European Vacation - Day 11 - Dordrecht

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Tuesday is our first rainy day.  We hope it will be enough rain to raise the water level in the rivers. When I looked out of our cabin window early this morning, I was looking into the window of another riverboat.  During the night another riverboat rafted up with us.We packed our bags placed them in the hall.  The luggage will be taken to the W hotel in Amsterdam and it will be waiting for us when we arrive tonight.  We bid a fond farewell to the whomever was near the gangplank, opened our umbrellas that we brought from home and headed to the train station.  The Amsterdam Central train station is a short walk from our riverboat.  We stopped at the train station to buy our train tickets yesterday.  That way we would not be delayed if there was a long line this morning.  Our track 2a was the farthest possible point in the station. No worries, we boarded a 30 minute earlier train at 9:04 am to travel to Dordrecht.  This is a 1.5 hour train ride to visit our friends Reinout and Irma Klapwijk.  Reinout worked for Rust-Oleum Netherlands.  I met him 25 years ago when I visited the RO factory there.  Reinout is an accomplished sailor and racer do not it off right away.  Reinout has visited Chicago and been sailing on my boat Blue Heaven.Riding the train has its moments.  We boarded the train on the correct platform at the correct time.  The electronic billboard shows Dordrecht as one of the stops.  What could go wrong?  After we board the train we notice the scrolling TV shows this train only going as far as Rotterdam.  There is WiFi on the train so I look up the route and it shows us going all the way to Dordrecht.  Someone sits in a seat near us and I asked her if this train goes to Dordrecht and she replied yes.  I pointed out that the TV shows Rotterdam as the last stop. Another person commented that the train will split in two at Rotterdam and only the front few cars will continue on to Dordrecht.  We have to move to one of the forward cars to get to Dordrecht.   However, you cannot get past one of the cars in the middle so we had to get off the train to go to the front cars. It is a very long train and we were concerned they would shut the doors and leave us on the platform.  We moved forward about 10 cars and got back on.  We checked the TV and it showed Dordrecht as one of the stops.  I think we are going to be OK..

.Dordrecht obtained city rights as early as 1220, making it the oldest city in Holland. Located in a wetland area with such rivers as the Merwede, Noord and Ouwe Maas, it was an important merchant city with a lively trade in wood, cereals and wine. That history, wealth and culture is still clearly visible. Not only does the historic city center of Dordrecht harbor around 1,000 monuments – they are also splendidly used as restaurants, museums and theaters.

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Reinout met us at the train station and we went to a nearby restaurant to meet his wife Irma and 3 year old grandson Max.

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No visit to Holland is complete until you visit a windmill.  Since 40% of Holland is below sea level they have to continuously pump water from the lowlands to the rivers.  This was done for 100’s of years using windmills.  Entire families lived in the windmills.  The father maintained the operation of the paddle wheel pumps and turned the top section with sails (blades) to face into the wind.

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Livng in a windmill can be very dangerous.

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Wooden shoes are still warn by Dutch farmers.  Allegedly  they are warm, inexpensive and comfortable.

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We had lunch at a pub next to Reinout’s new house.  He purchased this warehouse loft on the canals and is carrying out a massive renovation single handed...

This is the final day of our European Vacation.  Tomorrow we will return home in time for the trick or treaters..