Thursday, August 14, 2014

Thursday - The last day of the Adamson's visit. Time flies - it just seems like a few days ago we were picking them up at the airport. 

Anyway, the plan for today was to visit Kinderdijk. Kees and Joke took us to this place when we first arrived this year and we thought it would be an interesting place to show Frank and Lynda. We left in the rain but arrived to partly cloudy and dry weather. So Dutch.

On the drive Frank treated us to one of his puns as we looked out onto the fields by the road: "Frank, out standing in his field". We get these from time to time.

Along the major roads, you see these "BOB" signs. We believe they have something to do with promoting using a designated driver when you've been out drinking. Each one has a different picture in the "O". Can you see what this one is? A couple of weeks ago we drove through a BOB checkpoint coming out of Spakenburg. They didn't stop us but the young people with BOB vests on looked like they were working with the police.

There were people all over the place when we arrived. When Kees and Joke brought us it was June and almost deserted. Now that its August (holiday month in Europe) the tourist were out in force. There were tour buses parked near by and a Viking River Cruise boat anchored across the road. 

Kinderdijk is a complex of 17, formerly 19, windmills that were used to pump water from one section of land to the other. Now, they use this big Archimedes Screw.

The windmills are surrounded by canals and fields. They create a nice picture opportunity. We walked around the complex to take pictures.

Two girls on a bridge.

Two guys with hats.

Two guys without hats.

We stopped at the nearest cafe: The Buena Vista and ate lunch. I guess because of the tourist attraction, the menu included English. Always helpful.

This very stiff guy was holding the menu for your perusal. 

The cafe's building dates back to the 1600's and was charming inside.

We drove straight back to Soest so Lynda could select her airline seats for tomorrow's flight. 

A late dinner of fish from the fishmonger on the main street and salad. The Robin Williams memoriam continued on TV with a showing of Awakenings with Williams and Robert DeNiro. Sad plot and sad to watch someone act who you really liked and know is no longer with us.