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Vlissingen is the largest town of Zeeland, one of the twelve provinces of the
Netherlands. It is, however, not the capital (which is
Middelburg). The last
count I saw mentioned 40000 citizens, but Vlissingen might have many more now.
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The main place for employment in Vlissingen is `De Schelde' a place where they
make war vessels. There is also an industrial area called `Het Sloe', including
a harbour. Another place where many people find work is the `EPZ', the local
power supplier (near Vlissingen is the only fully operational nuclear power
plant (`Borsele'). The government of Vlissingen believes in `improvement' and
has recently rebuild the entire centre of the town. It really ugly now,
including a great white roof with no apparent purpose, except to annoy people.
This improvement is not without cost, however, so there are no free parking
places anymore.
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The history of Vlissingen is turbulent. It is the place where the famous sailor
Michiel de Ruyter was born. It used to be full of pirates, and had a very
powerful position at the mouth of the river `de Schelde': all boats that wanted
to go to `Antwerpen' (Belgium) had to pass Vlissingen. In the second world war
many French and English were stuck on Walcheren (the peninsula of Zeeland that
Vlissingen is built on). This meant that however the Netherlands had officially
been conquered by the Germans, the French and English on Walcheren still fought
on. In 1945, at the end of the second world war, Walcheren was flooded to get
rid of the Germans. In 1953 it was again flooded (together with a large part
of the Netherlands), this time by a great storm.
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At the moment there is no information about Vlissingen on the net. However,
there is now a link about
Zeeland, but it is in Dutch.
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