So what I got was.......
The few remaining working mills near Amsterdam are on the Zaan River. It has been made into a bit of a Sovereign Hill, a little twee and commercial, but what are you going to do.
The houses on the other size of the river maintained some old Dutch character and were painted in Zaan Green.
We were celebrating out 37th wedding anniversary and were enjoying the day. Apart from visiting one of the mills (the pigment grinder) we visited several museumy displays (spices, coopers, clock makers, clog maker etc)
They have tried to recreate an old time dutch village with beautifully restored buildings all set on an actual polder that is 1m below sea level and very obviously below the river level. Apparently the water level dropped about 10m from 1600 as they harvested the peat.
Of course our eyes kept being drawn back to the molen spinning in the breeze.
and to listening to the gears grinding away.....
we finished up with a museum about the Zaans area. It was quite interesting. At its height the area had about 600 mills, in use for all sorts of things (chocolate, rice, timber, grains, nuts, pigments, spices etc etc etc) A sort of pre-industrial revolution industrial revolution.
3 comments:
Raf, I hope everyone kept you in check around those windmills. You know what Spaniards are like when it come to tilting at windmills, or is that just those named Quixote not Sanchez.
No, no! No fear. I do not see myself as Alonso Quixano reading myself into insanity, but rather as Sancho Panza (Sancho belly) tagging along for the ride. So I'll leave the tilting at windmills to the fantasists and content myself with a full belly occasionally.
Hope all is well back at the ranch.
OK, why the raised fingers?
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