ALBLASSERDAM

SUNDAY 17^th

Dry, but grey and a lot colder when we packed up. We had to play silly buggers with mudmats, ramps and chocks in order to get ourselves off the soggy grass, then clean the mud off everything, so were not on the road until about 11.00am. Still it was only 61 miles to Alblasserdam where we headed to the Camperplaats Kinderdijk. We had a coffee stop part of the way and pulled up behind another English motorhome. When we went inside the service station we discovered that it was people we know from years back, that live just around the corner from us at Cliffe Woods. Jo spoke to me and said what a small world this is! They were on their way back from Poland and as the weather had been so awful were going to cut their visit short and try to get on an earlier Eurotunnel train. We found the camperplaats with difficulty after driving around the town a couple of times, it would appear we had the gps for the old place and we were now going to the new one. It was a lot sunnier and nicer now, although we had driven through quite a bit of fog on the way, so after lunch we went exploring. We are hoping to go to see the Kinderdijk windmills that are famous and we can get there by waterbus, so we found the jetty for it and noted times for another day. Back at Juliette we had showers and then had a lash-up meal from some tins we had in the cupboard.

Alblasserdam camperplaats overlooking the harbour

MONDAY 18^TH

It had rained again in the night, but was dry at 8.30 when the baker’s van came around, I hopped out and bought some lovely rolls for breakfast as well as a half loaf for the future. We strolled over the bridge and in to town around 10.30 in showery rain, everywhere was quiet and hardly any shops were open, even the market was a bit half-hearted. Apparently 11.00 is the magic hour, so we waited around for a while and then did some shopping. I treated myself to a hot-air curler/styler thingy with a 2 pin plug to keep in the van for when we are travelling as most washrooms we come across have plug sockets in them. After the foodie shop in Albert Heijn it was tipping down and we had to dodge from one shop front to the next to try to keep dry. We ended up at a fast food outlet so went in for a coffee and portion of chips each (well it was nearly lunchtime!) When it had stopped raining briefly we legged it back to the van just getting in as the heavens opened again, we even had thunder as well this time. We relaxed all afternoon, with really heavy showers interspersed with some sunny spells. At least we have a good view of the marina and the expensive boats with their comings and goings.

TUESDAY 19^th

Once more up in time for the baker lady, a bit foggy and damp, but eventually it cleared. We caught the water bus at 10.45 for the 10 minute trip along to Riddekerk where we hopped on to a smaller boat to take us across to the World Heritage site of Kinderdijk. The whole area is part of the water management system going back to the 1700’s. First 8 brick windmills were built, then another 8 with thatched rooves, plus a couple extra over the years.  All to pump the excess water out of the polders back in to the river Lek and out to sea. The land here is about 6m below sea level and if they stopped pumping for 3 months it would totally flood again. The mills have now been replaced with 2 pumping stations, originally steam driven, but now electric. We walked about 1km along the footpaths and were able to go inside 2 of the mills which have been kept just as they were all those years ago. It is hard to believe that a whole family lived in one, with 13 children, sleeping in cupboard beds with small cribs at the end for the little ones. Outside was a thatched workshop, as well as a kitchen and a wash house complete with tin bath and stove to boil the water. Back at one of the now unused pumping stations we sat and watched a film explaining how everything worked. We met loads of Japanese tourists again with their cameras and also chatted to a family from Melbourne. Then it was across the road to the bus stop and back to Alblasserdam by bus, getting back around 4.00pm.  It had been a lovely day, sunny most of the time with just a couple of showers to remind us that it is now autumn.