Day 12 - May 21 - Kinderdijk Netherlands

"Kinderdijk" is pronounced "kinder - dike", not kind-der-ka-jick like I was pronouncing it. 

When you think of Holland (Netherlands) what do you think of? Wood shoes? Amsterdam? Windmills? I think of all three, but windmills come to mind first. Mostly because in 1987 our German exchange student's family took us out to see some Windmills. Kinderdijk is windmill land to me. Having done research before I left, this was one of my most anticipated stops. I couldn't wait to see the windmills. Too bad Don Quioxte wouldn't be around. 

So what's in a name? Aside from my horrid pronounciation of it, the name Kinderdijk means "children's dike" and like most things in Europe there's a story why it's called this.  

One story goes like this: 

On a stormy autumn night in 1421, a great flood tore down the dikes** surrounding the polder* and took the lives of thousands of people. After the torrent subsided, people went to check the damage, and noticed a cradle floating on the water. In it was a cat, jumping from side to side to keep the cradle in balance and prevent water from entering – and a nice and dry baby, sleeping peacefully.

Another longer, more traumatic version can be found here. 

These mighty mighty windmills aren't just for looks. The windmills actually do something; they help manage the water levels. 

See, the Netherlands is below sea level. In order to keep it from flooding they used windmills to pump the water out. Now days the windmills do some work, but larger, more efficient pumps do the majority of the work. 

The morning was spent rather leisurely. They had some meetings that we had to attend about disembarkation and last covid testing before getting on a plane to the US. Then we had our last lunch on the boat. Shortly after that we docked in Kinderdijk and took off on our excursions to see the windmills. 

There are 19 windmills out here and most were built in the 1700's. Some were built later, but the majority were in the 1700's. Their purpose is water management. Today, they symbolize Dutch water management, and in 1997 they were declared to be UNESCO World Heritage.

We got to tour one of the working windmills and see how a miller lives. It's cramped quarters I'll tell you that. I tried to imagine an entire family living in this place. No place to hide and / or get away from one another. 

The tour guide also "demonstrated" how wooden shoes are made. He didn't actually do any work on a shoe, he just held up different versions of the shoe as it progressed through the process. 

The windmills have their own language too. The position of the sails indicate something different. 

When the miller stops the sail just before it reaches the highest vertical position, it means there is something to celebrate like the birth of a child or a marriage (image below left).

When the upper sail has been fixed after having passed through the highest position, it means that the culminating point has been passed and life is going downhill, meaning that there is a reason for mourning (image below right).

Leaving the sails locked in a ‘+’ position means that the miller is taking a rest for a short period of time (image above left) and when the sails are locked in an ‘X’ position means the miller is taking a longer rest (image above right).

And that was that. We were there for about an hour and half, then back on the bus back to the boat. We departed and would wake up in Amsterdam tomorrow. 

Total steps: 4905