Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Holland – Oude Maas & Amsterdam

At the beginning of the trip we didn’t see a lot of sun and blue sky so I thought this photo would be a good substitute.

P1040941

We spent a day at Kinderdijk where there are 19 windmills in close proximity.

‘The Kinderdijk windmills are considered a Dutch icon throughout the entire world. The seventeen windmills that were used for water drainage were built between 1738 and 1740. Before then, the area already had polder mills, two of which can still be seen. For many years, these windmills kept the low-lying, peat land of the Alblasserwaard dry. This land was continually threatened by floods and soil compaction. In Kinderdijk, the almost one thousand years of 'battling the water' is still visible in the polder landscape. It’s with good reason, that the Kinderdijk-Elshout windmill complex was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997.’ text from the internet.

P1040872   P1040847   

IMG_3871    P1040882

P1040855   

P1040866   P1040857

Our caravan site was on the banks of the Oude Maas near Barendrecht Holland. In the evenings it was a very short walk to go and watch these huge ships passing by.

P1040825

‘Foresight’ registered in St. John’s gross tonnage 9611t as I write it is en-route to Singapore – passing the end of the caravan site!

WP_20140429_007

Next stop Amsterdam: We went into Amsterdam twice, but had expected to go in more often to see the museums and galleries. Our first foray to the Rijksmuseum was thwarted by the length of queues for  for tickets and then to get in. We walked around the canals and other sights instead.

P1050330        P1050333

P1050340

P1050349

P1050356

This magnificent building is the Central Station

P1050367  P1050369

Now – where did I leave my bike?

P1050371

I did quite a few bike rides from the caravan site and this included some geocaches as well. It was a geocache that brought me to this memorial for the 6 crew of the Wellington Bomber.

P1050388

P1050386

Over the water from the site is the nature reserve Het Twiske. There were lots of cycle and walking tracks throughout the area. These two photos were taken from reserve towards Landsmeer.

P1050404

 

P1050410

More to come. Watch this space!

No comments:

Post a Comment