Windmills and tulips…

…or why a photographer should think twice before leaving the hotel reservation to his wife!

Before anyone gets this wrong: I am very happy that my wife Katja tolerates my photography hobby like she does and I am totally aware of all of her sacrifices like getting up too early for holiday to shoot sunrises or like waiting and freezing in the dark when I shoot stars or northern lights. Certainly, it wouldn’t be possible without her! But sometimes…

But stopt, first things first! After our recent tript to Scotland and especially the Isle of Skye (which I will cover in another post soon!) we had the spontaneous idea to spend a few days in the Netherlands during Easter. The main reason were the famous tulip blossoms you can find there at the moment, but of course another spot came to my mind quickly: The windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage site with 19 windmills from the 18th century and a very nice location for photographers as well due to the mirroring canal system. Needless to say that we quickly decided to go for a hotel near Kinderdijk so that I would be able to get there during sunrise and sunset. Even this should not by a pure photography holiday like Lofoten or Isle of Skye, it wouldn’t do any harm to be near a nice location if the weather is promising… :-)

Katja took care of the accomodation and booked a hotel in Lekkerkerk, only about 5 kilometers away from Kinderdijk. Sounds like a perfect location from getting out early for sunrise and being right back for the family breakfast! We arrived there after a more than 750 km drive across Germany and the weather clearly told us that there was no hope for sunset this evening. Nevertheless, we wanted to do a short scouting of the windmills to be prepared for the next days. We typed the adress into our GPS and … WHAT??? 45 minutes for 5 kilometers air-line distance??? For a short moment, we wondered why the GPS wanted to make such a long detour, but then we realized this thin blue line on the maps. Yes, Lekkerkerk is only about 5 kilometers away from Kinderdijk, BUT THERE YOU HAVE TO CROSS THE RIVER LEK TO REACH THE WINDMILLS!!! The next bridge is a motorway bridge in Rotterdam, which means a detour of 35 kilometers… Great! The good news: There is a little car ferry that crosses the river every few minutes so you don’t need to do the detour. The bad news: The first ferry starts at 07:00 o’clock in the morning on public holidays (like for example EASTER!)… Great timing, with the sunrise being scheduled at 07:05 o’clock…

Needless to say that I was a little bit frustrated in the beginning, because my plans sank in the river Lek… We tried to get there two times in the morning nevertheless, but each time the sky was cloudy and it rained when we wake up and so we decided to stay in bed. You can see, the hotel selection was not the only cause that made any sunrise shots impossible… Fortunately, the sky was clear one evening with the right amount of clouds and we had a nice sunset. Together with the tulips of Keukenhof and some long-time exposures during a cloudy day before our departure, my photographic yield was satisfying, even if not everything worked out like I hoped for :)

More pictures will follow soon!

Gerhard I'm a passionate hobby photographer who loves travelling and being outdoors, crazy enough to get up much too early during holidays and to carry tons of photography equipment all day long even in the mountains... :-)