worldaltem: 10/11/2019 Friday Kinderdijk & Willemstad, Netherlands

10/11/19 Friday. Kinderdijk • Willemstad, Netherlands • Grand Circle Day 12, Total travel Day 45. Ave. Temp. 60 high, 48 low. Ave. Weather - 43% cloudy, 32% rain. Phones says 2.4 miles or 5,635 steps and 2 floors climbed.

• Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner • Accommodations: River Ship

TOUR INFO "Visit Kinderdijk this morning to see the 19 famous windmills that were built along the river there in approximately 1740. Holland, of course, is known for its windmills, and nowhere will you find more than near this little village. These sturdy windmills have been well-preserved, and in 1997 they were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You have time to stroll around the site and take pictures of these signature attractions of Holland, which are supported by Grand Circle Foundation before you board the ship and set sail for Willemstad."

My info Kinderdijk has 19 windmills, 3 pumping stations, dikes and reservoirs that control flooding in the polder. Polder is low-lying land. Kinderijk means "children dike". There is a story about a horrible storm and a villager went to the dike to see what could be salvaged. He saw a wooden cradle floating in the distance. As it came closer, he saw a cat jumping back and forth to balance the cradle so it would not be flooded with water. There was a baby sleeping in the cradle. The cat kept the cradle balanced and afloat. The story is told as "The Cat and The Cradle". I was here in 2016 and visited a bonnet windmill. Today we visited another kind of windmill, the only one of its kind that I saw in the area.

This afternoon we took a drizzly walk around Willemstad and passed the arsenal, Old Town Hall, Reformed Church, D”Oranje Flour-Mill/Windmill and the Belgian Cemetery. We stopped in a shop and a lady talked to us about life in Willemstad. If you like to be laid back, this is the spot for you. The streets are combinations of brick and cobblestone and many of the houses have a lot of character.

Bonnet windmills

Today’s windmill

The little house on top of the pyramid is turned to the direction on the wind.

This is the outdoor kitchen.

The garden.

The wheel that allows one man to change the direction of the blades into the wind. He steps up on a spoke and uses his weight as he climbs from spoke to spoke to turn the wheel which turns the top of the windmill into the wind.

Inside the windmill, and yes the blade is going by the window.

We went for a boat ride on the canal to get back to our ship which allowed us to see where the water goes into the windmill. .

TOUR INFO "This afternoon, you may choose an optional tour to the Delta Works Flood Control project to see a restoration project known worldwide for its hydro-engineering, begun after flooding had devastated Holland. Originally, Zeeland was a collection of islands—easy prey to the sea. Inhabitants still remember the destructive tides that flooded the islands in 1953 and claimed the lives of 1,800 people. Since then, the gigantic Delta Works have prevented a recurrence. Now the islands are connected and protected by a series of dams, dikes, and bridges. This tour shows you several of the ingenious technical achievements designed over the past 65 years, giving you an impressive idea of how the Dutch have claimed, reclaimed, and protected their homeland from the threat of the sea." I was scheduled to do this, but when Johannes said the winds would be at least 25mph off the North Sea, I dropped out.

My info. The Delta Flood Works includes dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees, and storm surge barriers to protect land around the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta from the sea. It is included in the list of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The goal of the system is to shorten the Dutch coastline, reducing the number of dikes that had to be raised. There has been some negative impact on the environment. The project is ongoing as climate change and sea-level rise require dikes to be made higher. I’ve been told there is an excellent YouTube video on this subject.