Early September: Southwestern Holland

These corkscrews bring the water uphill from the canals to sea level

After Alkmaar, we needed propane, but we could not fill up in the Netherlands because of our adapter issue.  So, we headed southwest to Belgium where we knew we could get propane.  On our way back, we stopped at Kinderdijk, 15 km east of Rotterdam - a UNESCO world heritage site where there are a collection of traditional Dutch windmills along the canals.  These were built to remove the water from the land uphill to the sea.  The Dutch have a saying:  God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland.

The inner workings of the windmill are all wooden and creak and groan LOUDLY

View from atop one of the windmills

West of Rotterdam, we visited the city of Delft.  We learned that there is practically no way to determine if a piece of Delft was authentically hand made in Delft, so we gave up trying to find a good piece.  The medieval city center was a joy, but you sure have be careful because those bicyclists are everywhere!

Church at one end of City Center Square

Town Hall at other end of Delft Center City Square

Flowers, Canals - a pretty city

Delft Cityscape

We headed back north to visit Zaanse Schans windmill village just a few kilometers north of Amsterdam.  The village was small and all were turned into commercial shops with two windmills.  Many busloads of tourists from Amsterdam encouraged us to quickly tour the area and get out.  We were spoiled terribly by the much more authentic village in Enkhuizen and the windmills in Kinderdijk, but we did learn that these were "industrial" windmills that were used in milling grains and other commercial uses and not to protect the land from the sea.

Shops in Zaans Scans

We drove further north to visit Volendam and Marken.  We were planning on staying at the marina in Volendam where we could walk to the town center, but the city was gearing up for a major carnival the next weekend and the carnival folks had taken over the entire campground.  We could not find a place to park, so just drove through Volendam, an upscale resort area for Amsterdam weekenders.We ended up staying in a parking area next to a tourist attraction that made Gouda cheese and wooden shoes - a major stop for the bus hordes.  We visited just before closing when it was quiet and were part of a small group that was much more enjoyable than a huge crowd.

We drove down and around and out onto the former island of Marken, one of the old traditional fishing villages on the Zuider Zee.  It was a quaint village, still lived in, with one-lane brick roads and a small marina.  It was picturesque, but other than a few restaurants and a wooden clog shop, not much to see or do.

Machine-assisted wooden clogs