NCL Cruise Day 3 - Netherlands & Amsterdam

After the tour on Day 2, I headed back to the ship and met up with the family for dinner. We then took in a magic show that was quite entertaining.

On the morning of Day 3, being a bit more seasoned we woke and had a sit down breakfast at Hudson's and then went to the Theater for the tour pickup location.  If anything it was even better organized than Day 2 and went a little smoother as people figured out how it all worked.

Boarded the bus and headed into Amsterdam and explore the Netherlands.

We were off to see the first land recovered from the sea.

A lot of the Netherlands is below sea level.  So they used windmills to pump the water out of areas they wanted to reclaim and it would be pumped into canals nearby.

Quite a neat feat of engineering.

The canals tend to divide houses from the road in places, with bridges leading to the driveways.

We got to tour the inside of a working windmill.

That rectangular center piece of timber revolves quite rapidly when the wind blows.  

Interestingly, the top of the windmill building itself is movable and can be revolved and then locked into a new position so the windmill blades always are in the most favorable position for capturing the wind.

The original paddle wheels to scoop the water out were replaced in the late 18th century with Archimedes screws that were more efficient at moving water.

The pumps used to maintain the dry ground and move the water in modern days are all electric powered and the windmills are now mostly for show. Very neat to see how the land was recovered and maintained even as it still sits well below sea level, and indeed below the canals that carry the water out of the reclaimed land.