Wednesday, June 10

Whenever someone comes to visit us in Soest, they must visit Amsterdam. Today was that day for Heidi and Doug. But, first they walked over to our restored windmill on the other side of town. On Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays there is a docent there to show you around and explain how all the parts work. Traditionally, there are two main types of windmills in The Netherlands: some grind grain and others pump water. This one is a grinder and it works and they sell the flour they make.

Heidi and Doug walked over and Linda and I drove over a little later and met them there. We were shown 3 levels inside and how the gears worked. When we arrived, the paddles were rotating. We wanted to go up to the fourth level, so the docent in charge stopped them and up we went.

Linda had remembered when we did this before that they used grease on one of the turning parts that they made there and she wanted to see it. They have some type of animal fat hanging from the rafters and when they need more grease, they take some and put it in an old fashioned meat grinder that is attached to the end of a work table. It looks like the kind of thing my mom used to use to make hamburger.

When we went outside on the platform, Linda started asking questions about how they adjusted the sails. Well, don't you know, one thing led to another and he asks her if she wants to participate and she accepts.

Here she is furling the sail which then needs to be secured on some hooks that go up the sail paddle.

The docent asks Linda if she wants to climb up to attach the adjustment line to each of the hooks and, of course, she says yeah.

And up she goes. The docent is behind her to catch her if need be. Remember, this is the girl who fell off her bike in 2011 and broke her elbow. But, she got the job done and got down safely.

After that, we drove back to the house as planned to save time, gathered up backpacks and walked over to the train station. We transferred at Baarn and about an hour later were in Amsterdam.

Doug and Heidi were interested in visiting the Anne Frank house. So, we walked up the main street to the Dam (the city's main square) and turned right, over 3 canals and arrived at THE LINE. I guess there is always a line. This time of year, the museum is opened until nine. We were hungry, so we spent some time looking for the perfect cafe along a canal with something on the menu that we wanted to eat. It took a few minutes, with several rejections, but we found it. One that Linda and I have eaten at before.

The weather was in the high 60's, a perfect day to sit out and eat.

And to meditate.

We finally decided it was time to move on and walked over to the museum. Using museum cards that Kees and Joke had left us, Heidi and Doug were able to get in free. They still had to wait in line for about 50 minutes. Linda and I walked over to a cafe about one block away and sat and watched rush hour on bikes. Linda counted at least 7 bikes that queued for each red light. And some didn't and ran the red light and some almost crashed.

Once we were finished with the museum, we walked toward the Red Light district with heavy marijuana odors in the air. I think Heidi is allergic to it. She started having major sniffles. We were close but I couldn't find the exact locations until I walked over to a taxi driver and asked "where are the girls?". He pointed to around the corner and there they were. So, we did a little "window shopping". 

After a little more walking we stopped at a restaurant called The Grasshopper and had a drink with some wings and fries. They wouldn't just serve us fries by themselves. So we added wings. We also sat inside by a window to look out onto the water. It was starting to get cold. The sun was almost down - after 9:30.

We walked back to the train station and back to Soest at 11:30. 

Long day but really good.