"We haven't seen The Netherlands, yet!"

Overijssel Kampen Windmill

Maddie informed us on Saturday that "we have not seen The Netherlands yet."  Confused, we tried to explain the geography to her over and over again.  Finally, she told us that we have not seen it yet, because we have not seen a windmill, and the windmill means we are in The Netherlands.  :)  Sweet girl (and smart, too!).  So, we went in search of the one and only windmill in Kampen.  Seeing as the town is not all that large, it might have been a 30 minute leisure walk from our house, so completely doable.  We were all excited to see this incredible sight.

To see information on this historic windmill, you can visit the website.  It's all in Dutch. :)

The windmill is still a working mill, grinding and providing flour for two local bakeries in Kampen.  When we arrived, the mill had actually closed down for the day, but the volunteer inside was kind enough to allow us to take a look around.

 Inside the base of the windmill, was a little shop, along with these model windmills that were pretty impressive. We also snagged a few souvenirs, because c'mon, we may be "local," but we are still tourists!  Maddie and Geoffrey each got a windmill pinwheel sort of thing, and I picked up some cake flour ground from this particular mill, which I am excited to use...as soon as we get to our next house, with an oven!

The siding on the mill was made of reeds found on the river bank.  He said that these were put on in 2000, so they hold up pretty well with all the weather conditions they experience here!

The volunteer is explaining how the mill works and makes flour.

That steering wheel is used to turn the entire top of the mill in the correct direction of the wind, in order to put it to good use.

Pretty impressive workmanship.  The windmill has been standing here since 1842, but the volunteer told us there is reason to believe it is much older, based on many of the working parts inside.

We will visit again, and are relieved to know that we have finally "seen The Netherlands." :)

On our way back home, we walked down the main strip of town to look through the market.  As we were perusing through the produce, the bells began to chime, working their way through about an hour worth of music, if not more.  We stopped and listened for quite awhile - the first song we heard was from Fiddler on the Roof (one of my very favorites), and I almost broke into song and dance in the middle of the street. Well, I started and immediately stopped as my husband was giving me pleading looks to knock it off!  Probably not the easiest way for me to make new friends. :)