Sailing on the Wind

Note:  This post was a collaborative writing project between Joy and Ana.

There's nothing more Dutch than windmills (well--maybe cheese...or chocolate...or klompen...)

Windmills have been part of the landscape of Holland for centuries because they were an important way to move the water away from the land.





But as the name "mill" implies, they were also used for grinding things like corn into meal flour, grain into bread flour and chalk stone into a powder that is used for making paints.

A few weeks ago, we got our first tour of a windmill.  On a very windy day, the miller took us up the stairs and into all the levels--even up to the cap!

Windmills need to face into the wind.  So the miller has to judge where the wind is and turn the top of the mill so that it catches the wind properly.   

The sails on a windmill function like a cross between a boat sail and a propellor.  They are really big when you see them in person, and they can spin really quickly!  

Somedays it is too windy so the miller needs to trim the sail a bit by pulling the cloth off of the wooden grid.

If the sail gets going too fast, it can get damaged by breaking off.  The other risk is fire!


When the sails rotate too quickly, the gears inside rub together, increasing friction and heat and eventually causes a fire.

It was a windy day when we were on the mill so the miller trimmed the sails on this working windmill.

 

Inside the mill there are gears and a large iron rod that attaches to the outside sails.
The wind turns the sails.

The sails turn the rod

The rod turns the gears.

The gears turn other things that get the work done.





In grain mills, the main gears turn one large stone that is positioned on top of another large stone.  Grain is poured between the two stones where it is crushed and flour comes out.

The Miller makes the decision of when to put the two gears together.  He can put them together or separate them by pulling on a rope.  

In this way he can stop the grinding or get it going again. 

Another job that the gears do is to lower and raise the heavy grain sacks from the ground level into the middle floor where the grain is crushed.  

Rather than having a person raise and lower the bags by hand, 

the rope is attached to a rod 

that is attached to a gear 

that is attached to a wheel.  

When the Miller connects the gears to this rod and wheel, 

it quickly raises the bag with no effort.   

We got to sit in the "sky box" of the mill!  It is at the very top of the windmill--we climbed lots of steps to get up here. This cap is what turns in order to get the sails to face the wind.







This is our view out the little window in the top of the grain mill.

This past week we saw some more windmills at the famous Kinderdijk:

We saw the only windmill that is still working to crush chalk into paint.  Famous painters have come here for hundreds of years to get their chalk to make paint

  

A Day in Harderwijk

The title of this sabbatical is "Going Home" and we have been visiting places that have been "home" to us--places that have shaped our faith and our family.
Today we went home with my mom to the town she grew up in Holland.

My mom was born in Friesland--a northern province of the Netherlands.  When she was 2, her family moved to the sea port town of Harderwijk where my grandfather owned a metal working factory.

After World War 2 when my mom was 11 years old, the family sold the factory and immigrated to Wisconsin.  Mom has been back to the town a few times since then--she and I were in Harderwijk together in 1997.  But this was a special opportunity to show Ana and Mia their grandma's home town.

A few things have changed in 60 years!  The town has grown and modern shops line the busy streets. The most significant change is that Harderwijk is no longer a port!  In 1933, a large dike (the Afsluitdyk) was completed along the north sea.  Bit by bit, the Dutch reclaimed land from the sea (see green areas).  By 1986, the water north of Harderwijk had been pumped away forming an entirely new province called Flevoland--the largest green area.  It was separated from the original mainland of the Netherlands by a river.  

When my Mom was a girl, she had visited the harbor and looked out onto the Ijsselmeer and out to the sea.   But today, the view is just across a river to Flevoland.

We walked around the town for 5 hours, starting at the very old Fishport--one of the original gates of the city wall which were built in the 1200s.

We saw the town hall where my mom's older brother George married my Aunt Rita and her older sister Sieta married Uncle Dick before they left Holland for America.

The old church--built around 1350-- in the center of town was renovated 30 years ago and they discovered beautiful murals underneath layers of paint.

We happened to get into the building because they were setting up for a concert this afternoon.  This was going to be a contemporary Christian music group.  Notice the contrast of the old organ pipes and the new sound board.

The custodian allowed me into the pulpit for a picture.

In the middle of our day, we stopped for yummy fries and a Dutch treat--croquettes!

We walked down the alleys that my mom walked to school.
We saw the church she attended as a girl.

Then we walked to the house where she lived with her 7 brothers and sisters and parents: #19 Mauritslaan.

What a day of remembering and reliving the stories of my mom's life!

Psalm 22

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Rien Poortvliet (Dutch artist) from He Was One of Us


David said it.
Jesus said it. 

Psalm 22 -- the gut wrenching emotion of an embattled human king with enemies attacking from the outside and plotting from the inside, pain and loss on every side, strength fading, wondering if he can take another minute of this weary life.

Mark 15:34 -- the dying gasp of the King of Kings, bound hand and foot, stripped naked and lifted for all to stare and sneer.

They said it for us...

For all of us who--at one time or another--have ever been abandoned, alone, forgotten, abused, misrepresented, mocked, ridiculed, weary, defeated.

One king--

human like us to tell the truth about our condition.

The other king--

human like us and God for us in order to change our condition. 

Read the Psalm.  The whole Psalm.  Don't give up--get to verse 22 and finish it.

As we walk the journey of the cross this week, believe that there is no loneliness or pain in our lives that He has not already endured...endured and conquered!

 And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  Hebrews 12: 1b-3

Lament is embedded in hope.  That's how I heard it sung by the Psalm Project last Sunday night.  Listen to their voicing of this Psalm in Dutch.  Psalm Project singing Psalm 22

(Also available here in an English version--highly recommend the whole album.) Purchase Psalm Project CD here.

Psalm 22^[a]

    For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.

 ¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
   Why are you so far from saving me,
   so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
   by night, but I find no rest.^[b]

 ³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
   you are the one Israel praises.^[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
   they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried out and were saved;
   in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

 ⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
   scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
   they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸ “He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
   “let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
   since he delights in him.”

 ⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
   you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰ From birth I was cast on you;
   from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

 ¹¹ Do not be far from me,
   for trouble is near
   and there is no one to help.

 ¹² Many bulls surround me;
   strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
¹³ Roaring lions that tear their prey
   open their mouths wide against me.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
   and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
   it has melted within me.
¹⁵ My mouth^[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
   and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
   you lay me in the dust of death.

 ¹⁶ Dogs surround me,
   a pack of villains encircles me;
   they pierce^[e] my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ All my bones are on display;
   people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them
   and cast lots for my garment.

 ¹⁹ But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
   You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
²⁰ Deliver me from the sword,
   my precious life from the power of the dogs.
²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
   save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

 ²² I will declare your name to my people;
   in the assembly I will praise you.
²³ You who fear the LORD, praise him!
   All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
   Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
²⁴ For he has not despised or scorned
   the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
   but has listened to his cry for help.

 ²⁵ From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
   before those who fear you^[f] I will fulfill my vows.
²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied;
   those who seek the LORD will praise him—
   may your hearts live forever!

 ²⁷ All the ends of the earth
   will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
   will bow down before him,
²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD
   and he rules over the nations.

 ²⁹ All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
   all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
   those who cannot keep themselves alive.
³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
   future generations will be told about the Lord.
³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness,
   declaring to a people yet unborn:
   He has done it!

An Artsy Day

On Tuesday we took three busses through the countryside to make our way to a museum tucked inside the National Park.  It's in the part of Holland known as the Veluwe--a lovely forested area.  The bus dropped us at the entrance to the park and we picked up three of the white bikes-to-borrow that are available at various stations.

We rode the bikes into the park to the Kroller-Muller museum.

The paintings in this museum were owned by Helene Kroller-Muller (1869-1939) until economic difficulties in the 1930s.  Rather than selling off the art, Helene donated it to the Dutch State with the condition that the pieces be kept together and that a museum be built for public viewing.

Helene's favorite painter was Vincent Van Gogh and the museum has the largest collection of his works with the exception of the Van Gogh family collection.

Van Gogh: Women Digging Up Potatoes

Van Gogh: Bridge at Arles

Most of the other paintings are modern including several Picassos. 

The girls enjoyed seeing the different styles of art--they were even surprised that some of the modern paintings were famous art work--"They look like scribbles--I think I can paint that!"

Ana did like this one:

There are a variety of sculptures on the lawn of the museum.  Some of them were really modern and made us wonder who left the construction tools out on the lawn.

Our favorite was the floating duck.

It was a good field trip to see some really famous art work.
And some of the art work was huggable.

We took the bikes back out of the park and found our way back to Nijkerk by bus. 

LEKKERRRRRR!!

Playing Monopoly

The girls and I are enjoying some nights of playing Monopoly together.  We're learning as we play since this is the Dutch version.

The properties are famous sites in Holland..

• I own Schipol Airport and Amsterdam Central Station--costing the kids a whopping €500,000 in rent when they land on either one.
• Mia just bought the Dom tower in Utrecht--the one we climbed yesterday--for €1.8 million.  She already owned the highest rental property: Dam Square in Amsterdam.  It costs us €500,000 to land there--and that is without any apartments or hotels.
• Ana owns the Internet, several properties in Haarlem and a piece of Madurodam--both places we hope to visit in coming weeks.

The kids love the electronic device that keeps track of our money on our Visa debit cards.  I think it is ironic that the ONLY place that Visa is welcome in Holland is on a Monopoly board.

It has been one of the few frustrations of this trip to discover that Holland has its own banking system--involving their own chip cards--and hardly any shops accept international credit cards.  I can't even buy train tickets with my Visa.

Today, I saw this sign at the Kroller-Muller museum--a popular tourist site--and just had to take a picture since it was the first place in all of Holland to accept my Visa.

The other fun part of playing Monopoly in Dutch is that we can't read the "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards.  So we have the computer open to Google translate and have to type in all the cards to find out what they say.
We're learning that je krijgt means "you get,"
betaal means "pay," and
Ga direct near de gevangenis.  Ga niet langs "start." Je krijgt been €2 milioen means, "Go directly to jail.  Do not pass "go," You do not get €2 million.
Yes, the new annual salary of Monopoly is €2 million!
That's US$ 2.8 million.

The View From Up Here

The Netherlands is a relatively flat country, so if you can find a way to get up above the rooftops, you can see for miles on a clear day.  Today was a clear day --and we found the highest point around--the Dom Tower in the city of Utrecht.

After a morning train ride, we met up with a friend of Koekoes (now a friend to us too!)
Corine showed us around town on another warm and sunny day.




Together we climbed the 465 steps to the top of the 111 meter tower.

463...464...465!

Yeah!  We made it to the top!

Construction on the Dom Church began in 1280 and stopped in the mid 1500s.  Toward the end of the construction, there wasn't much money for building, so they cut a few corners in the construction of the nave by not doubling the walls and by deleting the buttresses that were commonly used to hold up the enormously high walls.

Notice the secure and ornate buttresses on this wall.

In 1654, a hurricane hit this part of Holland, tearing through the church.  When the wind died down, the tower and the main church remained, but the nave had been completely destroyed. Now there is an open square between the walls of the church and the church's own tower.  From above you can see where they were once connected.

Some of the largest bells in the tower date back to medieval times.  Their tones are accurate to the "do, re, mi" in the musical scale.  Somehow, they had the understanding back then on how large and thick to cast the bell to ring at just the right tone.  The bells are enormous and weigh a ton (actually the largest one is over 9 tons!)  It is named Salvator and 4 trained and fit people have to work together in order to ring it.

Ana and Mia got to be the "ding-a-lings" of our group and ring some smaller bells.

From the top of the tower, we had a postcard view of the city and surrounding area.

 At the end of a long day, it was nice to sit on the train and think about another great day in Holland.