This day was for what we think of as The Netherlands — windmills pumping water. Netherlands means lower land; the center of the country is the lowest part, many feet below sea level. Holland is a province (actually two provinces, north and south). Holland means hollow land. Dutch is the language and what the people call themselves, like we might say we’re American.

We went to Kinderdijk to see 19 working windmills. The town is named for a baby, Beatriz, whose basket was caught in a horrible flood in 1421. A cat also escaped the flood on the baby’s basket, and, they think, kept the basket from tipping by moving around maintaining balance. The cat saved the baby and, incidentally, itself.

First, we wandered the site reading informational signs. Lots to do there, which we did not have time for. It would be a great place to spend an entire day.

We got onto a boat to see one of windmills that is open to the public and learned that windmills are run by families. The families, often with more than a dozen children, live in the mills year round. Parents teach the kids how to run the mills, changing the directions of the blades depending on the direction of the wind, braking when they ran too fast (fire danger), waxing the gears.

Running a wind mill is not only 24/7 but also a many decade investment in time and knowledge.

The children slept sitting upright, many to a bed. They learned quickly what was forbidden (dangerous) and what was allowed (safe).

The wood came from local trees, carved in place to fit the needs of the mills.

In the afternoon we wandered around Dordrecht, where the ship was docked.

Like other places we’ve visited in the Netherlands, lots of canals and lots of bridges decorated the town.

Some of the homes were built leaning outward towards the street because of the ancient practice of throwing waste water out the windows. The tilt in the building kept the ground nearby cleaner.

Most of the streets were made with bricks or cobblestones.

Cornelis and Johan, natives of Dordrecht, controlled Dutch politics in the 17th century. Coming from an elite family, Johan served in the Dutch government and Cornelis was local leader and mayor of Dordrecht.

At around 2am we left Dordrecht to sail to Den Bosch.

The ship had started cruising by the time we woke up. We went along a huge, shallow lake separated from another lake with a dirt dike and a lock in between. Our ship went through the lock.

The weather was windy and cloudy; wind must be common here, because energy-generating wind turbines were everywhere!

Our first town in The Netherlands after the ship set “sail” was Medemblik, where we chose to tour the Oorlogsmuseum (war museum).

We got to the museum riding in on troop carrier trucks, referred to as GMCs, just like we’ve seen in the movies! And just as uncomfortable, noisy, windy, bumpy etc. I thought it was a great way to set the scene for the museum tour, where everything was authentic, from 1942-1944. Such stories this place held!

Riding over uneven brick in a suspension-less truck made Clare wish she had worn a sports bra. Vulgar, but honest.

Our first stop showed a carving of a soldier in bricks! A war memorial for fallen soldiers.

A true joy about the bumpy ride to and from the museum was the countryside. Green, purple and white fields of cabbage family plants were separated by narrow waterways and sported a wide variety of birds. Quiet beauty.

On the way to the museum, we stopped at Radboud Castle where the Germans stored some valuable paintings during the war. The trees were beautiful, especially around the golf course.

One of the highlights of this museum was the extensive collection of vehicles left behind by the allies after the war ended. Particularly impressive was the fact that the volunteers were able to keep so many running, like the trucks we rode.

Their garage for vehicle repair was staffed by a sixteen year old student who loved the old vehicles.

When we got back to the ship, we walked around the town.

It was good to stretch our legs a bit, even in the very flat area.

We met four friends from our hiking club at the Denver airport for dinner because they were on the same flight to London! Always fun to chat with friends. But after we got on the plane, it sat for two hours before taking off. Ugh!

But after the slow start, we made it to London. We had missed our connecting flight to Munich, but our friends did not miss their connecting flight to Lisbon, so we parted ways.

We arrived in Munich much later than planned and missed the happy hour at the Hilton. So, we had dinner at a restaurant instead.

The next morning we walked to the airport in Munich to fly to Amsterdam. The gate was at the far end of Terminal 1; we walked over a mile inside the airport.

After arriving at Schiphol airport we rode a crowded train for two stops and then walked to the dock where our ship, the AmaCerto was waiting.

Like all AmaWaterways ships, this one was nicely laid out and comfortable; we were on the same ship on the Danube River in 2018. They gave us a bottle of wine in our room.

For this trip, these two geeks will experience our third European river cruise, beginning in Amsterdam and ending in Brussels. This was a re-planned trip due to low water levels on the rivers that we were originally scheduled to cruise, the Main, Rhine, and Moselle.

After the cruise, our French friends will meet us geeks to tour Belgium and southeast England before we part ways and head onward to Portsmouth and London. The map shows a route beginning in Wasserbillig, Luxembourg as that is where the original cruise was set to end.