The Savage Traveler: Tulip Time River Cruise Day 6

Thu. Apr. 10: Overnight we cruised to Willemstad and docked just outside one of the two remaining city gates. Willemstad is a town where time has stood still, retaining its 7 point star surrounding wall and canals that run through town. They have one windmill, one church--the first Protestant Church built in The Netherlands--and quiet brick streets throughout. We were disappointed that we hadn't gotten signed-up in time to do the bike tour of the city but it turned out that the entire town is perfectly accessible to see in a morning so it didn't really matter. Peter led us on a short winding walk to the church, where a local church society had an organist play a short concert on their beautiful organ. It was interesting to see the difference of a church built to be Protestant rather than one that had been a stripped Catholic church after the reformation. Then we had plenty of time to climb the fortifications and walk along the earthen walls all around the village, looking down into the back gardens (including a tiny zoo with deer, poultry, and some sort of burrowing animals) from behind, and into the sparkling clean windows from in front. The windmill is now a private home so we couldn't go inside.

A map shows the unique shape of the old town

Looking across the small harbor towards the town entrance

Part of the moat that runs around the town with the local windmill on the left

Protestant Church

Organ over a doorway on a wall of the church

Earthen fortification surrounding town

Peggy & Marv on a brick street between rows of houses

Local windmill, now a private home

"Mainstreet" in Willemstad

During lunch we had a short cruise to Dordrecht and then took buses about 40 minutes away to Kinderdjik to see and learn all about windmills. Kinderdijk is a World UNESCO site where they have the largest remaining concentration of windmills, mostly about 400 years old. Our delightful escort, Danielle, was actually born and lived her first few years in a windmill that had been in her family for generations in a nearby area. For some reason we didn't use the Quietvox systems today which was a pity because she had much to share. But I just made sure I walked with her the whole time. I learned that to keep their UNESCO status all the windmills must turn 60,000 times every year (each has an automatic counter to keep track) but there is a big competition among the owners to see who turns the most and the winner has usually more like 200,000 rotations. There were just two turning when we visited and one of them we could go into and climb and see displays of how they looked when a miller’s family still lived in and used it. The inner mills "scoop" water out of small canals, outer mills into the main canal, and powered hydraulic pumps empty the main canal into the river. The area is about 12 meters below sea level and still spongy and always compressing and sinking. They have an entertaining and informative movie with a main screen and four side panels with an engineer, a miller, an artist, and an historian, each sharing their viewpoints of the area.

Walking between an outer and the main canal

Main wheel inside a windmill

Some of the windmills of Kinderdijk

Explanatory display of Kinderdijk, but all in Dutch

When we got back to the ship the four of us walked into Dordrecht along a side street for a while before cutting back towards the main canal to a square paved over the canal to enjoy a Leffe's Double, a local beer, at an outdoor cafe and some people watching. We were very tired by the end of the day but, after our Farewell Cocktail party and Captain's dinner, Marv and I went in through the 1602 stone city gate of our next village to wander for a bit. Schoonhoven is yet another medieval city with a main canal up the middle. The town was definitely asleep with just a few bars open and we saw only one car moving before we returned to the ship to sleep.