AMSTERDAM NOTES

                                      Some Fun  Trivia

 Nether means low land and since so much of the country is reclaimed land, the topography is very flat.

Amsterdam is full of bicycles. It is estimated there are 12 million bikes in the country. Bikes are just a means of transportation to go shopping, to work or to school. There about 11,000 miles of biking paths or special lanes.

Years ago taxes were paid on the width of a house so the houses are very narrow. Most houses are two or

House hoist

three stories high. By necessity, stairways are also narrow making getting furniture to the upper levels difficult, if not impossible. Hoists, used to lift furniture to the upper floors, are seen at the top of many buildings.

Old canals were filled in and made into roads and new canals dug. The shallow canals contain only about seven feet of water. The water level is fixed and stable. There are 2500 house boats on the canals.

The first church service was held in 1631 in Westerkert. At that time it was the largest Protestant Church. The 85-meter tall tower is topped with the Imperial Crown and the city’s coat of arms of Maximilian. Rembrandt is buried at Westerkert, and it was this church’s bells that Anne Frank could hear while in hiding

The Royal Palace is on  Dam Square

The Rijkmuseum, built in 1885 houses  important Dutch and Flemish paintings, and the building itself is extraordinary. Rembrandt’s Night Watch is a huge painting and has many details, some obvious, and many hidden.

Since the 16^th century Amsterdam has been an important center for the world’s diamond trade. Both the world’s largest and smallest diamonds were cut here and are part of the English crown jewels in the Tower of London.

By 1274 there were many watermills driven by rivers and streams. In 1414 the earliest drainage mills were invented and by 1450 many could be found in South Holland. The invention of the camshaft and crankshaft in the 17^th century made it possible to use the wind to power the mills. Although the mills did not originate in Holland, the Dutch developed the mills and made maximum use of them.

 Wooden shoes are traditional and have been found to be warmer and dryer than rubber boots. Clogs are mostly worn in the countryside and in fishing villages.  Three million pairs of clogs are manufactured every year. At one time leather shoes were a luxury only the wealthy could afford.

WINDMILLS OF HOLLAND

                                Kinderdijk

            Kinderdijk is a small village 16 kilometers from Rotterdam and a little less than 10 kilometers from the city border of Dordrecht, the oldest city in Holland. The village is unique for its 19 windmills dating from the 1500s.

The name is derived from a 16^th century legend about a baby, a cradle and a cat that all survived after being tossed into raging waters. For centuries the Dutch were at the mercy of floods. The innovative structures drain water from  polders (reclaimed land below sea level) pumping it into rivers and canals. This distributes the water levels and prevents devastating flooding. Today engines turn paddle wheels that scoop up water to redeposit it. Understandably the country has a unique bond with windmills.

            Kinderdijk is the only place in the world where one can find so many windmills concentrated in such a small area, and is the reason Kinderdijk is a UNESCO site.

            The Kinderdijk milling complex consists of 8 stone brick windmills,1738, of the waterboard Nederwaard; 8 thatched windmills, 1740, of the waterboard Overwaard; 2 stone windmills, 1760,  of the polder Nieuw-Lekkerland; and 1 windmill, 1521,  of the polder Blokweer. The last windmill  burned down in 1997, but has been rebuilt and operational since the spring of 2000.  

Kinderdijk is the final station of water of the Alblasserwaard, an area approximately 10 by 20 miles, before the river Lek empties into the sea. Even today rain water needs to be disposed of. Since the 1950's water has been pumped by one of the largest pumping stations in the world.  However, in case of emergency, the windmills that were operational until WW II still can be used.

Windmills have two doors on opposite sides because the blades are always facing the wind, and the direction of the wind vary. The blades turning in front of the door make for a dangerous situation!

The top floor of the windmill rotates with the blades and the tail of the mill, and therefore a chimney cannot be attached to the roof. Sparks of the open fire used to heat the windmill might set the thatch roof on fire. The chimney of a windmill is horizontal instead of vertical. The smoke would be blown down if there was only one ending. The second ending creates a natural draft through the chimney pulling the smoke out.

A windmill is a windmill. Not necessarily so! Watermills, can drain the land like in Kinderdijk. Grindingmills, grind flour, as well as colors to dye fabrics. Sawing mills cut wood. There are also modern two or three-blade electricity windmills. Windmills have different shapes and constructions. Windmills in old cities were built on a house, so they would reach over the buildings of the city. Windmill blades are 42-feet long and mills are placed at least 1300-feet apart. There are 1000 windmills left in Holland, a tiny fraction of the many mills that once dotted the landscape.

When there is a hole in the sail, it is patched, if there is another hole another patch is made, and when there are more patches than sail the sail is replaced. The old sail would be used for making children’s clothes. Capacity of an older windmill is 40.000 liters/min while capacity of the Nederwaard pumps is 1.350.000 liters/min.

DUTCH WINDMILLS

                            Romantic Windmills

   

 I’m as intrigued with windmills as I am lighthouses and during my first short stay in Amsterdam I learned a bit about the windmills that have been part of the Dutch landscape for five centuries. It was explained to us, “There were two kinds of windmills. There were those used as a source of power, also called industrial windmills since they provided power for sawmills or gristmills. Then there were watermills or drainage mills used to keep water behind levies. These mills produced polders or reclaimed land.

      “By 1274 there were many watermills driven by rivers and streams. In 1414 the earliest drainage mills were invented and by 1450 many could be found in South Holland. The invention of the camshaft and crankshaft in the 17^th century made it possible to use the wind to power the mills. Although the mills did not originate in Holland, the Dutch developed the mills and made maximum use of them.”

       First the steam engine, then the combustion engine, and finally the electric motor brought the usefulness of the mills to a quick end. By 1923 only 3000 of the 10,000 mills in Holland remained and today the 1000 surviving mills are protected living monuments.

A lot of the windmills had living quarters at ground level that a keeper lived in just like they did in lighthouses years ago before everything was automated.

Someone in our group said that he had read the parchment paper that the Declaration of Independence was written on in 1776 was believed to have come from De Schoolmeester windmill, built in 1692.

A WW buff told us that windmills have four blade positions, and that during WW II prearranged resting positions signaled messages of approaching raids to those in hiding. Fascinating!

Leaving Amsterdam we glimpsed a few operating windmills in the distant pasturelands.

No matter what their use, I think windmills are picturesque and romantic.