Windmill 'De Salamander', Leidschendam

'Leidschendam' = 'Lide-sen-dam' -- the 'ch' is old-fashioned and SILENT.

The Salamander is a sawmill.  Somehow, sawmills remind me of mother hens.  I visited the Salamander early last year as a Plan A, but the weather turned foul at the last moment and I aborted the hunt altogether, without even looking for a Plan B.  Today, I was in the area for the exact same reason I had last year -- I had to be in The Hague and wanted the proverbial two birds with one stone.

As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, the Salamander saved the day.  The embassy refused to apostille the document I presented, citing once again the Apostille Convention of a few years back.  The fiscal who usually attended to me was not present (perhaps on holiday?) and a man with a clearly supervisory function explained why the embassy no longer did these things, which can only mean that the man who usually attended to my requests was doing something that wasn't actually allowed any more, although tolerated and clearly to my benefit, but also to the embassy's benefit because we clients still had to pay for the services.  If I wanted the embassy's stamp on it, I'd have to go to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs first and then back to the embassy, a run-around I wasn't going to follow, but of course I didn't say that.  Said thank you with a large grin and texted the Viking that I'd just pass by the courthouse tomorrow, like I'd already done several times before, and then DHL afterwards.  Tough luck (or lack thereof) for the MNL fiscals.

In short, today's windmill made the drive worthwhile.  The Salamander was built in 1777 and has been renovated twice since then.  It is open to the public twice a week, normally, and today was not one of those days, but, never mind, I walked along the canal and crossed the foot-and-cycle bridge to the other side, where I took almost 30 shots.  The extra shows the other pretty panorama I took from 'this' side of the canal.  Really dithered between those two.

The usuals in the evening.  Thankful for a successful hunt and for a sunny but much cooler day due to the very welcome wind that blew everywhere.  Caught in a massive A16 traffic jam on the way back, but I was in a much better mood.