Sigh... We got a little over 5 hours of sleep. It was going to be an adjustment. I don't know how much melatonin was helping.
As for Art? He got laundry done the night before and was up walking along the top deck and enjoying the early morning atmosphere.
Breakfast was served at 7:00. Servers Amy and Tina invited us to always come to their table. They are from the Philippines and we could talk to them about many things we were familiar with since many Filipinos live in Hawaii. The crew was very international. Our cabin stewards Milan and Tatjana were from Bosnia.
At 8:30 we were on our way to see the windmills of Kinderdijk.
What is a polder? It's a piece of low-lying land reclaimed from the sea or river and protected by dikes. Apparently, at one time there were 150 windmills in the area to drain water from the land.
It was a beautiful morning and I took a ton of photos!
We walked to the Stone Mill windmill which is one of two museums in Kinderdijk. It was originally built in 1738. It costs about 20,000 euros for maintenance and about a million euros to rebuild one.
The museum in the windmill displayed clothing, furniture, and living quarters of the Dutch.
Our guide explained that a dam has water on two sides while a dike has water on only 1 side.
There was a Muster Drill at 2:30 in the afternoon and I was ready to go to sleep. We had to don our life jackets and go to the top deck.
Dinner was awesome! We were informed that we'd all gain 7 pounds by the end of the trip.
I fell asleep at 11:00 after writing in my journal, organizing our things while Art did our laundry in the sink. (I brought too much clothes!)
Good gracious! April Fools and Easter on the same day!
As for Art? He got laundry done the night before and was up walking along the top deck and enjoying the early morning atmosphere.
Breakfast was served at 7:00. Servers Amy and Tina invited us to always come to their table. They are from the Philippines and we could talk to them about many things we were familiar with since many Filipinos live in Hawaii. The crew was very international. Our cabin stewards Milan and Tatjana were from Bosnia.
Kinderdijk is a village in the Netherlands, belonging to the municipality of Molenwaard, in the province South Holland, about 15 km (9 miles) east of Rotterdam. Kinderdijk is situated in a polder in the Alblasserwaard at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. --Wikipedia
What is a polder? It's a piece of low-lying land reclaimed from the sea or river and protected by dikes. Apparently, at one time there were 150 windmills in the area to drain water from the land.
It was a beautiful morning and I took a ton of photos!
We walked to the Stone Mill windmill which is one of two museums in Kinderdijk. It was originally built in 1738. It costs about 20,000 euros for maintenance and about a million euros to rebuild one.
The museum in the windmill displayed clothing, furniture, and living quarters of the Dutch.
Our guide explained that a dam has water on two sides while a dike has water on only 1 side.
There was a Muster Drill at 2:30 in the afternoon and I was ready to go to sleep. We had to don our life jackets and go to the top deck.
Dinner was awesome! We were informed that we'd all gain 7 pounds by the end of the trip.
I fell asleep at 11:00 after writing in my journal, organizing our things while Art did our laundry in the sink. (I brought too much clothes!)
Good gracious! April Fools and Easter on the same day!
I'm enjoying this so much,,
ReplyDeleteI don't think I had ever thought of the difference between dike and dam before.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing about when you finally get enough sleep! Great pictures of the windmills. :-)
ReplyDeletefascinating, never been to netherlands...
ReplyDeleteMagic...I didn't know such a trip was possible.
ReplyDeleteLooks prettier than the huge windmills being put up in the U.S. now. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteThey had modern windmills too.
DeleteWow! I'm so jealous! [of Art doing laundry LOL]
ReplyDeleteNice to see the windmills.
ReplyDeleteOustanding photos of landscapes with windmills. Now I understand why the paintings of Jacob van Ruisdael are two-thirds darkening, cloudy, dramatic, spectacular sky, one-third whatever is on the land. I'll have to think about it, but Holland seems to be "Big Sky Country" just as much as our Wyoming, and they have nothing else in common that I can think of right now. For some reason, his 17th Century paintings captivated me when I was in college in New York City and going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I really should put a European river cruise on my to-do list. Van Ruisdael is easy and worthwhile to Google.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have a gazillion more like it. LOL
ReplyDeleteBut not as much as the mega gazillion of flowers at Keukenhof.
Loving your photos!
ReplyDeleteGood to know the windmills are still useful. I had a strong urge to tilt at that one:) That food looked fabulous. All boat trips add pounds, it's a given.
ReplyDeletewow you are in Europe
ReplyDeleteYes, the food looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteWe loved our visit to Kinderdijk. Now I can relive some of that trip with you!
ReplyDeleteYou are such fun foodies!
ReplyDelete