Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:09:43 -0800 (PST)
Subject: A quest for windmills, and the first pictures with me in them...
Hallo,
I did get some "relatively good" sleep last night, which was a relief when I
woke up at 4 AM instead of 11 PM!! I got ready and headed on out at 8am. The
sunrise is at 9 AM, so it was still dark outside, and apparently there was some
all-night party in a nightclub nearby, because a couple of drunks were arguing
outside while the others were trying to break them up, and still others were
half-stumbling out of the nightclub and making their way to the tram stop...
It was fun. :)
My intention today was to go to Kinderdijk (for the windmills) in the morning,
then to den Haag in the evening...
I took the tram to Centraal Station, then the train to Rotterdam. The ride is
about 1 hour, and the train pulled into Rotterdam about 9:30am.. From there, it
was a short metro ride to Zuidplein station, where I started looking for the
bus stop.
Zuidplein is a large shopping mall, with the metro station and a large bus
depot underneath. It took a while to walk around to all the individual stops to
figure out that Bus #90 leaves every 1/2 hour from *THIS* stop... I reached
there at 10:15 and didn't feel like standing out in the cold for 15 minutes, so
went inside the mall, looking for a place to grab a quick breakfast and a
restroom.
It took longer than expected -- I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat...
Finally took a cold croissant to go and rushed back downstairs, only to miss
the bus by a few minutes...
Well, BACK UPSTAIRS again to hang around in the mall for another 20 minutes,
then down to the bus stop again, and finally I got on the #90 bus at 11:00 AM.
The ride to Kinderdijk was 2 euros and 50 minutes. There was another guy on the
bus just like me and he was kind enough to start a conversation with the driver
in English... From that I got valuable info -- the bus stops right in front of
a walkway that you can take to go straight to the windmills, and its about a
1-mile walk one-way. Also, the return busses run every hour (not every 1/2
hour). And there's a cafeteria/souvenir shop right next to the bus stop where
you can stay indoors until the bus arrives...
All very useful info, and I was listening very intently to the whole thing!
Kinderdijk is windy. It seems obvious now -- there are so many windmills over
there -- but it never occurred to me until I got off the bus! I've been feeling
pretty foolish throughout this whole trip, with so many "D'OH!" moments its
quite embarrassing actually! Not realizing I was in the red light district
while I was walking through it -- TWICE mind you... oh yeah and that one time
when I couldn't make up my mind whether to talk in English or attempt a few
words in Dutch, and ended up mumbling something neither Dutch nor English ...
topped off finally by going to a place full of windmills and the thought "Its
gonna be COLD" never popping into my brain until actually experiencing it...
It was cold, VERY COLD... the temperature itself wasn't so bad, but with wind
chill it was almost unbearable to a spoiled Californian like me, and I was
wearing all the winter clothes I had brought with me on this trip. Last time I
remember it being that cold was in Barrow, Alaska... And I think even that was
slightly warmer than today.
But the scenery was fantastic! There are 19 total windmills all within eyesight
of that 1-mile walkway (which is actually more than a mile but I only walked
that first one). A few of them were turned on, taking full advantage of the
wind that was flowing... the bitterly cold wind... the merciless wind... the
kind of wind that howls... and freezes my poor nose... and my poor
fingertips... and my poor knuckles... and my poor toes... inside my useless
good-for-nothing gloves and shoes.
Sorry, where was I? oh right... the windmills.
It was foggy all day, which made the scenery even better, and I haven't seen
the photos from today yet but I think they'll look quite dramatic because of
the low lighting... just like the picture postcards I saw a few days back :)
I was there for an hour, walking up and down that small road, but not timing
myself properly for the return bus. I ended up missing that one by a few
minutes too, and so went into the wonderfully warm cafeteria next to the bus
stop for lunch and a lemon bar and another HOT cappuccino with a packetfull of
sugar (really getting into that on this trip, I've had 3 today alone)...
The bus ride back was another 50 minutes (and this time, I gave my "strippen
kart" for the fare instead of paying the 2 euros). But because of the delays in
catching the buses (my own fault), by the time I got back to the metro stop,
took it to the train station, then got on the next train bound for Amsterdam,
it was too late to make a stopover in den Haag along the way. The sun sets at
4:30 (after rising at 9), and when the train pulled into den Haag station I
decided there was just not enough daylight left to actually roam around in the
city. I'll go tomorrow but I might regret not going today -- the forecast calls
for rain tomorrow.
I finally made it back to the motel at 4:30pm ... after another stop in a cafe
near the train station here in Amsterdam for a pecan nut bar... loved it, I may
go back there tomorrow... or even tonight!
Now I'm warming my poor nose, my poor fingertips, my poor knuckles, and my poor
toes in my warm motel room, while the photos from the last two days are being
copied to my laptop. They'll all be up on the website by later tonight.
Tomorrow is my last day in the Netherlands (on this trip), then its off to
Paris and Strasbourg on Saturday -- possibly breaking my land speed record
along the way. Well, I'm not driving so it doesn't really count...
It's going to be warmer in Paris. :)
Adieu,
- moi.
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| Dec 26 | Contents | Dec 28 |