Dear All,
We woke to a lovely blue sky day and decided to head out to Kinderdijk and it´s 19 windmills. To get there it was a matter of catching a train and then a bus. We had conflicting information regarding tickets so ended up buying a ticket to Dordrecht just minutes before the train was due to depart.
An unfortunate travel incident. We got onto the platform and the train was already sitting there and was about to close it´s doors. I was quicker than Vanessa and got inside with the doors closing on me but this left Vanessa on th platform with the tickets. the doors would not open when I pressed the button on the inside and then the train started off. I leaned out of the window and said that I would meet Vanessa at Dordrecht. We did not have mobile phones to communicate with each other once out of sight.
I happened to be reading the instructions to get to Kinderdijk and noticed that we only needed to go a couple of stops to Lombardijen not to Dordrecht and the train was at that stop so I hopped off and though that I would get the station master to call central to get Vanessa to wait. Unfortunately there was no one in the office and no one in sight. Luckily there was a train back to Rotterdam central and I knew that the next train on the board back at Rotterdam was not due to leave for another 40 minutes so I thought we could go back and get a refund on the tickets before getting the next train. Vanessa was nowhere to be found when I got back to Rotterdam central. Where was she?
It was becoming clear that the trains went more regularly that each hour and I guessed that Vanessa was already on a train to Dordrecht so I hopped on the next train which happened to be an express also to Dordrecht. Luckily there had been no ticket inspectors up to this point. Fingers crossed. I could see Vanessa waiting on another train platform at Dordrecht as the train pulled in. I explained what had happened and she had said that she heard me say "I will see you at the next stop" not at Dordrecht but had continued on when I wasn´t on the platform.
I was really stressed! Lucky it wasn´t a third world country!!!
No damage done and we found that the bus was only a few minutes away. 40 minutes later and we were at the 19 windmill site. The windmills were once used for pumping water from the area and were separated by a canal edged with reeds, carrying lots of birdlife, surrounded by farmland and carrying bike riders along the path. Very Dutch. A nice place for lunch.
We visited a working windmill before heading back to the hotel without any more transport dramas.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
