Spaarndam is a small Dutch village, created around a dam, where once the river Spaarne flowed into the IJ (nowadays into the North Sea Canal). This dam was built here by count Floris V of Holland in 1285. The village collected toll at this dam, and people made their living from fishing.
Spaarndam has always been strongly connected to water. Now, besides the river and the fishing, it is also famous because of a fragment within the 1865 American novel, Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates. This Dutch boy, "The Hero of Haarlem," stuck his finger in a dyke to prevent the town from flooding. The story became a popular legend in America, and in 1950 the local tourist bureau erected a statue of this character in Spaarndam.
Image made with kite and camera.
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