Sunday 26th of June Bleiswijk to Alpen
We awoke to church bells, chewed our breakfast in time with church bells and were farewelled with church bells. There was no church bells ringing in Gouda when we got there and no cheese for sale because everybody was in church and those not in church were out cycling on serious road-cycling bikes and dressed in lycra.
In the 15th century people suspected of being witches were put though all sorts of tests to see if they were a witch or not; most tests resulted in death or disfigurement. The towns were running out of women so they came up with a new system of weighing them because witches presumably weigh less than their frame size suggests they should. However some towns were corrupt or got it wrong and innocent people were being killed.
Oudewater apparently got it right and had lots of women so their system and scales were considered the most accurate and fair. So off I went to the museum and scales to see if I was a witch, evidently I am not. Roger didn’t come in; he hung outside with all the lycra clad cyclists who stopped for coffee, apple strudel and lashings of cream. The locals were cleaning the streets because it was the end of a 2two day witches festival - just missed that one. However we did time our arrival for the locals getting out of church and the tourist attractions opening right on queue.
We left our base today with blue sky and a bit of warmth, however as we approached the industrial city of Rotterdam it started to rain. We proceeded to the little village of Kinderdijk which has several canals that are lined with windmills. The windmills are either lived in or maintained as working mills for the tourists to visit.
Rather than pay €7.50 each for a canal ride and tour of a windmill we took the long canal walk. Just as we got to the end and had a real Dutch ice cream an electrical storm occurred and we got drenched making our way back to the motor home.
Having had enough Dutch culture we headed back to Germany to venture south. Tonight’s stop was to be Xanten where there is a Archaeological Roman Village, however they are not to good on cheap camping so we went to the next village of Alpen where we are hanging out at the Tennis Club as one does on a Sunday.
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Shelter from the storm
Windmills at Bleiswijk
Windmills at Bleiswijk
Windmills at Bleiswijk
A witch from Gouda
