get thee to kinderdijk

Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and while I know I think a lot of things are amazing, this is one of the coolest places I've ever been to in my life. It's a bit tricky to get there - you can take a bike and then a water taxi, or a waterbus to the water taxi, and then walk to the windmills. But it's so worth it - it's lovely.

The Kinderdijk windmills still move excess water out today, and the oldest mill was built in 1366. It's pretty amazing that we're still using this technology to get what needs to be done done. Isn't it? The windmills all seem to have distinct personalities. I understood a little bit how Don Quixote could have thought they were giants - they do seem like big lumbering giants waving hi in the wind.

Walking along the Kinderdijk paths, you feel like you're definitely in the typical Dutch pastoral scene - green and green and green goes on forever, with one modern orange building in the distance which looks quite out of place. You can take a tour of a windmill, but we were running out of time before our last group dinner, so we headed back to the ferry dock just as it started to rain. Typical Dutch summer weather.

Then we got onto the ferry dock and saw this perfect ending to the afternoon, a double rainbow.