0:00:06 > 0:00:10We're in the Netherlands.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12A fortified shore.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16This is the frontline of a conflict with the sea.
0:00:16 > 0:00:22For centuries the Dutch have battled to build a coastline like no other.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24A wind-powered landscape,
0:00:24 > 0:00:29lined with a carpet of colourful blooms.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32Tessa Dunlop seeks the truth about tulip mania,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37a bizarre tale of 17th-century bloom and bust.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41It's said that trading in these nearly bankrupted the nation.
0:00:42 > 0:00:48Adam Henson meets the big cheeses of the dairy world.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50These are the breed of cattle
0:00:50 > 0:00:54that are responsible for turning the British countryside black and white.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58And I'm on a peaceful isle, said to be the site
0:00:58 > 0:01:01of the last battle of the Second World War in Europe,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05to explore a tale of terror and traitors!
0:01:05 > 0:01:09They are Indian, people from India, but wearing German uniforms.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14They were caught in North Africa and they ran over to the Germans.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19This is Coast...and beyond.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52The Netherlands may be brand-new territory for Coast,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56but it seems rather familiar to me.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02There's something strangely unreal about these flat landscapes,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04borrowed from the sea
0:02:04 > 0:02:07and compressed by this enormous sky.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11It reminds me of where I grew up in Norfolk.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Our journey will take us to the border with Germany
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and the island of Rottumerplaat,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20the coast cutting into the heart of the Netherlands.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24But we start at the small coastal town of Ouwerkerk.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33This is the province of Zeeland, "Sea-land".
0:02:34 > 0:02:38We share this sea with the Dutch, for better or worse.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47In 1953, the east coast of Britain was battered by a terrifying storm.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50307 Britons died,
0:02:50 > 0:02:55and over 30,000 were forced to flee as the North Sea rushed in.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Here, on the Dutch lowlands, the devastation was even worse.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06The '53 flood was a national catastrophe.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14NEWSREEL: Never in living memory have the Dutch suffered such a disaster.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17The seas, lashed by a mighty wind, broke through the dykes
0:03:17 > 0:03:20and poured in to swamp the countryside.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25The flood left 1,800 dead and many more homeless.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33The tragedy renewed an age-old conflict with the sea
0:03:33 > 0:03:36that the Dutch are still fighting, 60 years on.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44I've got a map here which shows the parts of the Netherlands
0:03:44 > 0:03:46hit by the 1953 disaster.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48All parts in green were under water,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52and it's shocking to see how much of the delta was affected.
0:03:52 > 0:03:58Through the green you can see entire road networks, villages.
0:04:00 > 0:04:06In just six hours, 700 square miles were completely submerged.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Because much of the Netherlands is below sea level,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17when the protective walls failed in 1953,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20the impact was worse here than in Britain.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27So for 40 years, the Dutch beavered away,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30spending billions on hi-tech schemes,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34ringing their coast in concrete and rock defences.
0:04:37 > 0:04:42At its heart, with 62 floodgates, the mighty Oosterscheldedam,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46one of the engineering wonders of the world.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51But it could be just ten years before the low-lying Netherlands
0:04:51 > 0:04:54need a new plan, as sea levels rise.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59We share the same threat.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02Will our shore one day share fortifications
0:05:02 > 0:05:04on the same massive scale?
0:05:09 > 0:05:12We're working our way up the Dutch coast.
0:05:22 > 0:05:28This land's famous for being flat, with walls holding back the water.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34Sea dykes are as Dutch as windmills, and a tale of doom
0:05:34 > 0:05:39with one of those dykes turned a local lad into a legend.
0:05:39 > 0:05:40I'm on his trail.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45The Hero of Haarlem.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49The town's honoured him with a statue.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53And this is it - a boy with his finger in the dyke.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57The schoolboy whose self-sacrifice saved his village.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00It's as Dutch a story as you'll discover.
0:06:02 > 0:06:03Or so you'd think!
0:06:03 > 0:06:08This little boy was really made famous by an American author,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12Mary Mapes Dodge, who included the story of the boy and the dyke
0:06:12 > 0:06:17in her 19th-century book Hans Brinker Or The Silver Skates.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Mapes Dodge never even visited the Netherlands
0:06:20 > 0:06:24but as her fictional tale caught on,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28the locals erected a statue to satisfy curious fans.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32The young Hero of Haarlem has been adopted by the Dutch
0:06:32 > 0:06:34as an emblem of their struggle with the sea.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39It's ironic that the story was imported here from the USA,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43because the city's name, Haarlem, went the other way.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51The neighbourhood of Harlem in Manhattan is a reminder that,
0:06:51 > 0:06:56around 400 years ago, New York was called New Amsterdam,
0:06:56 > 0:07:01part of the Dutch trading empire that reached New Zealand,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03named after their province of Zeeland.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Today they celebrate their seafaring heritage.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13It brought enormous wealth on the wind.
0:07:14 > 0:07:20The golden age of sail saw the birth of global trade
0:07:20 > 0:07:23and the city of Haarlem prospered.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29Here coastal commerce fuelled a flower power revolution,
0:07:29 > 0:07:3117th-century style.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37It's a story of boom and bust that's brought historian Tessa Dunlop
0:07:37 > 0:07:40to the most Dutch of Dutch industries.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45Within sniffing distance of the sea, there's another ocean on this coast.
0:07:45 > 0:07:51MUSIC: "Tulips From Amsterdam" by Max Bygraves
0:07:51 > 0:07:53An ocean of tulips.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56# When it's spring again I'll bring again
0:07:56 > 0:08:00# Tulips from Amsterdam... #
0:08:00 > 0:08:04You can't get much more Dutch than this. There's even a windmill.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Well, sort of!
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Most of Britain's tulips start life in Dutch soil.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16In April and May, the northern coast of the Netherlands blossoms.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19A carpet of colour.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Carlos van Der Veek's family's
0:08:25 > 0:08:28been growing bulbs on this shore for years.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34Why is it that tulips grow so well here in Holland especially?
0:08:34 > 0:08:36It's mainly because of the climate.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38The sea brings in his influence,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41the springs are cool, the winters are mild,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43and that's ideal for tulips.
0:08:45 > 0:08:51Sadly, these beautiful blooms will never brighten someone's birthday.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56Their heads are lopped off.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00These tulips are grown for the bulb, not the bloom.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05The flowers become mulch to feed a billion-pound bulb industry.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09So tulip bulbs today have a value
0:09:09 > 0:09:14but four centuries ago, it seems they were almost priceless.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18It's said that trading in these nearly bankrupted the nation.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22Turn back the pages of history to the early 17th century
0:09:22 > 0:09:26and the tulip, a wild flower from Asia,
0:09:26 > 0:09:28had recently arrived in Europe.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31MUSIC: "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" by Tiny Tim
0:09:31 > 0:09:36Rich merchants wanted them at any price.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38Dutch dealers went so bananas for bulbs,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41they were portrayed as greedy monkeys.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46It became known as Tulip Mania.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49The story goes that, when the price of the bulbs crashed,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52so did the economy.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Markets that outgrow common sense are familiar now,
0:09:56 > 0:10:01but does this tale of bloom and bust stand up?
0:10:01 > 0:10:05I want to find out the real truth behind Tulip Mania.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12Historian Anne Goldgar has spent years studying Tulip Mania,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16using original 17th-century sources.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21Why, Anne, did Holland of all places become tulip country?
0:10:21 > 0:10:23Because they had access, first of all, to them
0:10:23 > 0:10:28because of the fact the Netherlands was a very important trading nation,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32and there were a lot of people interested in collecting exotica.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34People in the 17th century wanted to have tulips
0:10:34 > 0:10:37which were striped or speckled,
0:10:37 > 0:10:43and you can see that in this tulip catalogue, which was made in 1637.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48So this is rather like having, I don't know, the right diamond today?
0:10:48 > 0:10:49Yes, absolutely.
0:10:51 > 0:10:57This 17th-century floral bling was prized for its rarity.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Tulips are tricky to grow. It takes seven years from a seed.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05In the time of Tulip Mania, bulb farming was a bit of a lottery,
0:11:05 > 0:11:10a gamble that Dutch traders hoped would win them a jackpot.
0:11:10 > 0:11:16Four centuries after Tulip Mania, traders are still tense.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22In the 17th century, bulbs were bought in a frenzy,
0:11:22 > 0:11:26betting they'd go up in value before they were out of the ground.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30The market did boom out of control.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Single bulbs went for the price of a grand house.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37But did the bust nearly bankrupt the nation?
0:11:37 > 0:11:41They come to a head on 7th of February 1637.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45At that point, someone says, "I have a bulb to sell,"
0:11:45 > 0:11:50and nobody bought it in Haarlem. At that point people started to worry
0:11:50 > 0:11:54and prices did fall dramatically, that is true.
0:11:54 > 0:11:55As for bankruptcies,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58I have found no-one who went bankrupt from Tulip Mania.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00At the port of Harlingen,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04farmer Adam Henson has crossed the North Sea.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08He's in search of the origin of some familiar faces.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12These beauties remind me of home.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16A staggering nine out of ten of all British dairy cows
0:12:16 > 0:12:20can trace their ancestry back to these lovely Friesland ladies.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23These are the breed of cattle that are responsible
0:12:23 > 0:12:27for turning the British countryside black and white.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30To find out what makes this landscape ideal for rearing cows,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33I really need to take a step back in time.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Distinctive round mounds are dotted all around the Friesian coast.
0:12:44 > 0:12:482,500 years ago, this part of the Netherlands was marshland
0:12:48 > 0:12:50and regularly flooded by the sea.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53So the locals came up with a bright idea -
0:12:53 > 0:12:57build their own little hills, high ground above the flood.
0:12:57 > 0:13:05These little man-made refuges stood proud over a landscape often under the sea.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09That constant washing of the land left a legacy in the soil.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14These are the amazing grasslands of Friesland,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16but why are they so amazing?
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Well, for a comparison I've brought some of my soil from home.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23My farm is on the top of the Cotswolds, 1,000ft above sea level.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25The soil is called Cotswold Brash.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28It's full of stone and doesn't really retain moisture.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32Therefore it grows pretty poor grass.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Now, in comparison, take a look at this stuff.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39This is alluvial sea clay.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41It's full of minerals that come from the sea,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44and those minerals help produce fantastic grass.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49The grass is full of sugar and protein that the cows love,
0:13:49 > 0:13:54and that converts into energy and helps them produce masses of milk.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Gallons of the white stuff.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59Their diet of nutritious coastal grass
0:13:59 > 0:14:02helps make these ladies world beaters.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07MUSIC: "All Blues" by Miles Davis
0:14:07 > 0:14:11But for a long while, the world wasn't that mad about milk.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18As a drink, milk straight from the cow
0:14:18 > 0:14:23had been considered beyond the pale, unfit for human consumption.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27But Louis Pasteur's revolutionary heat treatment in 1864 changed everything.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31Pasteurised milk was now touted as a health drink,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35a source of vitamins and calcium city-dwellers desperately needed.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40The new industrial world wanted milk.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44To muscle in on the market, the farmers of Friesland
0:14:44 > 0:14:48began selective breeding of their "super milkers".
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Those Friesian pioneers produced a cow with a higher yield
0:14:54 > 0:14:57and higher visibility.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00They bred a black-and-white brand to be instantly recognisable.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Marleen Felius is an artist and cow historian.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06- Marleen, Hi.- Hi.
0:15:06 > 0:15:07It's not that old, you know.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11The Friesian breed, everybody says it's centuries old. That's not true.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15- As a breed it started only late in the 19th century.- Right.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Yeah, before that they had good cows but it was not a breed
0:15:18 > 0:15:20because people didn't breed yet.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24The cattle from the 19th century were looking different
0:15:24 > 0:15:28than from the 17th century and then they became more black and white.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Next time you buy some milk in the supermarket
0:15:32 > 0:15:34or drive past black-and-white cows,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37spare a thought for this part of the Netherlands' coast
0:15:37 > 0:15:39and their beautiful Friesian cows,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43that have contributed so much to the worldwide production of milk.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04The Wadden Islands, on the north-west coast of the Netherlands.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Peaceful and unspoilt.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14But one island here conceals the scars of a terrible battle.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22In the Second World War, the Netherlands and much of Europe
0:16:22 > 0:16:25were under Nazi occupation.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30The tiny island of Texel seemed an insignificant dot.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34But this out-of-the-way place saw an eruption of violence
0:16:34 > 0:16:37in the dying days of the conflict.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41It's been called the last battle of the Second World War in Europe.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48But it all started so differently.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53The Germans had taken the island in 1940, almost unopposed.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56Before long, they'd made themselves at home.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01Two years into the war, this curious sort of occupation got...
0:17:02 > 0:17:04..curiouser.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11Look at these photos. They were taken here on Texel
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and they show local children posing with Indian soldiers.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17But they're not prisoners of war.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21If you look carefully, you can see they're wearing German uniforms.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26These soldiers of the British Empire were part of the Nazi army.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Why where the Indians here, thousands of miles from home,
0:17:32 > 0:17:34fighting for the enemy?
0:17:34 > 0:17:39To make sense of Texel's strange war, I'm meeting two locals.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41Cor Kievits and Riet Van Der Vis-Bremer
0:17:41 > 0:17:44were teenagers when the Nazis came.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47The German soldiers in these photographs
0:17:47 > 0:17:51seem to be treating Texel like a holiday camp.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55That's what Texel was for. They had people who had been at the front
0:17:55 > 0:17:58and they were completely knocked out.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01They brought them here for a couple of months to regain strength.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06What can you both tell me about this very curious photograph,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10with what seem to be Indian soldiers surrounded by Dutch children?
0:18:10 > 0:18:14The children were surprised by the dark colour of the people.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16They had never seen it before.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18Yes, we never see that, that people.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20They were caught in the North of Africa
0:18:20 > 0:18:23and they ran over to the Germans.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28These men were part of a remarkable Nazi project.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32The Germans persuaded captured troops
0:18:32 > 0:18:37with a grudge against the Allies to switch sides.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Some Indians from the Allied army in North Africa
0:18:43 > 0:18:47were recruited by the Germans to form an extraordinary Indian Legion.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52A propaganda victory for the Nazis
0:18:52 > 0:18:55but it didn't impress their generals.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Not trusted to fight,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01the Indian Legion was put to work on coastal defences.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Their stay on Texel was brief.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16But the island's curious connections to foreign fighters didn't stop there.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20It's so strange to find a hammer and sickle,
0:19:20 > 0:19:22emblem of the Soviet Union,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25here in a Dutch cemetery.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27But it's Soviet soldiers who are buried here.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Like the Indian troops before them,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34they'd come to Texel as part of the German army.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42Originally from the Soviet province of Georgia,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46these were battle-hardened veterans of the Eastern Front.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Tough and independently-minded,
0:19:50 > 0:19:55Georgians had little love for their Russian commanders.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58So, when captured, some collaborated with the Germans.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03They arrived on Texel in early 1945.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06As the Georgians posed for pictures with the locals,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10the Allied armies were advancing across Europe.
0:20:12 > 0:20:18NEWSREEL: And a mighty thrust into the heart of Germany began on the beaches of Normandy.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Some nine months after D-day,
0:20:20 > 0:20:24Texel and much of the northern Netherlands
0:20:24 > 0:20:26still remained under Nazi control.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30But the German army was being forced back
0:20:30 > 0:20:32on the Western and Eastern front.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38By April 1945, the Germans were in desperate straits.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42The Red Army was massing for a final assault on Berlin.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47On Texel, the Georgians, once soldiers in the Soviet Army,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50were ordered by the Germans to head to the front line
0:20:50 > 0:20:51to fight the Allies.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Having found themselves on the losing side,
0:20:59 > 0:21:04the Georgians had one desperate chance to redeem themselves.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10Texel had survived almost five years of war
0:21:10 > 0:21:13without a shot fired in anger.
0:21:13 > 0:21:19That all changed in the early hours of 6th April 1945.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23You see the bullet hole in the wall there? Over there?
0:21:25 > 0:21:28The Georgians turned on the Germans.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30At one o'clock they started to kill the Germans
0:21:30 > 0:21:32and they cut their throats
0:21:32 > 0:21:35and they put hand grenades in their rooms with them
0:21:35 > 0:21:36and they shot them.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39Anyway, they killed all the Germans that lived among them,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43- any place where they were. - How many was that?
0:21:43 > 0:21:45- I think about 500.- Good heavens!
0:21:45 > 0:21:49500 massacred in one night.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53The battle was later dramatised in this Soviet feature film.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58Locals caught in the crossfire couldn't tell friend from foe.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00Both sides wore the same uniforms.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04I looked around the corner and I saw behind a tree,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06what I saw, two Georgians.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09One of them pointed the flame-thrower at us
0:22:09 > 0:22:12and I said, "Christ, they're bloody Germans."
0:22:17 > 0:22:20German reinforcements flooded the island.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25The Georgians, who'd been fighting for control of Texel,
0:22:25 > 0:22:27were now fighting for their lives.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34Surrender wasn't an option.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40The rebels made for the island's most secure stronghold.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50One group of Georgians took a last stand here at the lighthouse.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Apparently it still carries the scars of the fighting.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58A new wall conceals the pock-marks of a desperate battle.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Mere bullets were never going to go through a wall this thick.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09It was an impregnable defensive position
0:23:09 > 0:23:11but it was also a death-trap
0:23:11 > 0:23:14and all the Georgians in here were eventually killed
0:23:14 > 0:23:18when the Germans blew in the door on the ground floor.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23The killing continued for a month on the tiny isle of Texel.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35Then, in Berlin, Hitler committed suicide.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37BELLS PEAL
0:23:37 > 0:23:41On 7th May 1945, Germany surrendered.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Europe celebrated peace.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55But in Texel, once famous for its tranquillity,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57the fighting continued.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03The Germans wouldn't surrender to the Georgians.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11It was two weeks after the Second World War in Europe ended
0:24:11 > 0:24:16before Allied troops arrived to finish the final battle - here on Texel.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23Of the 800 Georgians who came to the island, only 200 or so survived.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28They had worn the uniform of the hated enemy.
0:24:29 > 0:24:35But their remarkable uprising guaranteed their safe passage.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41The rebels returned home, as heroes of the Soviet Union.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00The sandy isles of the northern Netherlands.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05They subtly alter their shape with each new tide.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07It's one battle between land and sea
0:25:07 > 0:25:10the Dutch have decided to stay out of.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17Here, they've encouraged nature to do its own thing.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28Very few people are allowed to set foot on remote Rottumerplaat.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33But Miranda's been given permission to look for signs of life.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45This is the sort of spot that seems to sum up
0:25:45 > 0:25:48"getting away from it all".
0:25:48 > 0:25:50But as you walk across the dunes,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53there's more than sand beneath your feet.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Concrete!
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Loads of it.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02Yes, you've guessed it, like much of the Dutch coast,
0:26:02 > 0:26:04this island was built by the Dutch,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07or at least started by them.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10You can still see the line of a sea wall
0:26:10 > 0:26:14built in the 1950s to trap shifting sands.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16The island was encouraged to grow
0:26:16 > 0:26:20as part of another land reclamation scheme.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24But there's no-one here.
0:26:28 > 0:26:34By the 1990s, wilderness proved more desirable than new living space.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Rottumerplaat was abandoned to nature.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Oystercatchers, spoonbills and common terns are amongst the birds
0:26:49 > 0:26:53feeding on the mudflats, rich in shellfish.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06The sweeping sand flats make for lovely, relaxed walking,
0:27:06 > 0:27:11but getting between the islands isn't so easy.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16All this sand makes it impossible to get a boat in here.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20But the Dutch have come up with a typically ingenious idea.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22Take the bus to your boat.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28This truck is known as the Vliehors Express,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31and it's one of the ways to get from island to island.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35MUSIC: "Van Der Valk" Theme
0:27:51 > 0:27:55This unusual bus journey has a suitably unlikely bus stop.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00This peculiar walkway is actually a jetty.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04At the far end, the water is deep enough for a ferry.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10The Dutch have learned to live with the sea,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13to recognise its opportunities and to meet its threats.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15As sea levels rise
0:28:15 > 0:28:19and the search for novel solutions becomes more urgent,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22I reckon we can all learn a thing or two from the Netherlands.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 2011