Sheep, goats, and oh, don't forget the windmills!

How could I (almost) have forgotten our excursion to Kinderdijk!?

The one thing that Matt and Dan agreed they should see while they were in Holland was windmills. And what better place to go to see windmills than Kinderdijk? That and I live closer to Rotterdam than to Amsterdam so the choice was easy. We made the trip without incident - I think D & M were almost as charmed by the little village of Kinderdijk as they were by the windmills. :)

We found parking and stumbled out of the KA, and headed off toward the windmills, M & D trailing behind, probably sharing some American conspiracies. *chuckle* Hey now, wait a minute, why wasn't I included, guys? Oh well, anyway, M & D "ooh"-ed and "aah"-ed appropriately, and I was satisfied. Quite a few people were there walking as well, some with their dogs, as it was a pretty nice day. Marnix and I walked on ahead at a steady pace. M stopping every so often to take some photos. Marnix and I had gotten a little ways ahead when I saw something white and fuzzy on the far bank, on the other side of the water, as luck would have it. My eyes aren't exactly what I'd call great, so I figured it was some fluffy white dog and left it at that. When we drew nearer, though, I could see that it was actually a sheep in distress. The poor thing was stuck on it's back, little black legs waving around in the air as it struggled to right itself - silently, I might add. Where were the other sheep? Where was the brave shepherd who was supposed to look after them? (Okay, maybe I read too many fantasy stories) And more importantly, how in the heck were we supposed to get across the water to help it?

I had seen competitions on TV where Dutch people used poles to leap rather impressively wide canals and ditches, so I urged Marnix to find a pole. He looked at me rather strangely - what don't ALL Dutch people innately possess the skill to leap great ditches in a single bound? *grin* Apparently not, for Marnix seemed more open to me swimming across than him leaping. But while we were arguing about who's idea had more merit, the brave sheep managed to struggle upright. It stood there for a few moments, apparently catching it's breath, and then let out one long, plaintive, "BAAAAAAAAAA" as if to accuse us of standing callously by as it struggled. All the while it had struggled in silence, and then it bleats plaintively for the whole world to hear once it was upright. We all burst out laughing at it, poor sheep.

We decided to keep walking around rather than head back the same way, and so started making our great circle back towards the kA We walked along the path, Marnix and I hand-in-hand, M & D hand-in-hand behind us... well, perhaps not so much. It was typical Dutch countryside on a nice day so I was pleased. We saw more people walking their dogs. One man walking toward us caught both Marnix's and my eye, though. He seemed to be walking a rather large, white dog. "Maybe he's walking his sheep?" quipped Marnix, and we both laughed. Now I know what you're thinking, but no, it wasn't a sheep. It was a goat! We all stopped and gawked a bit, I'm embarrassed to admit. But the man was obviously used to people staring at his goat. D asked him something about his goat, and the man replied that her name was Jacqueline and that she liked going for walks and was quite friendly; "But she doesn't speak English," he added with a laugh. She walked up to me, so I said hello as politely as I could in Dutch, and scratched her on her chin and around the little nubs on her forehead. She seemed to approve and butted me into Marnix. I'm not quite sure what she thought of Dan, though. He seemed hesitant to touch her (perhaps he doesn't have an affinity with goats), and she obviously wasn't impressed, as she squatted slightly and proceeded to relieve herself rather noisily. (Yes, we all got a good chuckle out of Dan making a goat pee.)

A little further up the path we came across a very friendly, three-legged cat, so of course I had to squat down and play with it for a while. Everyone was very patient while I petted it, though I'd bet they were also a bit relieved when a car came and scared it away. *sigh* We stopped at a restaurant called "the Falcon" that has a toucan as it's symbol *boggle* for something warm to drink. D saw a stuffed something (sorry, my memory fails me) in a glass display case that he took a fancy to, but the manager couldn't find the key to get it out to sell it! Well. Now we know why they are a restaurant/hotel and not a fun and happy toy store I guess. We wandered in the general direction of the car after having warmed ourselves up from the inside, and squeezed into the car once we found it. The question of dinner was brought up, and what else we could do, and I said that Marnix had to go back to Leeuwarden that night so we could go and do stuff, but if we were going to, then we should probably drop him off first so he could get home. "Why don't we all just go to Leeuwarden, then?" suggested Dan. Did the guys really want to spend 3 days in Leeuwarden? Marnix couldn't believe it. But apparently they didn't mind, so it was settled. Home, pizza, and then off to see the great city in the north. Onward, ho!