Recently I have been telling you about my Viking River Cruise along the Rhine River. In April I traveled to Europe with my friends June, her cousin Betsy and Betsy’s husband Jerry. We had a wonderful time cruising along the Rhine on the Viking Ingvi longship. We spent our first day on land in Amsterdam exploring the Olde Center District, the Architecture, the Damrak, Churches and De Wallen. It was a long and exciting day. Overnight while we slept our ship sailed to Kinderdijk where we started our next day’s adventure.
We were docked across from these homes overlooking the water. There was a huge water tower behind them that looked like a turret on a castle. In fact, that’s what we kind of thought it was until our guide told us it was once used as a water tower and that we would find many of these throughout Holland.
It was a drizzly and overcast morning. The forecast had been partly sunny for the day but we got the partly not sunny. Still, it wasn’t pouring rain, so it wasn’t a bad day to be in Kinderdijk.
Quite a bit of Holland lies below sea level and over the centuries the Dutch have learned how to manage the flooding waters through dikes, canals and pumping stations. And one of the main ways water has been pumped over the centuries is through the use of huge windmills, like the ones in Kinderdijk.
Kinderdijk simply means Children’s Dike. It is said that in 1421, during a terrible flood, after the storm had subsided, someone went to the dike here on the Alblasserwaard Polder and saw a wooden cradle floating in the water. As they came closer to the cradle, they noticed it was rocking back and forth and that a cat was causing the rocking motion by jumping back and forth from side to side so that water would not get in the cradle. And as the cradle was picked up, they saw a baby inside, sleeping quietly, all nice and dry.
Thus the folk tale of the Cat and the Cradle.
Kinderdijk is a Unesco World Heritage Site. These sites all over the world represent our legacy from the past as human beings. By preserving these sites today we ensure that future generations will be able to visit them and understand the important part in our history they played. And the beautifully preserved windmills here are a testament to how well the Dutch have managed water since the middle ages.
Since there were quite a few visiting the windmills today, we were divided into smaller groups and each group went to different parts of the site so we would not all be on top of one another. And something really cool that Viking does is provide Quiet Vox Audio systems for each passenger. You can see an image of them here and also see wonderful pictures of Viking’s longship Odin. Our ship was very similar, so you can get a better idea of the dining areas, the lounge, etc., too. Anyway, the Quiet Vox looks like a pager with an earpiece. You wear it around your neck and listen through your earpiece to your guide. They work wonderfully and are so nice because you can hear everything the guide says and you don’t have to be right on top of the guide or worry about missing part of the tour because you were lagging behind taking pictures at the back of the group – like me!
Our group started in the Pumping Station. And outside the Pumping Station was this large yellow rectangular frame. Can you guess what it represents? If you guessed National Geographic, you are a winner. In 2013 they placed these large frames at Unesco World Heritage sites throughout Holland and had a photo contest. I am very glad they left these up. It was a cool way to capture such a unique place.
Here is one of the few pictures of me during my trip. I often fail to get my picture taken since I am so busy taking pictures myself. I had one of the Japanese tourists in our group quickly snap this one for me. We had two Asian groups on our trip, one group from Japan and one group of singers from Taiwan. And the cameras that they had gave me lot’s of camera envy. Our Program Director Nick commented that he could not even begin to imagine the pictures taken on our cruise. He had never seen so many cameras on a single cruise. And a few of the Asian group carried two and three cameras at a time. Whew! I just managed to carry my one!
Speaking of cameras, another cool thing Viking does is have their staff take pictures of the places that you visit. And at the end of your trip you can get a CD with those pictures. Even though I took tons of pictures myself, I wasn’t always able to capture everything. Like this sign outside the Visitor’s Center. Thankfully the Viking staff got that for me! You will notice I have added a Viking watermark to indicate which pictures I use from the disc they provided.
Here you can see two of the large screws that pump the water at the J.U. Smit pumping station. They were huge. This station plays an important part in the history of the Netherlands and is one of two stations like this left in the country. Of course, they still use the windmills.
There are 19 windmills here that date back to around 1740.
They line both sides of the canal.
And there are boats that run up and down the canal. I believe you can take boat tours.
This is the view from the Visitor’s Center. You can see a group on the other side of the canal heading down to the Windmill Museum.
And you can even rent bikes. Of course, we were walking.
And even though it was overcast, it was Spring, and it was lovely.
There were buttercups, like I have in my own garden.
And wild mustard was in bloom everywhere we went. I am not sure what those other little yellow and purple flowers were, but they were blooming all over the banks of the canal.
There were these cute little ducks everywhere. And there were geese around, too. We could hear them, but could not really see them. There were a lot of marshy areas covered in tall grass like this and they were hidden from our view.
Next I will show you the Windmill Museum that we toured.
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
Leave a Reply