April 26 Tilting at Windmills

Underway at 11 PM last night, we left Amsterdam and made our way upstream to Kinderdijk, a World Heritage site and home to 19 of The Netherlands' 28 windmills.  These days, the mills are used only to pump water from the polders (areas of land reclaimed from the sea) into the surrounding water ways.  We learned  that the dykes enable towns like Kinderdijk to be below sea level so that when you see houses over the dykes from the ship, it's often only the roofs that are visible.  

Our guide for the windmill tour and others like him are volunteers.  Each windmill has a trained miller who also volunteers his time and who must work each weekend.  In exchange, they receive free rent and live in the mills full-time.  

As we have come to expect we had rain, sun and sleet during the 2-hour tour.  We have totally fine-tuned our outdoor wardrobes so we were comfortable until the sleet blew at an angle into our faces.  Well, small price to pay for the great experience of seeing one of the icons of The Netherlands.  Tulips yesterday, windmills today.  Ta da!

We took off at noon today and are making our way to Cologne.  We've been in Germany since dinner although you'd not know that unless someone informed you.    

Dinner turned out to be pretty remarkable.  We had a table for 5 and after we were seated, a charming woman from the Isle of Wight sat down with us.  We had good conversation and after awhile, she somewhat reluctantly admitted that she was 86 years old.  Reluctant because she said that after people find out how old you are they eventually treat you differently and not in a good way.  

We spent quite a bit of time discussing the WW II and how it was for her to live through it as a child.  At the urging of her grandson, she submitted an accounting of her experiences to the British National Archives who accepted and published it.  All of this was modestly reported to us and in such an interesting way.  Her husband died 10 years earlier and she has continued to travel alone despite failing eyesight.  At the end of the meal, she came very close to each of us so that she could look into our faces.  We told her that she could eat dinner with us any time and she said, "No, probably not again because you know all about me now."  I think she can absolutely do as you please when you're 86.  At least I'm going to.