David's Diary: Sunday, August 27, 2001

Welcome To The Netherlands

After looking at the picture above, where else could we be but in The Netherlands? But while we associate windmills with Holland, the name "Holland" only refers to two of the twelve provinces of The Netherlands. And windmills are mostly a tourist attraction today, although they served an important purpose in the past.

We visited Kinderkijk to see the best preserved windmills in The Netherlands. An Unesco World Heritage Site it has nineteen windmills lining both sides of canals behind the dikes of the Lek River. All of the Kinderkijk windmills are kept in working order with many occupied by families just as they would have been in the past.

We believed that windmills were used to grind flower and for other domestic use. While this may have been true at one time, the majority of windmills in The Netherlands were used to move water. With the majority of the country under sea level, it is critical that water move uphill. While farm fields do not need irrigation, they do need a constant source of power to empty water from the fields. Before the Industrial Revolution, wind power and windmills provided the necessary method to move the water.

Marius Schild

My long-time business associate and friend, Marius Schild, arranged our visit. Marius runs his own company, SAMCO, in The Netherlands and we first met each other at a computer conference in 1982. Marius and his wife Madeleine have always been welcome hosts to Karalee and I. They once again provided us with help on numerous logistical details for our stay in The Netherlands.

View SAMCO Web site.

After our day out, Marius and Madeline invited us to Rasa an Indonesian restaurant. This restaurant is a favorite of Marius' and a fixture for any visitors. I recall that the first time that I visited Rasa was in 1989, the year that the restaurant opened. We had a wonderful meal with a large selection of dishes with the heat turned down because Karalee and the children were there. It had been a long day as Allen fell asleep at the table and Kevin curled up in his chair for a rest while the rest of us enjoyed our special Sunday night dinner.