Wednesday, 31 July 2019

Haarlem, Netherlands 7 of 7


We were a little early and had to wait for our tour to begin so I lay down on a bench seat and slept. After about 20 minutes I found I had enough energy to do the tour. The windmill was fascinating to explore. Our guide was an elderly gentleman who had once worked on the mill which used wind power to grind wheat seeds into flour. The windmill had been constructed in timber over 100 years ago and it is still functioning. The tour begin with a winding staircase which lead up to the first floor . There were five floors altogether in this huge windmill and to get to each level we had to climb ladders with wide wooden rungs. There was no safety rope, we just climbed- this wouldn't be allowed in Australia today.  However, no one fell and we all manage to reach each level safely. On each level our guide gave  very detailed information about the history of the mill and then demonstrated how each of the inner workings of the windmill functioned. 

It was very interesting and just watching how the wooden cogs fitted so well together, was amazing. We even got to see some grain being ground and watched the flour dropping into bags. Finally we reached the top open deck level of the windmill where we had a 360 degree view of the area around the windmill and the canal. We also got to see the size of the huge arms of the windmill's blades.
Carefully we descended the wooden ladders and arrive back on the footpath. This was our final excursion for the day and we headed  back to our meeting place where our coach met us and drove us back to the Sea Princess. As soon as I reached our cabin I climbed into bed thoroughly exhausted. 
I was to spend the next six days in isolation in our state room with visits to the doctor on board the ship and meals being delivered to my room. I slept a lot but was very unwell and I missed four port visits over the insuring days.  Ken went on the port tours and returned each day and shared his photos with me so I feel I've had a clayton's visit of these four Ports.
Ken  is going to write up the blogs for the next four ports    

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