Kinderdjik & The Hauge, Netherlands: Rain(bows), Wind(mills), & Sun(sets)

As I alluded to in the last post, I met a new friend my first night in Rotterdam, Sidney from Guangzhou, and she was gracious enough to let me tag along with her to Kinderdjik. This was fortuitous as I had done absolutely none of the legwork in how to actually get to Kinderdjik. Love it when I can just relax and let someone else do the leading! 

To get to Kinderdjik you have to take a ferry to another ferry which ultimately drops you off at the town. What is Kinderdjik you ask? It's a UNESCO site comprising around 18 windmills built in the mid 1700's. It's one of the best preserved windmill sites in the Netherlands and a hotspot for Chinese blitzkrieg-style tourism. 

As we walked through the town you could immediately tell you were in the Netherlands from the decorations adorning the doorways of the houses.

As you come around the bend you get a quick peak at the windmill farm. Pretty freaking cool.

I'm not going to post every picture but this is one of those times where it's probably worth checking out the whole set on flickr. But I'll give you some highlights. This is the second series built along the left of the canal as you approach.

Here's a shot of Sidney taking a picture of other windmills, ha.

We noticed a rainbow streaking through the clouds and I got this picture which I didn't think would turn out but it did! Kev's camera rules.

Probably my favorite picture from Kinderdjik, a series of mills all lined up along the canal. There was only one spot where you could get this shot and you had to defeat 30 Chinese tourists to do so.

I also took a shot of the placard of the mill inner workings which is pretty interesting. Something I didn't know: the positioning of the blades means different things. There is a lever that they pull to unlock the blades and allow them to turn and thereby spin the mill. Otherwise it just sits in a stationary position.

And finally, one of Sidney and I at the mill that was running that day.

After wandering around the windmills for a while we took the ferry and the other ferry back to Rotterdam. My initial plan for the remainder of the day was to walk around Rotterdam but when Sid said she was going to Den Haag I decided to impose on her once more. While we were lucky to have pleasant weather in the morning, we were not so lucky at Den Haag in the afternoon. It poured pretty much the entire time we were there. Starting when we emerged from the station into the very modern section of the city.

Despite the rain we trudged through to the city center where we located the Binnenhof complex which houses the Dutch parliament. Just a quick history lesson, Den Haag (or The Hague), while not the capital of the Netherlands, is the political center of the country. It houses the parliament (below), the Supreme Court, and is also the residence of the Royal Family. 

Inside the main courtyard of the Binnenhof there is a church and a statue and lots of gold-clad thingys. Yay gold!

Since our map didn't have any descriptions of what we were seeing, I had to pull the patented Mike Steele maneuver of just making up history for each of the sights. The Binnenhof was of course Harry Potter's school. The church was the factory where all stroopwafels in the Netherlands are made. And this statue I deemed Frederich I, a prince of Holland whose favorite pastime was to have seagulls rest atop his head. Which is why his statue depicts him removing his hat and, as luck would have it, a seagull just happened to oblige us.

One of the main attractions in The Hague is the Mauritshuis museum which houses a number of Ducth masterpieces including the Girl with the Pearl Earing. We walked around in the rain for what seemed like ages until we finally came across it. Only...

It was closed for renovation! What isn't closed for renovation these days?! According to the signs, or at least I think according to the signs- again I can't read Dutch, they moved most of the works to another museum. We attempted to follow the signs but they just led us back out to the main street. It seemed a bit counter intuitive. The information about the museum was in tiny little print but then you had these enormous arrows directing you where to go.

We eventually came to realize that the museum they had been relocated to was a 20 minute bus ride out of town so we bailed. We soldiered on through the rain for a while before finally taking a coffee break near the palace. It was a wise idea as when we emerged the clouds had just started to break and a brilliant sunset was casting pinks and oranges across the landscape.

We walked over to the palace which was closed for the day. I actually like this picture of Sidney taking a picture of it more than the actual picture I took of it. 

But even more, I like these next two. One is of the sun coming through the trees in the palace park.

And the other is of the sunset on the pond and other palace building. The afternoon went from dreary to beautiful in about 10 minutes. It doesn't even look real.

On the way back to the center of town we again passed a cafe that I found hilarious, not because of the cafe itself but of how it aligned all of the patrons. It looks like either: (a) a bunch of people in a giant toaster oven; or (b) a group of people getting ready to watch a kabuki performance. I was really tempted to pull up a chair facing them just to see what people's reaction would be.

The central part of the city looks much prettier at night and not in the rain. We were also lucky enough that they had apparently started decorating for Christmas. It looked almost magical as we strolled through the main shopping drag of Den Haag.

Eventually I spotted something I had been looking for since day one in the Netherlands: a stand making fresh stroopwafels. Sidney was unfamiliar with these culinary delights and I insisted that she try one. I firmly believe that when someone else introduces you to something really cool on the road, its your traveler's duty to pay it forward. And stroopwafels should be shared with the world.

Eventually the random wanderings led, as always seems the case, to Chinatown. I swear I don't plan this. Well, Rotterdam's I did because I wanted noodles, but all the other times it's just random. I seem to gravitate toward them. Anyway, I like this Chinatown the best of what I had seen in the Netherlands because it was pretty big and they lit the streets with cool red lanterns. Which reminds me, have you seen Raise the Red Lantern? Great film, I suggest you check it out.

By this point I Sidney thought we were completely lost. But she didn't realize that as an Emperor, I have an innate sense of direction. I took two turns and we went three blocks and lo and behold: the central station. Just as if I had planned it that way. It was at this point I had to bid my new friend farewell. She was on her way to see a friend in Amsterdam and I had to retire back to Rotterdam. We said our goodbyes on the train platform and, once again, I was solo, riding that silver bullet to my next destination.

If you end up in or around the Rotterdam area I recommend taking some time to see Kinderdjik and The Hague. Kinderdjik is a half day affair. The Hague could be a full day or maybe even two days if the Mauritshuis is open. In addition to what we saw there is the Peace Palace which we didn't make it to due to the rain. But I heard good things from other travelers. 

With the last day in Rotterdam, which I already posted, this concluded my time in the land of wooden shoes. And just in case you were wondering- nobody wears those anymore... except me because I was tragically misinformed at the train station by a cruel prankster. Those things really hurt your feet, but not nearly as much as the emotional pain from the public ridicule. To sum up the Netherlands, in the words of Nigel Powers: "There's only two things I hate in this world, people who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch."  Only kidding, the Dutch are fantastic.