windmills – Maryland Meshugas

Where We Succeed At Our Second Goal Of Visiting A Working Windmill in Kinderdijk

Today was a weird and confusing day. We had some scenic sailing down a waterway that Google Maps labeled “Waal” on our way to Kinderdijk, where we arrived at 1:00 p.m. We had booked an optional excursion to take a barge down a canal to visit a working windmill. We had done this exact excursion before on the Rhine river cruise a couple of years ago, so we knew what to expect.

This was the view from our veranda for the short time we were in Kinderdijk

The green mound across the water from the ship is the dike.

We had a short walk from the ship to the Viking-owned barge that would take us to the windmill.

I don’t remember the story behind this weird thing. That’s a cat standing on the front edge (not a real one)

The windmills pump water from the canal with a higher level of water into the canal with a lower water level.

A draw bridge opened for our barge on our way down the canal.

This is the windmill we visited. The blades have steel edges to allow them to spin faster and more efficiently. The miller said the blades can spin as fast as 140 revolutions/hour, but the most efficient speed is about 100 revolutions/hour. Faster than that and the water starts coming back into the waterwheel.

The miller demonstrated stopping the blades, turning the top of the windmill in case the wind changes direction, and changing the covering on the blades – the more the blades are covered, the faster they will spin.

In this photo, the blade is covered.

Andy took these photos inside the windmill:

This visit was just as amazing as the last time a few years ago. Windmills are fascinating.

We had issues with my transport chair on the way back – one of the back wheels keeps falling off. It’s been an issue for a few days now. But I was able to walk all the way back to the ship and Andy carried the transport chair. Emily, our Program Director, met me with a ship’s wheelchair when she saw me heading in the wrong direction! And once back on board and we had set sail for Rotterdam, one of the ship’s engineers fixed the wheel!

We arrived in Rotterdam at 4:30. There was only one excursion available and we hadn’t signed up for it. Andy went for a run, but took no photos – he said Rotterdam is a big city with tall buildings. If there’s an old city center, he didn’t get that far.

We’ll be leaving Rotterdam in about 30 minutes to head to our next port.

Tomorrow: Antwerp (and Brussels, and hopefully CHOCOLATE).

Where We Stand In A Tulip Field and Have A Photo Op With A Windmill

Today we are in Enkhuizen. The morning’s excursion was a walking city tour. I decided to opt out of it to let my knee rest a bit. But Andy went.

Here are some of the photos he took. It looks like a nice town.

Andy is eating a herring. He said it tasted good.

Drommedaris Tower – an historic defense tower since 1540

Statue of 17th century Dutch painter, Paulus Potter

Coat of arms on the front facade of the Stadhuis

After lunch we went on out “Tulips and Windmill” excursion. This week is the very end of tulip season in the Netherlands. You can tell – the tulips are starting to wilt.

We drove about 40 minutes to a commercial tulip farm. Our guide told us that for most of the tulip flowers have been removed from the tulip plants at this point to encourage the bulbs to grow large and healthy. But we did see a couple of tulip fields along the way.

At the farm we first had coffee/tea and cookies (the cookies were very good), followed by a presentation by the tulip farmer’s wife. Today was the last presentation to a Viking cruise for the season. She walked us through the tulip production cycle including producing bulbs for sale and cut flowers. There are machines for most everything, but there are steps in the process that still must be done by hand. They hire seasonal workers – most of them from Poland – and provide them housing on the farm for the season. As of tomorrow, her husband and his crew will drive through the tulip fields with a machine that will harvest all the flowers and leave the rest of the plant to nourish the bulb.

We were able to walk into the tulip fields, which is a rare opportunity. Even though you can tell that the flowers are wilting, they are still spectacularly beautiful.

Here we are posing with the tulips. We are crouching, because the person who took the photo wanted to make sure we in the photo with the flowers. You can tell it was a windy day, because my hair is all over the place.

On the way back from the tulip farm to the ship, we had a photo op with a functional windmill. The mill wasn’t working while we were there, but it can and does grind wheat into flour.