2016/05 Europe cruise - Kinderdijk |
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Sunday May 8th
We woke up to find us zipping silently along in the sunshine. So close to the water level we felt to be going fast but I’d guess we were doing about 10 knots. A wave would hit the window when we passed other boats but the window didn’t open anyway. The window was usually a bit mucky like in this picture.
By breakfast time we were at Kinderdijk on the Lek River, one of the wide channels of the enormous delta of the Rijn River, the Rhine to us Brits, Rhein to the Germans. Kinderdijk means “children’s dyke” after a story about a baby found floating in a cradle after a flood. But we were there to see the cluster of windmills, 19 of them visible from the boat and four of them spinning in the breeze.
This was a walking tour and when I say that we disembarked onto the river bank and then went down the dyke to the level of the windmills and surrounding fields, you’ll get some idea of what the windmills were built for. We all have this picture of the Dutch bravely defending their land against the storms of the North Sea, but rarely see anything about the vast amounts of fresh water that come down the Rhine from the Alps. Over the centuries the Dutch built dykes around the river channels to protect their fields, but there remained the problem of the other water flow: the rain wouldn’t drain away!
Eventually, after centuries of buckets and sluices, they adopted windmill technology and used wind power to drive scoops that would lift the rainwater and seepage up and over the dykes into the river. Later, steam and then electric power replaced the windmills and now giant Archimedean screws handle the water flow. About a thousand of the old windmills have been preserved.
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Kinderdijk (2.06) |
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Our guide Ton, wearing his clogs, took us on a tour of the site, ending up at a working windmill, dating from around 1740. The body 
can be rotated to best catch the wind and the sails were spinning briskly.
Touring the inside was crowded as there is only one door in and out, on the opposite side from the sails. The Dutch have a saying, “touched by a windmill”, for people who are not right in the head. Sadly most people don’t survive the touch.
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Kinderdijk talk (20.08) |
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Ton also gave us a history of the site and the gradual changes in technology as the population grew. He said that one of the “gotchas” of good
drainage is that the peat soil dries up and shrinks. His house is built on piles deep into stable sand below the peat but his garden and driveway get steadily lower, requiring the addition of topsoil and gravel. More seriously, sewers and pipes crack with the settling. He told us that windmill operators “park” their sails when there is little wind, and their angle may signify happiness, sadness, etc.
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Back at the Ingvi we were now double parked and had to walk through another Viking ship to get to ours. We’d often be double or even triple parked when moored in towns, so it was important to check the boat’s name. Those in balcony cabins complained 
that they ended up nose to nose with balcony dwellers on the other ship rather than gazing out at the scenery. Our cabin would just go dark.
We left Kinderdijk just before lunch, turning into the Waal, the major channel of the Rhine. We took advantage of the sun deck to watch
the passing river traffic, unusual (to us) buildings, and the locals enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon on the beach.
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Kinderdijk |
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But first we had to participate in the safety exercise. Our lifejackets were kept underneath our beds, so when the alarm was given we all had to go to our cabins, grab our lifejackets, move to our stations on deck, and put on the jackets. Captain Jozsef timed all this and congratulated us with a big smile that we had achieved the fifth fastest time of the year. He then drily added that we were also on the boat’s fifth cruise of the year. Sandie and I learned from the exercise, however; if the alarm ever went off for real while we were on deck, there was no way that we were going down into our cabin below the water line. We both know how to float without a jacket
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River Rijn (3.24) |
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There was plenty to see from the deck: herons, pelicans, and cormorants as well as the expected towns and villages, churches and towers and bridges, and cows enjoying the beaches. The deck had a shaded sitting area and a walking track. There was a request not to run on it for the sake of the dwellers in the (expensive) suites beneath the track. Oddly, the rails around the deck looked to be foldable, but we wouldn’t find out why until later in the week.
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River Rijn (Rhine) |
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This would be our last day in the Netherlands, and Viking marked it with an afternoon tea and some extravagant cakes and treats. Then there was a late 
night presentation on the Dutch “Golden Age”, the story of the Dutch East India Company and the art and culture it financed. I slept through most of this but enjoyed the accompanying gouda. The ladies also received a Mother’s Day rose.
That evening we crossed the border into Germany, passing Dusseldorf in the middle of the night.