The wind tunnel fan, Marknesse and Urk

Before I start on 'current affairs', I would like to share just one picture from the DNW wind tunnel we saw on Saturday. There is a ban on taking photographs at the DNW, understandably as there is a lot of very special intellectual property there, which they obviously don't want to share with the competition. Also, the simulation work they do for their clients is clearly confidential.
But an exception is made for the big fan in the wind tunnel. This fan is 12m in diameter and draws 12MW of power at full speed. That is equivalent to 200000 standard old fashioned light bulbs (of 60W each). Or to put it in a different way: to run that fan at full speed for one hour takes as much power as running a light bulb for almost 23 years (that's an old fashioned light bulb).
Here is our group in front of the fan:








On Saturday evening we had a very successful dinner and on Sunday morning an equally nice breakfast. Having rather eaten too much, we one by one left Vollenhove.
Onbekommerd followed 'Ramsdiep', the Valkvlet belonging to Jur and Aafke (who were also part of the Wadden experience in May). They live in Marknesse, close to Vollenhove and had invited us to share the afternoon and evening with them (and use their washing machine!).
We had a most pleasant time with them. Here is Onbekommerd as seen from their back garden:








As the weather forecast for the next few days is very good, we decided to take the 'outside' route to Franeker.

That means we today went to Urk (still through the Noord Oost Polder, where Marknesse is). Tomorrow we'll take the IJsselmeer to Stavoren and Wednesday the IJsselmeer, a little bit of Waddenzee and the Van Haringxma Kanaal to Franeker.

Location:Wijk 1,Urk,The Netherlands