Winsum and the Lauwersmeer Dike

A Tiny House north of Groningen

The heatwave drove people from Amsterdam in a huge flood to the northern parts of the Netherlands and it seemed that every place was booked. At the last minute a tiny house popped up north of Groningen and we were delighted to find it! On our way north we stopped from breakfast at the charming town of Winsum.

Our tiny house was a little tricky to find, being at the end of a tiny lane in a tiny town – but it was worth the effort. As our hostess Johanna said it had everything we needed including a relatively large fridge! And it came complete with a full complement of animals who seemed to enjoy our company.

Our tiny house is near the Wadden and not far from the Lauwersmeer National Park. The Wadden is the largest system of tidal flats in the world and extends from the west of Holland all the way to Denmark and the Lauwersmeer area is one of the most heavily man-altered areas on the planet with thousands of acres of “Laandwinnen” reclaimed from the sea. The lake was formed in May 1969, when the dike between the bay called Lauwers Sea and the Wadden Sea was closed.

“The 13-kilometer-long dike has sluices and a canal lock. A new harbour called Lauwersoog was built part-way along the dike. Final enclosure and separation from the Wadden Sea took place on 25 May 1969;[8][9] since then it has been called the Lauwersmeer.”

All this of course is fascinating to engineers and strategic thinkers, who enjoy no end of discussions about the engineering, strategizing and convoluted politics that went into the achievement.