After the storm

It was a quiet night when the wind finally died down, and the day dawned bright and sunny, which was a relief. We set off for Leiden through a series of lifting bridges, all controlled from a central point. The system works very well, with few delays. After a while we even came to a lock, in the middle of a small town, with cafés on the lock wall.

On the way out, after going down all of 35 centimetres,  there were a couple of bronze statues to admire.

The owner of the sailboat locking through with us said that yesterday’s storm was the worst summer storm recorded in Holland since 1914, while apparently Reuters says it was the worst July storm ever recorded in the Netherlands, with one person killed and much disruption to transport. If Reuters says so, it must be true! Certainly we saw a lot of tree branches down along the canal. At lunchtime we found our way to the municipal moorings in Leiden and found a space to tie up. After lunch it was the walk into the centre heading for the Botanical Gardens, which are some of the oldest in the world.

The gardens are attached to the university, and are bordered on one side by a canal. They are delightful, even if many of the flowers had passed their best. In the vast glasshouses, there were orchids and other exotics to enjoy.

There was also storm damage here:

Our next target was a museum in a windmill, another longish walk across town, but well worth it:

We hadn’t realized how many different functions the mills had, not just milling, but pumping water to keep the land dry, cutting timber into planks and all sorts of other things. The family lived on the lower floors:

And you don’t really appreciate the size of the sails until you get up onto the platform:

When we emerged, it was starting to rain again – I hope the fine weather hasn’t gone for good. We could do without another storm.

As a postscript, in response to popular demand, i.e. a comment from Claudia, here are a couple of pix of Saskia’s main cabin, by day …

… and ready for bed: