As I sit down to begin this post it's 7.00am on Sunday 28th April. The sky is still overcast but the cloud is higher, so I am hoping for a brighter day. We have sailed overnight on the mighty Rhine down through the Ruhr and are now well south of Dusseldorf and not far from Leverkusen and Koln in a couple of hours. It's been like Christmas as we pass the many oil refineries in the Ruhr the lights and gas flares casting long beams of light across the dark waters. Looking at the latest Kilometre (Mile post) signs, by my reckoning we have travelled over 150 kms since yesterday evening.
Incidentally this whole trip from Amsterdam to Budapest via 5 interconnected waterways will be over 1800 kms and we will have ascended from 2 metres below sea-level in Amsterdam to 490 metres above sea-level at the highest point before descending to 110 metres in Budapest but more about the waterways, locks and route in later postings.
My excursion yesterday morning was to the Zaanse Schans Windmill Village about 30 minutes north of Amsterdam on the Coach.
Zaanse Schans is described in Wikipedia as a neighbourhood of Zaandam Netherlands. It is best known for its collection of windmills and wooden houses that were relocated here from the wider region north of Amsterdam for preservation. From 1961 to 1974, old buildings from all over the region known as the Zaanstreek were relocated using lowboy trailers to the Zaanse.
Our first visit was to a Clog making demonstration. The clogs are manufactured from freshly cut popular or lime wood that retains moisture which in turn makes it easier to work with. Originally it might take 3 hours to handmake clogs, with modern manufacture it takes 5 minutes. The machines used are like key cutting machines making a copy from a pattern and then hand finished. Once completed the craftsman blew into the clog releasing a flow of water! The clogs now need to be dried out of the sun or intense heat to prevent cracking for 4 weeks but once dry they are waterproof for life.
The photo shows three of the main Windmills, from right to left is:
- De Huisman (The Houseman), a mustard mill
- De Gekroonde Poelenburg (The Crowned Poelenburg), a sawmill
- De Kat (The Cat), a dyemill
If you click on the links, it will take you to a close-up photo of each of the mills.
The invention of the crankshaft by Cornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1594 was key to the development of milling because the crankshaft made it possible to convert the horizontal wind direction on the mill sails, into a vertical sawing motion.
We visited the dye mill or perhaps better described as a paint mill since it ground pigments for artist's paints. We learnt from the Miller that it takes two years to qualify as a Miller and today, because all the Mills are Heritage sites, the added responsibility for their preservation.
The second photo is one of the huge mill wheels used to grind the pigments. It weighs over 3 tons!
Sadly, it was a very wet day so we retired toa Café for Dutch Apple pie and coffee a snack last enjoyed at a rest stop in New Zealand owned and run by Dutch Settlers.
