Day 3 of 18: Kinderdijk Windmills

Today started with great weather for a two-hour bicycle tour of the picturesque Dutch countryside and the 19 windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO Heritage Site. We met our local guide and started out through the low-lying farmland along the Lek River. 




Map showing the locations of all 19 remaining Kinderdijk windmills on our bike tour:

The Kinderdijk windmills were built 1738-1740 to pump water from surrounding marshland that lie ~5 feet below sea level, preventing flooding and making the land usable for farming and residential purposes. 

These windwills remain operational today, but are more symbolic, as they have been supplemented by a sophisticated and higher cpacity water management system. This single modern electric pump station we passed can pump 400,000 gallons per hour on its own. 


During the bike ride, we rode past all of the windmills, but stopped at one, the Blokneer windmill, converted to a working museum. Blokneer has been preserved to provide a glimpse of the rustic life of a mill keeper (Miller) and their families. It is much different from the others and pre-dates them by a century, built in 1630. Its hollow-post construction can turn its entire top section to face the wind. From the outside, we got a great view of how the sail operates, and how the scoop wheel moves the water. 



Opening the sail (above) and the steering wheel control to turn the sail into the wind (below):

The Kinderdijk windmill below has been operated by numerous generations of the same family since it was constucted in 1738. Originally fulltime jobs, today's Millers are unpaid, but they are provided very low rent/taxes, and are often teachers or police officers.


We then returned to our ship for lunch and a required safety drill.



A view of our Viking Ve longship, docked next to one of its sister ships, plus a view of the walking track on the top deck, which I found a good way to take in the scenery and get some exercise:



This is a bit of an experiment to test my ability to post videos on Blog Spot (from our windmill tour today):


Our ship continued on its long, winding journey through several rivers, making our way to the Rhine River, where our next stop will be Cologne (tomorrow's tours). In the past 26 hours, our longship travelled from the Amsterdam waterfront (IJmeer), through the Rijnkanaal, the Lek River, Noord River, Waal River and finally the Rhine. The remainder of our journey will traverse just three rivers: Rhine, Main and the Danube.

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