it the pocket of Pitts' shirt. He understood my message and sent me a text after the operation.'

Thinking back of the pleasant events of the late evening before, he then blushed and said

'A beautiful ponytailed Cornish woman that happens to be my wife, distracted me yesterday evening, so I forgot to tell you about it'. His ears turned red when he said that, a hint of a smile curled the corners of his lips.

While Louisa briefly stroked Martin's soft grey blond hair, she replied 'Hmm, keep your eyes on the road and hold your hands at the wheel then. I don't want to risk an accident caused by a 6.3 feet tall grumpy GP with the softest hair you can imagine, who is distracted by his wife...' Louisa laughed her beautiful laugh that made James gigle in his seat, Martin grumbled a bit and indeed concentrated on driving.

They past the Belgian - Dutch border at Sluis and crossed Zeeuws Vlaanderen without any problem. Then they crossed the Westerschelde by means of the large tunnel and arrived at Westkapelle at about 11:30. Martin passed a kind of lake. Louisa knew that this creek wasn't in direct connection with the sea, but that the water was brackish. The lake was a remainder of the flood of 1944. They also looked at the peculiar lighthouse. The light was installed on top of what appeared to be the remains of a church. You could see the lighthouse from miles away, because the region is really, really flat.

As it was a bit to early to have lunch, they decided to have a small walk on the beach. Martin parked the car at the suthern part of the small town. There, high dunes protect the town and its surroundings against the forces of the sea.

'This is quite the opposite of Portwenn', Louisa remarked. 'There, the village is built on top of the cliffs and thus protected against the sea, here the land is at the same level as the sea, so huge dunes have to prevent inundations.'

'Yes, indeed and where there are no dunes, they have built dikes. That's why I wanted you to see this town, because it is one of the places you can see both. Here, in the south, there are dunes, created by the natural effects of wind and sand. With a little help of humans, that is, because the people here assure that special variaties of grass and plants grow in the dunes, to keep the sand together. At the northern side, we will see the huge dike, which leads all to the next town. It is called the Westkappelse Seawall and it is a five-kilometer long basalt stone construction',Martin added.

They walked through the dunes and enjoyed the beautiful sandy beach. James liked it a lot and crawled right towards the sea . 'He's used to the sea and feels at home at any beach', Louisa said.

Martin went after him, picked him up and hugged him and then gently bent down to let James splash the cold sea water. The little boy squealed of joy.

'Martin, you surprise me there', Louisa, laughed. 'What about the germs, the cold, the dirty sand?'

As always having problems interpreting her words, Martin muttered 'Hmm, he.. I mean he was heading for the water, and.. and..'

'It's OK, Martin, I am glad you can be impulsive sometimes. I love it... I love you!'

Louisa pulled down his head and kissed him firmly and much to her surprise and despite being out in the open public area, Martin anwered her kiss.

James, still in Martin's arms, patted his fathers cheek with his cold and wet little hand to show his affection and to get his fathers attention. With his 'Dada, Mumum', he brought his parents back to the reallity. Martin briefly sighed and then decided :

'Let's find you something to eat young man!'

Martin took them to a restaurant actually located on the seawall they had a beautiful view on the sea and were both astounded when the saw a ship passing by. The sea lane is really close to the coast overthere and huge container ships that just left the harbour of Antwerp pass by at Westkapelle.

After the healthy lunch, they drove a bit further to the North, to visit Neeltje Jans, an enormous storm surge barrier, that reduced the risk of flooding from once every eighty years to once every 4000 years. They visited the construction inside and outside. They both learned a lot from this visit.

Most of Zeeland, and many other places of hpthis country are at or under sea level. In the first half of the previous century, the dikes were in poor condition and too low and in 1953, a spring flood during a storm caused a national disaster. The dikes gave away and an big parts of Zeeland, Zuid Holland and Brabant were inundated. Since then, the Deltawerken, were started of which this stom surge barrier is a result. When you are at Neeltje Jans, you will be surrounded by concrete with a 200-year guarantee, 45 meter wide steel doors are raised to let the tides rush through below them.

Louisa and Martin were deeply impressed by this construction. Louisa took a lot of pictures and was sure she could fill some very interesting lessons on watermanagement after the holidays.

But James... He didn't see much of it all. The fresh air, the wind and the hearty lunch made him sleep the nicest nap his parents could dream of... He only woke up when the Lexus passed the sign Amsterdam 25 km...