“Man is what he reads.” – Joseph Brodsky
While visiting a new place, I explore everything I can find. What we have planned for the day depends on where we stop. I typically research the area first to see where I want to go. When we stopped at our port in the Netherlands, there wasn’t much there. When we walked out to the port at IJmuiden, we didn’t see much. We looked into taking a bus to Amsterdam, but that didn’t work out for us that day. So I looked online and saw there were some old World War II bunkers still standing. We walked down the path to check those out for a minute. We walked a little bit down the path, saw some bunkers, and that was about it. We turned around and headed towards a lighthouse known as the Little Lighthouse. While at the Little Lighthouse, we saw an old phone booth right beside it. This phone booth had seen better days. Sometimes while exploring, you see a variety of things.
The bunkers in IJmuiden were part of Nazi Germany’s Atlantic Wall. The Atlantic Wall was built by Nazi Germany along the western coast of Europe during the Second World War. Its purpose was to prevent an Allied invasion of occupied territory. The defensive line ran from Norway, through Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, all the way to France, near the border with Spain. The bunkers here in IJmuiden have seen better days. Since these bunkers were built by the Nazis, I’m sure there isn’t much love for them. Most of the standing ones have been covered in graffiti.
Lage Vuurtoren van IJmuiden is a historic 24-meter cast-iron tower located at Seinpostweg 19 in IJmuiden, Netherlands. Designed by Quirinus Harder and built in 1878, it works with the taller High Lighthouse to guide ships from the North Sea.
Through Griffin's Lens 