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THE NETHERLANDS - DAY 1
We left Brussels and boarded a train bound for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Angelique found a 1 cent coin at the train station in Brussels and it seemed to bring us luck all day. Pasqual and Grandad spotted the red light district as we left Brussels and were quite astounded by what they saw in the windows. We changed trains in Antwerpen. Very interesting adult sculptures in their train station.
We arrived in Rotterdam to wind. We are back to single digit degrees. Oh for a hot summer day. We have forgotten what it is like to be warm. Everyone over here says that this cold weather is unusual for this time of year and I'm sure we would cope better if we had planned for the cold conditions but we hadn't. We can only hope that as we move into May the weather finally warms up.
Interesting taxi trip to the hotel. We had to take two taxis. Grandad and Ellexis' driver didn't seem to know where he was going and so a trip that was only suppose to cost 10 euros ended up costing 20 euros. Pasqual spoke to the driver and after careful consideration, he changed it back to 10 euros (just as well as he was the one that didn't know where to go).
We booked in and were informed that the rooms were at the very top of the hotel. Up we went, four flights of unusally steep stairs, and we got to the rooms. The hotel manager's friend kindly took our bags up for us. He didn't even work at the hotel. Pasqual offered to buy him a drink as a thank you because we know how heavy some of our bags are.
We unloaded out stuff, wrapped ourselves up good and tight and ventured forth into Rotterdam. From our window of the hotel we could see a windmill so we headed in that direction.
We arrived at 5 minutes to four and the windmill was closing up for the day. Again Pasqual used his friendly persuasion and the tour guide gave us a personal tour up into the parts that other visitors don't get to see.
We watched as he tied up the sales on the windmill and locked everything up for the night. It was fascinating. The girls, Grandad and I stayed on about the fourth level while Pasqual continued up to the fifth and sixth level with the man. This windmill still produces flour.
Originally there were four windmills in the area. Two were demolished a long time ago. The other one was destroyed by fire over a hundred years ago and left. This one was damaged by fire during the second world war. The locals aren't sure if it was the Dutch or Germans that caused the fire. It was left to ruin until the early 1980s when the locals and Dutch government decided that they were loosing to many of their heritage structures so they raised money to restore the windmill and by 1987 it had been fixed and back in working order.
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