Afsluitdijk monument café

Next to the Afsluitdijk monument -see also my previous 2 posts- is a tiny café/restaurant annex souvenir shop. Inside are basic wooden tables and chairs, and wherever you look there are (black and white) photographs, newspaper clippings, old postcards etc. They all tell and inform about the history of the Afsluitdijk.
Open every day of the year, it's a popular place to stop and it is often crowded inside. It's a café with character though and I hope they will keep it just as it is.

Inside the Afsluitdijk monument

Following up on yesterday´s post these are 2 more photos from the Afsluitdijk monument, taken when we went down the stairs again.

The viewing tower was built in 1933 and was designed by Dutch modernist architect Willem Dudok (1884-1974).

At the Afsluitdijk monument

 On our way to Den Helder, from where the ferry departs to the island of Texel, we stopped for coffee at the Afsluitdijk. The Afsluitdijk (lit: 'Closure Dike') is a major causeway running between the Dutch provinces of North Holland and Friesland, with a length of 32 km (20 mi). The dike protects the mainland from the North Sea and is a fundamental part of the Zuiderzee Works.
On the spot where the dike was closed in 1932 is a monument in the form of a view tower. Next to it is a small restaurant.

This is the view from the tower, with the IJssel Lake on the left and the Wadden Sea on the right. A footbridge connects the parking spots on both sides of the dike. It was a Friday morning and as you can see there was not much traffic at that moment!

Working

The sculpture named 'De Steenzetter' (someone who places the stones during the process of building a dike) was placed halfway the Afsluitdijk on its 50th anniversary. Sculpturor Ineke van Dijk (1940) created this sculpture after she had watched men doing this work; they stood in this unconvenient pose all day, holding and moving the heavy stones until they fitted.

Bikers Menu

The restaurant halfway the Afsluitdijk welcomes bikers (in English) to have a stop at their place.

Statue of Lely

Cornelis Lely (1854-1929) was a Dutch civil engineer and statesman. He oversaw the passage of an act of parliament authorizing the construction of the Zuiderzee works. This huge project turned the Zuiderzee into a lake. A statue of Lely was placed halfway the Afsluitdijk. (see also yesterday's post).
And how about the dark sky! It started raining soon after I took this photo..

The Afsluitdijk

This is a view of the Afsluitdijk (in English: Enclosure Dam), a major road connection constructed between 1927 and 1933, running from the province of North Holland to Friesland over a length of 32 km (20 mi). It is a fundamental part of the larger Zuiderzee works, damming off the Zuiderzee, a salt water inlet of the North Sea, and turning it into the fresh water lake of the IJsselmeer.
Nowadays, halfway the dam there is a monument, a statue of the Dutch civil engineer Cornelis Lely (you can see it in the distance on the right side, I will show you a more detailed picture of the statue tomorrow), and a restaurant. This photo was taken standing on the footbridge that connects the parking spots on both sides of the A7 motorway.