When thinking of Holland...

When thinking of Holland,
I see wide rivers wind slowly through a boundless lowland.
Unthinkable rows of barren poplars, like large feathers standing end upon end...
And sunken within its fantastic spaces, the farms...
And spread through the country: the groups of trees, the villages, the clipped towers, the churches and elms, merged into one giant whole.
The air hangs lowly there and the sun slows itself - smeared in the clouds of multicolored gray.
And in all of its west the voice of the water, with its eternal disasters, is feared and heard.

These are the opening words of Marsman's famous poem about Holland. And the area that really meets this description is the 'River Region' of Gelderland. Today the sky was not grey, but blue, and we made a family cycling trip between Aalst, Nederhemert and Heusden. Wide rivers, vast river forelands, high dikes and, beyond them, quaint little dike houses and small villages. We crossed the rivers with three little ferries, and ended up in one of the windmills, that was in operation and open to the public. Top of the bill for our engineer David. Peter was most impressed with his new Miffy sunglasses.