As sleep deprivation began to take it's toll on me, I crashed around 9 PM last night. Up until that point, Tim, his brother Fabian, and I had been watching a movie in Tim's room. Interestingly, my suggestion of a movie to them was accepted rather excitedly, and this is because it is quite normal for both of them to watch a movie with their parents on most nights. This is a foreign concept to me, as I very rarely watch a movie with my Mom, sister, or even myself. I slept soundly as the cool air seeped through the open windows in Tim's house. It is very uncommon to find a house with air conditioning in Holland, and I found out the reason today. Most days here are overcast and cool, with a slight breeze and occasional rain showers. The rain is not like a downpour we often see in the US, but more like a misty rain, or "spit rain" as I used to call it. The short, "hit and miss" nature of these misty rains are quite common. It was interesting to have to transition from wearing loose clothes in 90+ degree heat to wearing jeans and a sweatshirt in cool, 60 degree weather.
Because of today's cool, overcast weather, we postponed our beach trip and instead ventured out via an hour and fifteen minute train ride to Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands behind Amsterdam. The city is located on the Maas River (Dutch: de Maas), a major river in Europe, beginning in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. Our purpose in Rotterdam, to board a boat and ride 15 kilometers to the east to a tiny village called Kinderdijk. This tiny village belongs to the municipality in the Netherlands called Nieuw-Lekkerland. But before all this, we had a typical Dutch breakfast, a bagel-ish type bread with cheese in the middle, followed by coffee and pie of some sort.
I saw the most interesting architecture in this city. Buildings often jut out in random places, or make random shapes in general.
Yes, that is a building behind me, not mountains
As we waited for our boat, we walked to the Erasmus Bridge (Dutch: Erasmusbrug). It is the biggest and heaviest cable-held bridge in western Europe. It is very interesting in architectural build as well, with the cables only coming from one side.
The boat ride was another hour in length, but we were able to see different parts of the city while riding down the river. Our boat stayed very close to the right hand shore, and this is because boat traffic is often treated like car traffic in the US. To my knowledge, the river flows into other European countries as well, proven by our sighting of ships from Switzerland, Belgium, France, and England. Tim has said that he's seen boats from as far as China going through the river as well.
A view of Rotterdam from the back of the boat
Kinderdijk is home to 19 windmills, spread out in various parts of the village. They were built around 1740 to try and drain the water from the low-lying land at the meeting point of the Lek and Noord rivers. We only saw one in motion, but the windmills are still home to certain families today. Back when in use, the windmills had four different shapes that they could take to convey certain feelings. For instance, if the windmill made an "X' in shape via the tower it was sitting on, then it meant a neutral or resting feeling. If one of the windmill blades were slightly to the right, off center at the top, then it conveyed a feeling of celebration. If it were off center to the left, then it conveyed mourning, or a death in the family. If it formed a perfect cross, in other words, the top and bottom blades of the windmill were directly in line with the tower it was sitting on, then it meant the family was hard at work.
The windmills were often grouped together in lines, such as this, down the canal. Notice the first "celebratory" windmill and the "resting" others.
In Kinderdijk I also saw wooden shoes, characteristic of Dutch culture as I later learned. I tried a pair on and was immediately in discomfort. I was glad at that point to have soles in my shoes.
With our given hour in Kinderdijk gone, we journeyed back to our boat for our return trip to Rotterdam. A cold breeze was evident as we rode against the wind, further giving me thanks for bringing a sweatshirt along. Although the views on the right side were not as good this time, I was able to see another interesting thing. On almost all ships, the flag from which it came is displayed on the back edge (this is how we knew where ships were coming from, explained above). It really showed me how proud the Dutch are to be Dutch. The flags waved violently yet valiantly from behind each ship.
Walking into the house in Bunnik, I picked up the scent of fish, which is exactly what we had for dinner, accompanied with chips (commonly referred to as french fries back in the US), apple sauce, tomatoes mixed with red peppers, and an ice cold heineken fresh from the brewery here in the Netherlands :) Tomorrow we will probably tour some of Utrecht, a quick 4 minutes by train from Bunnik, however we will probably bike there. Joining us will be one of my friends Rieke, a native German studying in Gronigen. I met her during my junior year in high school during which year she was an exchange student. Tim will play tennis in the morning with a friend from Indonesia, while Tim's brother, Fabian, and I will duke it out on clay elsewhere (it is not looking good for me). Those sad results will come tomorrow, but until then however, have a pleasant rest of your day and night, and all the best from the Netherlands!
"Here live the best brands of the Netherlands"
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