Nice leisurely cruse into the Rhine last night with a good night's rest. Breakfast of eggs, bacon (healthy isn't it), and then a talk about windmills. If one stops to think about it, why would a country fight nature so much. Building cities below sea level doesn't seem to make sense? But the land is fertile, and good, and the Dutch put considerable resources into keeping their country "afloat" (so to speak).
Today the boat stopped at Kinderdijk. A small town off the Lek river. This town has had windmills since the 1700s. Why windmills? 40% of the Netherlands is below sea level, and they use them to control the flow of water. First a dyke is built, then a canal is built near the dike, and the windmill is the power source to pump the water off the "land" creating what is called a polder (that's land that is created by removing the water). The reason I know some of this is because we had a lecture this morning about it. There are 17 windmills in Kinderdijk, and the modern ones don't need wind, they are powered by electricity that powers large Archimedian screws that I have pictured here. These screws turn and help lift the water out of the land and into a canal that dumps it into the river.
The weather was sunny and about 75 degrees. Apparently, this is the warmest Easter around here since the early 1900s (global warming anyone?). Holland is located around the middle of Canada in latitude.
The people are from all over the world. Australia, Canada, Japan, it's quite a group. Our program organizer is from Belgium. Many more sights to see, and eating to do along the way.
Our room is small, and I feel a bit like an astronaut, but that's OK because in my next life I might want to be one, and it's getting me used to it.
I think I understand this thing about the water here. What I don't understand yet is the name of this country. One person told me that the name is Holland (English) and The Netherlands (Dutch). Another said that Holland is a province of The Netherlands. It's just not clear at this point. I'll explain it when I find out.
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