Bataviahaven

Ah, nothing like a cold shower! Heat pump broke again last night so there are going to be a few shivering folks for breakfast. Fire that German who came to fix it yesterday! :). First time I've had a cold shower in a while. Our brief stop in Lelystad was just to get us to Giethorn actually. Not much here at the dock except for a huge outlet mall which was swarmed with folks and this enormous head in the square next to it - "On Lelybaan, in the middle of the Batavia Market square, stands a large white head. The face is 5 metres high and has bright blue eyes. The blue colour on the square is also part of the work of art. It represents the water that the white head is up to. On top of the white head is a life-sized man with a suitcase.

We all know the proverb 'keeping your head above water', or in other words having just enough money to get by. The Frisian artist Henk Hofstra, who made this work of art, is a metaphor for this proverb. He says on his own website: "Most people keep their heads above water, but some people keep their heads above water more than others".

Also present here, which we saw but didn't really have time to visit is a replica of the battleship Batavia which has a very interesting history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(1628_ship)Read more