After Antwerp, we sailed to Veere, a very small village in the Netherlands.

I went on a coach tour to the Delta Works which was probably the highlight of the tour – a massive system of dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees, and storm surge barriers.

It is a giant flood-control project that closed off the Rhine, Muesse and Shelde estuaries with dikes linking the islands of Walcheren, Noord-Beveland, Schouwen, Goeree, and Voorne and created what amounts to several freshwater lakes that are free of tides.

Devised by the Dutch engineer Johan van Veen, the plan acquired great urgency after a catastrophic North Sea flood on February 1, 1953, which killed 1,836 people and devastated 2,070 square km (800 square miles) of land in the southwestern Netherlands.

Construction of the Delta Works began shortly thereafter and was completed in 1986. The Delta Works is recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Part of our tour included watching a 3D animated reproduction of the storm which was very compelling. We were also shown scale models of all of the engineering works.

A total of 13 dams, including four barrier and nine secondary dams, were built to close off the mouths and inner reaches of the broad, long, interconnected inlets that for centuries had exposed the region to the destructive power of the North Sea. The project shortened the region’s vulnerable coastline by 700 km (435 miles), thus dramatically reducing the length of the dikes exposed to the sea. When the dams were completed, fresh water from the Rhine and from other rivers gradually replaced the entrapped salt water. Total length of the dams is 18.5 miles (about 30 km).

After returning to the ship, we were treated to a Dixieland band before setting sail for Amsterdam.