Adventures of NaDave: Dave Germany: 68-70 (Kinderdijk) 3/3

After having a great city experience on Saturday, I found a UNESCO site for the classic Dutch windmills, called theKinderdijks. It was located south of Rotterdam, and would require us to take a train, to a tram, to a bus. Plus all the time waiting between connections. It's a good thing we left early in the day, because we spent most of the day intransit. It took about 2.5 hrs to finally arrive (would be a 45 minute drive otherwise). But it was certainly worth it!

When we got to Rotterdam, it was much different than Amsterdam. I am guessing that the Germans destroying the city in WWII probably lead to a more modern city. There were sky scrapers, and just a more modern architecture to the city. While it was quiet on a Sunday morning, you could tell the city wanted its only identity.

We were in Holland Netherlands, and it felt just Holland Michigan. Not to mention all the names I kept seeing looked so familiar...Vander-this....Oost-that...Hoogstra...DeHaan....these were the families I grew up with. It felt comforting to recognize things a little better.

So the Kinderdijks is a place where 19 original windmills have been preserved. They had a museum with educational videos, and you could walk into the windmills, where whole families would live. Some of the windmills had people still living there as recently as the 1970s (i think)...and most of the windmills were finally decommissioned in the 1980s (i think). We also took a boat trip up and down the canal, which was the highlight.

Since my flight back was at 6pm, we had to leave the windmills around 3pm. I said thanks to Steven at the train station for all the great conversation and hospitality, then headed straight to airport. I arrived back to Erlangen around 11pm, to find my bike still there! I then biked home with my light in the dark, and arrived safely home just before midnight.

What a great weekend! I had left Germany via plane, and gained lots of confidence towards traveling. I had been eyeing a trip to Lithuania to return back to my family roots, so started to put together a plan for my next adventure!