Dave and Lisa's Adventures: Day 2

Tour Day 2, April 26, Thursday

We are motoring up the Rhine, toward Cologne, Germany, having left Kinderdijk, Holland, at about 1pm. I never knew windmills could be so fascinating. Our guide led us to an area of 19 windmills built around 1790. These are still working at their task of emptying fresh water into the Rhine, turning lakes into useful land. The genius of this procedure is overwhelming to me. Most of Holland is below sea level. It was originally covered not with sea water but fresh water so the recovered land is aerable. The windmills pump the water into manmade ponds which are higher than the Rhine. Once full the water is released into the Rhine. It takes 10 years before the land is useable. Modern pumps are used nowadays but this site is a UNESCO heritage site and is maintained by the Dutch at great expense since everything must be original condition. The exterior of the mills is masonry or brick; the roofs, thatch. The interior is wood and the working mechanism and gears are wood and iron. Families vie to live inside the mills but the heavy maintenance is the work of professional millers. One demonstrated how the blades/sails are aligned with the wind direction by turning a large sailing ship's steering wheel on the outside of the mill which turns the top of the mill where the sails' axle is located. The speed of the sail has killed careless people who get hit. The millers wear actual wooden shoes at work, partly for tourists and partly because they support the foot when the miller must climb the sail to rig canvas if the wind is low. The whirling sail is geared to turn a gigantic wooden timber axle which runs from the top to below the floor of the mill. The one I saw up close was a timber without lamination, about 24” x 24”, about 60' long by my estimation. It's hard to imagine how families live inside with the rumbling and the danger of falling into the mechanism. Try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BjFjKeYKDo

I might write more after dinner.