Windmills

I met with Tin Tin this mornig as planned in front of Cantraal Staion. We bought our tickets, and headed toward Koog-Zaandijk, where we understood ( by refrence of her travel guide) there would be windmills. A woman on the train gave us the run-down on the best way to see the windmills. We were happy to take her advice and upon arriving at our stop, set out in accordance with her directions. We came across a bicycle rental entrepreneur. Tin Tin and I agreed that it would be a lovely day to ride bikes, so we each rented one from the kind man, and set off. The weather was gorgeous and we soon saw windmills on the horizon from the town of De Zaanse. We rode across a beautiful modern bridge and were soon at the village. De Zaanse was at one point a functioning cocoa mill, and grain processing hub. Today it is home to one of the largest tourist traps in Holland. There were lovely paved walkways along the stretch of manicured farmland. There was a line of seven windmills, four of which were turning in full force. It was beautiful to see among the crowds of other tourists. Each windmill, though part of the same attraction, charged admission between one to three euros. There were strupwaffel stands which sold individual waffels (note strupwaffel is very much different from a stanfard waffel) for a euro a piece. We chose to reserve our money, and spend our time instead riding our bikes around the town. We got off the beaten path a bit and found ourselves riding on a path through a field of barley. The grass was tall and the soil was moist. We got off our bikes and began to walk. After some time we came to a narrow bridge which we used great care in crossing with our bikes, as it only had on guard rail. We came across more bridges, these with both rails, which we forged. We used one bridge as a photo opportunity. I posed in a handstand in the center of the bridge and Tin Tin captured a great photo of it. We found a bench which overlooked the farmland, windmills in the background. We sat and took out or sketchbooks. Tin Tin brought a large drawing pad, and filled the page with observational drawings from her vantage point. I accentuated a drawing that I'd done earlier of a windmill. After finishing our respective drawings, we went to the De Zaanse Museum. We skipped past the ticket desk without paying. I was happy that we didn't pay. Inside, we found what was essentially another tourist trap, filled with a collection of rural antique whatever-the-fucks, most of which were poolry lit and unlabeled. There were several paintings whose frames cast a harsh shadow across the center of the painting. There was however, no shortage of things which could be purchased. We skipped out on the gift shop, and rode back to our bicycle entrepeneur friend to return the bikes. On the way we found a brilliant skatepark underneath a bridge, with beautiful graffiti adorning all of the walls. We spent some time taking photos and watching the skateboarders before continuing on and returning our bikes. We took the train back to Amsterdam, where we set off walking to the Houseboat Museum. upon arriving, I split off to return to Bloemgracht and prepare for travels ahead. Tin Tin offered that I come visit her in Paris, or during the summer months in Cheng Du, China. I returned the offer, and we parted ways. I will be hapy to continue our friendship.