After an early breakfast this morning we arrived in Kinderdijk where we toured a UNESCO World Heritage site. There site was amazing. It had 19 of approximately 1000 remaining windmills in all of Holland. There used to be 10,000. Nine of the windmills were made of wood, and 10 made of cement. The wood ones were more expensive to build. All have people living in them. There are about 5000 licensed millers, and obviously many not working.

The one we visited was built in 1738 and we were lucky to see the miller was working. He was putting out the sails, so it was quite interesting to see him unroll the sails and tie them to the paddles. Then when one was done he moved to the next paddle. We learned about how the position of the paddles meant different things. Low and to the right was if a family was in mourning. Low and to the left was celebration, and other ones meant that the miller was traveling or working on the mill. We learned about the construction of the wind mills, that many were made of 19 kinds of woods, and they were creative in spinning the wood pieces to extend the life of the wood. After taking numerous photos, ant tending a brief workshop walking through the gift shop, we boarded the boat.

We departed at 10:30 from the Lek river and headed towards the Rhine. We learned that we were actually traveling on the Waal, which is still Rhine water.This was the first time we really got to see what the Netherlamds looks like from a moving river boat. It is quite a different experience then any of us have had before. It’s quiet and fast moving. The fist city we passed was Rotterdam where you could see the high rise buildings. Then the captain pointed out a replica of Noah’s ark. It was huge. The Ark was built by Johan Huibers, a contractor from a small village in the Netherlands. In 1992, he dreamt that the waves of the ocean washed over the Netherlands during a great storm. The dream was followed by more signs, meaning he had to rebuild the Ark. However, this time the Ark is not meant to save people from a global flood as Noah did 4000 years ago, but to tell people that there is a God who loves us, and that He has a plan for our lives.

We passed numerous small towns, saw cows, horses, and sheep grazing in fields right next to the water. It seemed odd seeing cows on beaches or cows in the river. There we people walking dogs on the beaches, and every once in a while we’d spot a wind mill, church, ot interesting building. One of the things not in the Viking tour books is the number of barges you see. Not the prettiest view. But we did see a few that would had one car on the back, and it’s because the family lives on the barge, and uses the car when arriving to a port.

We all got to try on our life jackets and go to our designated area on the ship, we had a lovely lunch, and learned about the excursions available.Here are s few things on the itinerary:

• Bowman and John are doing a tour of the rooftop of the cathedral in Cologne; while the rest of us are considering the Gestapo museum
• All of us are visiting Rothenburg which is on the banks of the Tauber River
• Most people are going to the Wachau Valley winery for a visit and tasting
• All of us will visit the Schonbrun Palace in Vienna
• And just a few of us will experience the bathe in Budapest, and hopefully take a night tour around the city