After sailing all night, most of the passengers woke up on an overcast, blustery morning, with windchill at about 3° C (37° F) to something approximating this view. Kinderkijk is a World Heritage Site, and all 19 of the windmills, built centuries ago, still work. A tour guide told us that one may, upon conclusion of a 2-year education and passing a physically demanding test, rent one of these mills to live in and the rent is pretty cheap. He didn’t mention how long the wait list is, or if there is one.
According to the tour guide, Ukrainian refugees are living in the windmill shown below, though it can’t be very many. We saw the interior of a mill, and there’s about as much floor space as a single-bedroom apartment in the cheap part of town. They were built around 1740, and though their function has been replaced by modern pump stations, they still wor k and could be used if the modern plumbing stopped working.
We also saw this tower, which, according to Google, is an unused water tower and a historical monument.
Sometimes the wildlife cooperates with the photographer. I only needed a few seconds for the geese to fly into the field of view.
Built in 1867, the water tower served as a backup to the windmills in times of high water, helping to keep the surrounding polders dry. There is a museum in the tower, but the tour guide never mentioned it, and we didn’t have time to visit it. The tower is 33 meters (109 feet) tall and 18 meters (59 ft) wide at the base.
Tomorrow we visit Cologne.
Memoirs of an Earthling 