This afternoon we talked about the excursions. Well, after biking back to Rotterdam I got lost a bit and eventually I was biking through Schiedam. There I saw these beautiful and very tall windmills, I actually had never seen them before. It reminded me of the discussion that we had this afternoon, saying that in many cases you don’t know your own country that well. And suddenly I realized myself that I never visited a windmill! How stupid! I am this guy who lives six meter under sea level in Rotterdam and still I have never visited a windmill! I have to admit that I am not very nationalistic but never having visited a windmill makes me feel a miserable citizen of Holland. Maybe I should make a pilgrimage to Kinderdijk on wooden shoes and sacrifice some tulips. However, I think that’s a bit too much, I will improve my Dutch citizenship by visiting a windmill without pilgrimage. I am thinking about going to Schiedam because they look rather impressive. Maybe the windmill in Delft is also open for visitors. I think it would be great to see the mechanism inside the windmill; to see how it works. If anyone want to come with me: that would be very nice. (Actually a windmill is a very good example of the modernistic dictum “Form Follows Function” – maybe that’s why functionalism was such a successful movement in the Netherlands…)
ps: For everybody interested: my personal blog is named amongmiracles.blogspot.com. Here you can find all kind of stuff I am reading, ideas, and eventually sketches and images.
hei - yep the windmill in delft is open to the public all for free! i actually visited for the first time a few weeks ago - it's really nice :) good luck!
ReplyDeleteHe Jan I have ones been to a windmill that still works and makes flower for a bakery. and it is great to see how the mill works. But if you are going to the mills in kinderdijk I would really like to join you it is very nice to see I think.
ReplyDeletegreetings anouk
I think the windmills in Kinderdijk are very beautiful too see. Maybe more interesting than the ones in the city. The windmills in Kinderdijk have a strong connection to the landscape; their purpose whas to maintain the watermanagement in the 'polder'. The nice thing is, that it is a large group of windmills (19). I think this is the largest group of windmills in the Netherlands. The cultural landscape they are situated in is also very nice. It is possible to visit one of these. Kinderdijk is one of the few UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Netherlands.
ReplyDelete