2015. Warmest December on record. El Niño is in the air and there is no snow to speak of around the Alps so I thought it's the perfect time to go biking with the kids in Holland.
28 Dec 2015. Day 1 of our trip and it's sunny
and calm. 10-degree at 10am isn't bad considering it's still winter.
The weather on the way to the Eurotunnel the
day before had been horrid. So the positive change was welcomed. The kids have
always been into windmills in the UK and Maud Foster in Boston particularly
stands out. Kinderdijk (read “dyke”) is regarded as the number one windmill
attraction of Holland and we were not disappointed.
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| Google map suggested route did not include the Molendijk |
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| s-Gravenweg: canals around every house |
From the excellent Novotel Brainpark, it's an
11km ride from the right side of Rotterdam. Half the way is wide dedicated
cycle lanes and the other half is country side or single residential road -
some with non-dedicated cycle lanes - that need extra care for the 4 year old
but he learns fast.
For most part the scenery is pleasing rather
than spectacular. The posh neighbourhood 's-Gravenweg was memorable for the Zen
gardens and artistic designs, as were the new-built "composer"
residential area with streets named after every classical composers you can think
of.
After crossing the road bridge over Ijssel
river we cycled across the open field instead of the Lekdijk/Molendijk roads to the
Kinderdijk ferry crossing.
We had lunch at Cafe de Klok which has a nice view over the fields and served a
nice spicy chicken pitta and simple ham and cheese sandwiches with a good
selection of beers (including non-alcoholic) for a good price.
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| Crossing the Lek at Krimpen |
The whole site has a great panoramic view of the 19 windmills. There were several windmills running but only one (running) Nederwaard No. 1 were open to visitors.
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| Museumolen Blokweer |
The other included in the ticket is cute
residential Museumolen Blokweer which I had sketched from a Dutch painting in
some other European museum! I thought the multimedia presentation of the
Kinderdijk history was a bit OTT.
The only flaw in the plan was the non-running waterbus back to Rotterdam. I had confused Line 202 with Line 20 but was told by the shopkeeper that they haven’t seen 202 running that day. So that’s another nice 11km ride back to the hotel.
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| Crossing Erasmus Bridge to Fenix Food Factory |
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| Brilliant cycle lanes in Rotterdam |
