Bikes, Dijks, and Lots of Windmills

Post from Thursday, June 12:

First thing's first: the Netherlands are below sea level. You might now this already, but it's really important to basically everything here. Almost every thing in the Netherlands can somehow be traced back to that fact, so it's a good one to know. Second thing: the country in which I am currently writing this from is the Netherlands, not Holland. Apparently, when the first  Dutchmen moved to America, they were mostly from the state/area of the Netherlands known as Holland. When asked where they were from, they responded "Holland," and when asked where this "Holland" was they pointed to the Netherlands on a map and thus, Americans came to call the Netherlands by an incorrect name (well, maybe not exactly like that, but close enough). While none of the Dutch are going to be offended or anything, I prefer calling the country by its original name, so from here on out that's what I'm doing.

Anyway, on to the adventure. Today our travels were focused on something very (i) related to being below sea level: the dijks. Or more specifically, Kinderdijk. Hundreds of years ago, the Netherlands was mostly underwater, with only a few dry sections. The olden days Dutch folk decided that hey, you know what? That ocean area over there would make a good farm. Let's create giant dams around the entire country and put some cows there instead. And so they did. However, they still had to get the water inside (i) the dam to the outside (i). That's were the windmills come in. Basically, the wind blows the giant windmill blades, which powers some complicated gears inside and eventually turns a waterwheel, which then turns and pumps the water from one side of the dam to the other. Or at least, I think that's how it works from what we learned at Kinderdijk. 

While we were at the dijk Grandpa, Carolyn, and I  rented bikes and rode along one of the many paved trails while Grammy and Jean opted to stay at the shaded tangles by the beginning of the trail. The Dutch are very bike-inclined people and as a result, there are trails covering the entire country (including the dijks). It was AWESOME.  The Netherlands are incredibly flat, so biking is really easy(not like Mom and Dad's killer mountains) and I felt like I could keep going for miles (or to keep with the local terms and whatnot, kilometers (i)). We actually ended up biking into the next town over on accident, at which point we decided to turn around. On the way back, we stopped at one of the windmills that has been converted into a museum. For a building so small, I'd say that the information available per square foot is exceptionally high. Here are some pictures from the adventure:

Us before our ride, photo courtesy of Grammy

One of the many windmills. Since the time when the Dutch first began using windmills for their water level problem, there've been a lot of different designs. This one, with it's slightly conical shape and thatched roofs, a traditional one.

The only other design of windmill at Kinderdijk. Majority of windmills have the ability to turn their blades to face the wind, and while on the more traditional ones only the top cap moves, these ones have entire halves that turn.

Huh. Is picture didn't end up too good, but I just wanted to show you guys what Carolyn and I call the Delusional Dutch. Traditionally, Dutch people are farmers of some sort growing fruits, vegetables, tulips,  cows, sheep goats, etc. In modern times, they've started working and living in cities with jobs working in offices and whatnot. However, they still like to pretend that they live in the countryside and make their living off of farming, so on the weekends they live in tiny shacks and grow whatever they want in tiny gardens. It's not the same scale farming as traditional Dutch, but it seems to do the trick for the modern Dutchman.

Some of the local wildlife just chilling

We biked past what looked like a practice army camp out as they were getting ready to leave

It's off to bed now, and then tomorrow more fun!