Kinderdijk

We took the “tram” or above ground railway to the Van Gogh Museum yesterday morning. A great way to see the different districts of the city. For such a talented artist, Van Gogh was certainly plagued with an unstable personality. He started painting at age 27 and shot/killed himself at age 37 (sometime in between he cut part of his ear off!) but, what a prolific painter he was during those ten years! I bought a print of his famous Iris painting – the closest I’ll ever get to being an art collector!

We returned to the city center and had lunch at a lovely, sunny café on the river. A great place to end our stay in Amsterdam!

We boarded the Viking Cruise ship, the Aegir, later in the afternoon. A big difference from the cruise ships we have been on before where we waited in long lines while they loaded thousands of people! Here the social director met us at the dock, introduced himself and escorted us to the registration desk. They quickly scanned our passports, greeted us by name and called an escort to show us to our room. By the time we arrived the porters had already delivered our luggage! Get ready to be pampered!!

We left the dock during Happy Hour and cruised down the river during dinner. A quiet, smooth ride! A good night’s sleep and we woke up in Kinderdijk. The weather is cool, in the mid-fifties, and partly cloudy.

Kinderdijk is home to 19 windmills that were built around 1738-40 and are still functioning to pump water from the land and canals back into the larger rivers and sea. A local guide - wearing the traditional wooden shoes! - gave us a great tour and explanation of how they function. He told us he wears the wooden shoes all the time but, they wear out in about 3 months from walking on the cement sidewalks. We were allowed to tour the inside of one of the mills – families actually live in and run them – small spaces and many ladder type steps! Roger wished that Duane and Bill were with us because they would have enjoyed hearing about the inner workings as much as he did. The Dutch government spends a lot of time and money controlling the water so the country doesn’t sink!

The lounge is the common area to gather and we are amazed at how content we are to sit and watch the world go by!