Windmill 'De Otter', Amsterdam

The weather was not supposed to be as good as yesterday's, but after a few early hours of hesitation, it turned out to be just that!

But, first, some communication from the Viking again.  I am always happy to oblige, for obvious reasons.  After a year of hardly any activity, we are going at full speed again.  Also took time to do some supermarket errands quickly.

This is the first windmill -- actually a sawmill -- that looks like this that I have ever seen.  It looks weighed down with a 16th-century skirt.  I am a century early in my comparison because it was built in 1631 -- almost 400 years old! Amsterdam is much, much older than that, of course.  The sawmill is still owned by the same family that bought it in 1817, but the construction that you see here is still the original, which means it was still in top shape two centuries ago.  There used to be 12 sawmills in this area alone, a handful same as this.  They are part of the reason Amsterdam was famous in connection with the ship-building industry -- they made such good use of the wind that, together with another area nearby, it was possible for the Dutch to build at least one ship a month.  There didn't seem to be any shortage of timber for the beams, planks, and masts.  Imagine a hundred or more sawmills operating at the same time from Dordrecht to IJmuiden ('EYE-may-dun') -- you almost could not use the finished wood products fast enough.

The street that provides access to this mill is under construction, so I had to cross a bridge on its left and shoot from the other side of the river.  Thankfully, it is outside the 'milieu-zone' of the city centre, the area directly outside Central Station and stretching about a kilometer around it are now off-limits to private vehicular traffic.  Fines are stiff if a camera records the presence of your car.  Taxis and public transport are okay.

Back home very late in the afternoon, I quickly freshened up and sat in front of the computer for what I thought was going to be a ZOOM speeddating session with future employers arranged by Randstad.  It turned out to be a noisy hour listening to a literal handful of top employers trying to convince us, some few hundreds of job-seeking unemployed, that they were the best companies to apply at.  I thought there would be a chance to get interviewed, but no.  I also thought there would be some schools in the selection, but no.  We could follow links to the vacancies of the chosen companies, but none of the vacancies suited me.  For example, I wouldn't have minded working as a conductor on a train and helping with arrival and departure, and you'd get on-the-job training for this so no worries, but their vacancies were for mechanics, also with training but not my cup of tea.  The session began at 16.00, and I was back in plenty of time, but had I known 'this' was what it was going to be, I could have slowed down in the morning and enjoyed it more.  Attendance was not required, but if this is a way for Randstand to advertise, with the companies getting free air-time to tell us they are the best employers, I will not register for the next event.  After almost an hour, I wished the rest good luck and signed off.  I think they finished at half past five or later.

Some MOOCking in the evening, but also housekeeping.  The idea was to conk out the moment I was down, and it worked.  Tomorrow, I will be back in the capital to pick up a good friend of mine who arrived today and we are looking forward to a fab day together!

Thank you all for dropping by and for the load of stars for yesterday's mill!