Finishing Up Our Time in The Netherlands

Last week I shared some photos my friend June took while we were all enjoying our Viking River Cruise in Europe earlier this Spring.  I want to share some more of hers from Holland and life on board our ship before I catch back up to our day in Cologne, Germany.

I told you we visited the Windmills of Kinderdijk.

Here is June by the canal, with the wonderful Windmills behind her.

I told you how we toured the old pumping station.  Here are Betsy and Jerry outside the modern pumping station.

And here is our guide leading us through the old pumping station.  The guides with Viking were all superb.  For each excursion, the passengers are divided into groups and each group has their own expert guide.  Our guide on this tour even had her grandson with her, he was the most polite young boy, and he helped her throughout the entire tour.  He was interested in learning just like we were and it was refreshing to see a young boy that was not connected to an electronics device or bored with what was going on.

And these guides were extremely knowledgeable.  Her family actually had worked in windmills as millers, so she really was able to give us first hand information, like here where she was explaining the tools used to create the necessary parts, the types of wood used, etc.  It was all very fascinating.

These windmills were a true miracle invention for the Dutch.  And the ones included in the Unesco World Heritage Site here at Kinderdijk still are maintained using the old methods.

They are an amazing site to see.

And here is the Museum Windmill that we visited.  You can just see a group coming across on the left from the bridge across the canal.

June took some pictures of the inside living quarters of the Museum Windmill, like this area in a bedroom chamber on one of the upper levels of the windmill.  Remember I told you everything was tight?

The beds were all inside the walls of the windmill.  They had curtains and doors to close them off and some were placed in a position where a window was so that they could look out below.  They were very sparse.  Being the windmill was round, there was not any room in the middle, that is where the central post for the pump and the stairs, or should I call them ladders, between levels were located.

Here you can see me coming up the stairs on one side.  They are not much more than a ladder.  Going down, you had to go down facing them because there just was not a way to go down forward without falling.

Here you can see Jerry following me up and people waiting below.  Very tight quarters.  I cannot imagine actually living and working here.  All that climbing.  I guess you would not need to go to a gym, but if you broke a leg or something, oh man.

But each window on the upper floors did provide a wonderful view.

The ground floor had those big windows I showed you, and they let in a lot of light.  The rooms on the ground floor were a little more spacious because the base of the windmill was considerably wider, but they were still tiny compared to what we are accustomed to today.

I told you that the caps of the windmills rotate so that they can take advantage of the wind direction if it changes.  Here is a close up shot of part of the tail pole that is used to turn the cap.  You can see members of the tour group behind it and it gives you an idea of how large just that part of the tail pole is.

The land surrounding the windmills is beautiful, with fields, flowers and barns.

We really did enjoy visiting Kinderdijk.

And we were anxious to get to Cologne, but to get there we had to spend an afternoon and evening cruising the Rhine.  I told you that we had our safety drill that day and afterwards we spent time on the upper decks and in the lounge watching the scenic landscapes along the Rhine.

And they also had a tour of the Wheelhouse, which is the command center of the ship.

The Rhine is an old river and has been used to move goods and people from country to country for centuries.  And, it has a lot of bridges that cross it, many of which are old and low.  So, to ensure their longships can navigate not only the rivers, but the bridges, they build a unique feature on the Wheelhouse that allows it to lower when the ship comes to a bridge that is too low to navigate any other way.

Underneath you can see the mechanism that lowers the wheelhouse when needed to cross under those super low bridges.  It was an interesting tour to see how it worked and where the captain worked.  I missed it and I am glad that June took pictures and shared with me.  I was homesick and Face Timing Keith when the tour happened, which by the way is another great thing about the longships.  They are equipped with DSL free Wi-Fi, so I was able to Face Time Keith daily when I was onboard and did not have to worry about any overseas internet or data charges.  We all took advantage of using it, either for Face Timing someone at home or emailing back and forth.

Oh, and here is one of the many bridges that we crossed under along the Rhine.

I love this shot June got of the bridge.  It looks like a piece of art.  Beautiful.

Here is one of the many barges that we passed along our journey.  And a nice beach in a little town along the way.

This part of the Rhine was very scenic.  Lots of beaches, lots of people out fishing or camping and lots of pretty little towns and villages along the way.

Oh, and these last few pictures were taken while June was in the lounge.  The lounge has windows on both sides and super comfortable seating areas which are perfect for taking pictures or reading or intimate conversations.  To the back of this shot is the Aquavit lounge and terrace, where we spent a lot of time when we were on board.

I really do like how they decorate their water towers.  At first we were getting really excited every time we saw one because we thought they were towers on castles.  You can see why we were deceived….they kind of really do look like they should be part of a castle.

June even managed to find a group of cyclists while we were on board.  At least we didn’t have to worry about them running over us now.

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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.