When I was staying with Mitch and Lu they had told me about Kinderdijk – one of the picture postcard part of Holland.

I left Nijmegen – loaded up with both my packs on their spare bike and rode to the station where I said goodbye to Lu and hopped on a train to Rotterdam.

The Netherlands being such a small country it didn’t take long to get there. I found a locker big enough for my pack and then went on a walk around Rotterdam downtown while I searched for some lunch. It was extensively bombed in the war, so there is very little in the way of old building left. I did find a rather large market in the centre of the city. It sold everything – fresh vegetables, fish, socks, plants and anything else you could think of.

I had pre-planned my trip to Kinderdijk. The lack of public transport makes it a little inconvenient – but this is The Netherlands and a bike is only a moment away. I made my way to a train station nearby to hire a bike, but was confronted by a small problem. The public transport pass (think Oystercard/Go Card/smartcard thing) I had didn’t allow me to hire bikes. I was left confused for about half an hour, wondering if I was at the right place. I started talking to the caretaker of the bike hire service, and after a conversation in broken English he realised I was a tourist who wanted to ride to Kinderdijk and gave me a bike to hire.

With my camera strapped over my back, and my tripod wedged in place on the back of the bike I rode down towards the ferry whilst getting used to riding again. I had printed a map before I left, so the ferry terminal was easy to find and I didn’t wait long to catch the ferry and ride through the town of Kinderdijk to the scenic windmills on the other side.

My goal was to be a Kinderdijk late in the afternoon to get some nice sunset photos. Unfortunately for me, the weather was not cooperating and the sky was full of clouds. Still, I was able to get some nice photos of the windmills all lined up as the breeze. I only had 45 minutes before the last ferry back (lucky I wasn’t waiting for sunset photos), so I rode around, took my photos and arrived back at the pier just before the ferry arrived.

I returned the bike – no questions asked, caught the train back to Rotterdam, collected my bag and hopped straight onto another train. And just like that I was on my way to my next destination.

This post is tagged Kinderdijk, Rotterdam, The Netherlands