Day 3, Kinderdijk's Windmills

Saturday, June 11th

We sailed overnight from Amsterdam to Dordrech, a little upriver from Kinderdijk, arriving after breakfast about 8:30.



Today's Viking Daily.

We boarded the ever present Viking bus for the short drive back to Kinderdijk.  The drivers are masters of maneuvering the buses in tight spaces.  The weather is gray and overcast with rain.  The Windmills at Kinderdijk are pumps, taking water from the channels around the fields, pumping it into the diked holding area where it flows into the river via a set of flood gates.

The windmills have been replaced by an Archimedes screw pumping station, but they are still functional.  They were all in a maintenance state, with their sailcloth removed.

The windmill has two doors, on opposite sides.  The door has removable handle on the inside, the Miller would keep the handle on the door opposite the windmill's blades, so that you didn't walk into the blades.  The windmill is turned into the wind using a windlass system with bollards set in the ground around the perimeter.

If need be the Miller can climb the steps and use his body weight to turn the windlass.

The Miller lives on the ground and second floor, the blue alcove is the master "bedroom", they slept sitting up.  It was believed that laying down would bring on fluids from the stomach somehow leak out and the head is filled with overflow.

Some History; "The name Kinderdijk is Dutch for “Child’s Dike”.  In 1421 during the Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421, the Grote Hollandse Waard flooded, but the Alblasserwaard polder stayed unflooded.  It is said that when the terrible storm had subsided, someone went on to the dike between these two areas, to see what could be saved.  

He saw in the distance a wooden cradle floating. 

There was no hope that anything would be living in it, but when it approached, movement was seen. 
When the cradle came nearer, someone saw that a cat was in the cradle trying to keep it in balance by jumping back and forth so that no water could come into it. When the cradle eventually came near the dike, someone fished the cradle out and saw that in it a baby slept quiet and dry. 
In some of the stories the cat kept it balanced and afloat. 

This folktale and legend has been published as " The Cat and the Cradle " in English (Meder 2007; Griffis, 1918). ( from Wikipedia )

We skipped out on the last half of the tour of the site, and opted for coffee in the gift shop, where Amanda ran afoul of the owner for having her umbrella hanging on the back of her chair rather than in the umbrella bin by the doorway.

Back on the buses for the trip back to the Vidar, for the mandatory "safety drill" where you don your life jacket and assemble in the lounge, for the safety briefing. After the drill the Vidar was underway up river.

Lunch on the Aquavit Terrace, rather than the dining room, as we cruised the river.

Some sight along the river.

Carol went forward for the "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" presentation, while I backed up photos using the Kingston MobileLite.

As usual the daily briefing at 6:45 followed by dinner at 7:00.