Dutch Auction

We bought an optional excursion to see the North Holland country side, not far from Hoorn.
The area was nicknamed The Land of 1000 Islands. This was because the land in low lying and the only way the poor Dutch farmers could make a living was by hand digging out trenches to create canals thus creating “islands” which were about 60 meters square.


They created a clock that started at a high price and counted down. Buyers would press a button when it reached a price they were willing to pay for the goods.

In it’s hey day, the auction would have 300 boats and it would take 2 hours to sell all the goods.

We had a pretend auction and didn't win any fruit, but they had a contest at the end of the auction to see who could push his button closest to a .90 euro mark. Lee won and his prize to be able to put his name on the board saying he was a Super Buyer!


Now the “islands” have been turned into housing plots. The houses are very nice and some of them very very expensive.