Windmills and Cheese



This morning we sailed for three hours to the Kinderdijk area. We started cycling at 9:45 and in 15 minutes we arrived at a renovated windmill that had built in the 1800’s but is only used now for tourism. The miller showed us how the windmills were used to pump water off the land into the canals. We toured the inside of the windmill to see how people lived in them. 

At this point we split into two groups. The underachievers cycled 40 km with Rikko while the overachievers cycled 48 km with Marcel. 

Next we cycled to Kinderdijk to see a row of 16 windmills that are still being used to pump water from the surrounding fields. People still live in these windmills to keep them running. 

We stopped briefly to look at a more modern way of moving water by using large electric augers.

Then we cycled to a small nearby ferry to cross the river.  We walked our bikes on and just stood to cross.

We cycled a little further and stopped at a Cheese Farm.  We got a full tour, starting with seeing some new born calves, to how they milk the cows and make cheese. Then we got to taste the cheese before we went into the shop to buy some!  They have vacuum packed cheese so that we can take it home. 

We enjoyed the sunshine as we sat outside and ate our lunches. 

By the time we finished our lunch it was 2:00 and we still had 30 km to go. We were feeling anxious to get back to the boat so that we could explore the town of Gouda. 

We rode through a pretty forest, along a canal that had lovely houses along it. Then we rode along a line of farms houses where the homes were all along a canal beside the road. It was beautiful!

We tried to encourage Rikko to move along so he decided to take a short cut! We cycled on a bumpy grass path beside a canal for two kilometres. We were really wondering how this would end but it did end well and we finally arrived at our boat at 4:20. 

We were on our own for dinner tonight. We were moored very near the old town of Gouda so everyone split up into small groups to walk into town for dinner. It was a beautiful evening!  BTW, the winds were very light today, it was a nice break!















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