Windmill
Wednesday’s
The
Kinderdijk ~ Child’s Dike
Overwaard
2 2961 AT
Kinderdijk,
The Netherlands
My love for children’s literature be it fiction, folk stories,
nonfiction, nursery rhymes, songs or whatever, have always captured my heart.
This is one of the reasons I enjoyed teaching young children for so many years.
I loved being able to share my passion for reading and relate it to other areas
in their lives. So when I moved to The Netherlands and was told about a
wonderful place to see windmills, my heart leapt with excitement when I also
learned about the folktale that went along with the beauty of The Kinderdijk.
As the story goes, in 1421 a great flood came upon The
Netherlands. The area known as Grote Hollandse Waard flooded. When the storm
stopped for a while someone went on to the dyke to see what could be salvaged
from the storm. It was then that someone saw a cradle floating in the water. As
the cradle came nearer a cat was then seen. The cat had been jumping from side
to side keeping the cradle afloat and inside.. a baby slept quietly.. Nice and
dry. The legend and folktale has been published in English as… The Cat and the
Cradle.
Let me just say this… About 20% of The
Netherlands or low country is below sea level and we get a heck of a lot of
rain. Those two little factors would make it a dangerous place for people to
live if the Dutch hadn’t learned how to deal with flooding and too much water.
After digging canals to channel the excess water out of the area of the
Kinderdijk, the Dutch once again needed a new method to rid the water from the
fields and homes when the water levels would rise. A series of windmills were
built to pump the water into a reservoir.
We drove to the little village of Kinderdijk,
which is about 15 miles from Rotterdam, to see one of Holland’s most famous
tourist sights. Nowhere in the world can you see this many windmills at once.
After a little swoop through the gift shop and a little lunch we decided to
take the tour boat to see the windmills. I knew the view would be fantastic and
would get us up close.
For 4.50E we were able to
leisurely sail past the winds of time and catch a glimpse of history from The
Netherlands. There are 19 windmills gathered in this area that date back
hundreds of years and still work but the water is now pumped from one of the
largest pumping stations in the world.
The
entire area was truly amazing and I will enjoy going back with friends and
family often. Next visit, I think I’ll meander up to one of the little café’s
that overlook the
windmills.
A day at The Kinderdijk ~ You bet!!
No comments:
Post a Comment