Scheidam's Distillery Buildings - and Other Canal Sights

Distilling jenever (gin) for 250 years in these buildings

Friday, April 22, 2022

Schiedam has been the center of Holland's traditional Dutch gin industry for hundreds of years.  Jenever, as the Dutch gin is known, was distilled in more than 400 breweries.  Now many of the traditional distilleries and warehouses have been converted for homes, stores and other uses.

Henk says you can recognize the original distilleries by their form - always with an off center large main door, and three or more stories of windows.  We passed a number of these interesting buildings on our tour through the city.

A typical old distillary, with off center large door, now repurposed

Another example of a repurposed gin distillery

Off center door, three stories high....

A warehouse on the canal, with a church steeple behind

People use the canals for swimming, as you can see by the railing access to the water

Typical Schiedam warehouse architecture

Beautiful canal side house with its blue boat

Mike says thumbs up to a future visit to this Michelin one-star restaurant

Many Bridges to Pass Under in Schiedam

 

Don't cross that bridge until you come to it....

Friday, April 22, 2022

As we continued our tour of the city of Schiedam, and began heading north to Delft, Captain Henk had to maneuver the many low bridges that crossed the canals.  It was easy to take the sloop under the traditional draw bridges, like the one in the photo above.

However, Schiedam has built a number of canal crossings that are very low, and require a bridge worker to raise them (thus stopping car and bike traffic) for any size boat to pass under.  To get to Delft, we needed to pass under seven bridges that needed to be raised.

Stopped by the red light - need to wait for the bridge to be raised by the man in the orange vest

Captain Henk remains good humored while we wait for the bridge to be lifted

And Voila!, under the bridge we pass, and on to the next one.

Bicycle on the left, waiting for the bridge to come back down

All clear until the next boat

There are two bridge workers in Schiedam, and they work as a team.  One has a bicycle and one has a motorscooter.  One opens the bridge, having ridden ahead of the traveling boat in anticipation of opening or lifting the bridge.  The other stays behind to close it after the boat has passed through.  A tag-team approach.

Another Schiedam bridge - the bridgeworker, in orange, is waiting to lift it for us

A tandem approach for the bridge team

A few more bridges:

Boating the Canals from Schiedam to Delft

Our tour group on the S'leop Schiedam with Captain Henk

Friday, April 22, 2022

Our group was excited to take a boat tour of the canals from Schiedam to Delft this morning.  We hadn't been able to tour the canals, because the Aurora's Captain Steve had been ill.  So today, we were able to take a sloop, piloted by Captain Henk, for an excursion around the interesting city of Schiedam, and then through the countryside to the city of Delft, with a stop for sightseeing and lunch.

It was chilly on the water at the start of our excursion, but we had soft blankets to cover our laps. And Len, Henk's wife and the Company Director of S'leop Schiedam, had arranged a stop for coffee and pastries to start the morning.  We were in good hands!

Their website is at:   sloepschiedam.nl 

Puffy jackets and lap blankets kept the morning chill at bay

This guy is never so happy as when he's in a boat

Michael & Henk had a lot to discuss - when Henk is not skippering, he is an addiction counselor

These wooden boat had large side paddles for steering, as the canals can't handle deep keels

The side paddles almost look like ears on the side of the boat

Schiedam is famous for its eight working windmills, still left from the original 25 associated with the gin distillation industry.  And they are the tallest traditional windmills in the world, at more than 30 meters.  

Schiedam's windmills were not used to drain land for polders, but rather served as mills for grinding grain for making genevier (gin). We had a close up view of many of them as we cruised the canals.

These windmills are the tallest traditional windmills in the world

Traditional Dutch canal drawbridge

Traveling under a canal drawbridge with Schiedam's library on the right side of the canal

Stairs allow access to the street from the canal

A quick stop for a delivery of pastries and coffee for our morning jaunt

As tasty as they are pretty

Captain Henk was full of information and a great tour guide

"Gimme a Ticket for a Fast Train...."

Rotterdam Centrall Train Station - known as "the Shark"

 Thursday, April 21, 2022

For complicated reasons, our group wasn't able to have access to our bikes to return to the Aurora from Gouda this afternoon.  So we decided to take the train back.  We had our guide, Willem, with us so we really had it easy and didn't have to figure out which stations to transfer, etc.

The trains and trams are so efficient and a great way to travel from place to place.  We finished our shopping and eating in Gouda and walked to the train station, bought tickets and headed to Rotterdam Centraal, where we would change to a local tram to arrive in our base town of Schiedam.

Central train station in Gouda

Heading out on track 8a to Rotterdam - you can see the train arrives in 2 minutes

The train colors made me think of Ukraine - blue and gold

It was worth the stop in Rotterdam just to see the amazing Rotterdam Centraal train station - a part of the modern architecture scene of the city.  Willem says it's known as "the Shark" because of it's unique shape.

From the central train station, we needed to catch a smaller, local tram.  It was helpful to have Willem with us, but I know we could have managed, as everything is clearly described and labeled.

The Shark - great nickname reflecting the shape of this beautiful structure

Views from the train windows

"Dye Hard"

City bench club

We had another outstanding dinner tonight. Karina is an amazing, classical cook.  We started with prosciutto and melon, followed by a roast lamb shank.  I didn't want to admit that I usually don't eat lamb.  But this dish was cooked perfectly and was delicious.  Our dessert tonight was creme brûlée.  I hope I walked enough today to help with all these tasty calories!!

Roasted Lamb Shank

Who wouldn't love this beautiful creme brûlée?