A Beautiful Day in Holland

That's right, it was a beautiful day.  We toured the Windmill Island Gardens and then Nelis' Dutch Village.  And then returned to our trailer at Dutch Treat RV park.  Feeling a little Netherlandy!

We missed Tulip Time but did some beautiful gardens.  We had a chance to talk to the head horticulturist and learned a lot about the trees and shrubs on the property, which was huge.

Shade garden

Plants and trees were all labeled which was great.  I hadn't seen a lot of the plants since leaving North Carolina.

We watched a short film on the windmill, which is authentic and shipped here from Holland in 1984.  The windmill was hand built over 200 yrs ago and is used to this day to mill wheat.

Flags from provinces in Holland

  

 A little Dutch dancing.  For whatever reason, there were no young men dancing, just girls dressed as boys.       

We took a tour of the windmill.  After it was shipped here, it had to be rebuilt.  Good thing the beams were numbered as it didn't come with assembly instructions.

Grain elevator

On the deck

 These are the gears that turn the millstone.  The windmill had 5 floors (I think) and the last two were not accessible except by ladder.  Needless to say, the tour didn't include those floors.  It is as tall as a 12 story building and there was a nice breeze and beautiful view on the deck.

Windmill view

The Swan

A scaled model...windmill

Isn't that something?!

Each windmill in Holland is named by its builder.  This one is called De Zwann, The Swan.  Amazing craftsmanship.  We learned a lot about windmills.

We moved on and checked out the carousel, also from Holland and old as the hills.  It was not operating, waiting for something to be fixed.  Parts for all this stuff have to be hand made so maintenance is time consuming.

We also caught the street organ show.  Another original piece.  It runs like a player piano except is has a book instead of a roll.  We walked around the back and saw how it operated, with pipes and drums.  We went through the Conservatory, where the tropical plants were housed.  Looked like a typical Florida landscape.

Tallest Jade Plant I have ever seen.

We crossed this draw bridge (imported from Holland) which can be operated by a single person.  I don't know if a married person could do it.....

Shake, baby shake

We heard the Peacock and got there in time to see him shake his tail feathers.

Pretty amazing place!






After buying some souvenirs and some flour, we hopped in the truck and headed to Nelis' Dutch Village.