20240827 Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 26/27 - Kinderdijk, The Netherlands - Tilting at Windmills

Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 26/27 - Kinderdijk, The Netherlands - Windmill mania!

This morning was a cruising day as we transitioned from Germany to The Netherlands, still on the Rhine River. The Netherlands is famously home to windmills, and we saw a lot this morning. Most of them, however, were wind turbines. Wind energy seems to be huge both here and in Germany. Germany also had tons of solar farms along the river.

The first windmill Arlona saw today - not what she was expecting

But, these weren't the windmills we were seeking. We were looking for old-fashioned wooden Dutch windmills and we were not disappointed. After doing some preliminary packing, we took in the sights as we sailed this morning.

There is a windmill, off in the distance

There we go

Wow - another church

We saw cows, horses, pigs, sheep, and oddly enough, camels but I didn't get photos

After lunch, we approached and docked at Kinderdijk (pronounced KINDER dike). Kinderdijk literally translates to child dike.

A water pressure tower that was briefly used by the Nazis as a watchtower

Four of the 19 windmills  that are located here

The windmills pumped groundwater out of the boggy area into the canal where it was fed via a dike into the river

It is a UNESCO World Heritage site

20km of canals were dug out of the peat bog by hand in the 1200s

We saw some of the tools they used to maintain the windmills, including wooden shoes - the first safety shoe

The mechanism was simple overall but with a bunch of moving parts that were lubricated with lard

A sculpture showing the cat in the cradle - a Dutch fairytale that after a flood, a girl was found floating in a cradle with a cat bouncing back and forth to keep the cradle floating - this led in part to naming the place Kinderdijk

Willow trees that grow at the water's edge were used to make baskets and wooden shoes

The canals are eight feet below the river

The roof is thatched and the top rotates so the blades can face the wind

Per our guide, God created the world, but the Dutch created The Netherlands by reclaiming land with dikes and canals

Our guide liked to go Dutch - I drink, you pay

We got to tour one of the mills

The wind scale - the blades can be locked if the wind is too strong and would over-spin the blades - the canvas fabric on the blades was also adjustable to control how fast the blades spin in severe winds

The blades rotate anticlockwise

This wheel was used to rotate the top of the windmill clockwise to align the blades with the wind direction for best efficiency

The water outlet door was closed

The wind picked up and the mill started spinning - the water outlet door opened to expel the water the mill was pumping

The miller - the person running the windmill - lived in the mill

Wooden shoe boots

A small bed

The gears were spinning as the blades were turning in the brisk wind that had come up

This was the oak center axel that ran from the upper gears to the lower paddlewheel - it was huge and spinning

More living quarters

Millers and trainees working on a new blade arm

The center blade hub

With the tour over, Arlona got back to her Dutch roots. Her grandparents came to the United States from Texel - a Dutch island about 50 miles north of Amsterdam.

What is more Dutch than this?

After everyone returned to the ship, we sailed for Rotterdam. Some folks took an optional excursion and rejoined the ship there. As we were sailing, we passed something that made me wonder if there was a lot of rain in the forecast.

Do the Dutch know something we don't?

The speed at which river cruise ships can dock and sail continues to amaze us. We docked in Rotterdam, loaded passengers, cast off, and were sailing again in about 20 minutes. Tonight, Captain Matej had the traditional farewell toast to the guests before dinner.

We dined with several wonderful folks who we've dined with before and had a nice evening of conversation and laughter. We saw hot air balloons flying and caught a nice final sunset.

With that, we returned to the room for some final packing and to get some shuteye. We'll be up early so we can get breakfast and get our teeth brushed so we can get our bags out by 8:00 A.M. for the crew to grab. That is a nice thing with a river cruise - you don't have to have your bags out the night before you depart. We'll be off the ship by 8:45 and on the way to Amsterdam airport for the two flights home. I'll wrap up this trip tomorrow with a trip summary and our final thoughts on the river cruise experience.