The next day we had a leisurely start with the intent of going to the Open Air Museum, which is a living museum that is similar to Colonial Williamsburg in scope.  This museum displays the ways the Dutch lived by displaying the old houses and windmills, churches and factories, and a tram yard that display early versions of each type of activity or dwelling.  

It had a very realistic feel to it since it rained all morning, and a good bit of the time we were walking around the museum.  You can see a lot of water on Caroline's coat, it's just rain.  If you don't do things in the rain in Holland, you won't do anything..

The first picture is taken in a barn in a house that dates to the 1600s.  Basically, the whole thing is a barn, but there is a separated section at one end where the farmer and his family lived.  The most interesting part was the horse powered butter churn.  It has a big set of gears that drove the up and down motion for a large butter churn.  It's the same kind of gearing that is found in the wind mills.

The second picture is my little home maker with an old style whisk broom.

The third picture is Charlotte beside a bed.  These are the smallest beds I've ever seen.  I know that people were quite a bit smaller back then, but this bed is only about five feet in length, and it has a door on it.  And, it looks like multiple people would inhabit these beds since there was only two of them in the house, and it's safe to assume more than two people lived there.

The first picture is an old inn that was generally found on roadways, particularly toll roads which were common.  

The second page is one of the few wind mills that is rigged to cut logs into boards.  it has a lift incorporated in the design to lift the logs off the boats that bring them to the mill.

The first picture is the fisherman's house and the boat launch.  The boat launch is complete with a man-powered winch to bring heavy loads up the ramp.  The wind mill in this picture is used to pump water up to an irrigation or drainage canal.  The wind mill uses an Archimedean screw to move the water.

The second picture is an old draw bridge and some stores.  The draw bridge is counter balanced so that one person can operate it.  It also comes with a tariff sheet that shows how much each type of conveyance or livestock costs to use the bridge.

Charlotte and I try out the pull boat to cross the canal.  It was pretty wet since the rope sits in the water all the time, and the boat was full of water from the rain.  

The second picture is a thatch covered wind mill that was used for grinding grains.  You can see the posts in the back that are used to set the direction of the wind mill to properly address the wind.

We visited a series of houses that chronicled the earliest form of house which was made of peat blocks, to houses that Tim said were his grandparents and then his parents houses.  It was a series of houses that, and the last two brought back Tim's memories.  I guess that means they were pretty authentic.

The coin bank has slots marked for each of the household accounts like the gas light, the household art, the groceries, and the entertainment.  I forget what the other ones mean.  This is the Dutch answer to the piggy bank, but oh so practical in the Dutch style. 

And that darn Stork showed up again.  Caroline seems to find them pretty frequently, but no change on that front so far...

We went to our first Rijstaffel (Rice Table) dinner in Holland that evening.  It was a thoroughly delicious end to a perfectly wonderful day.

The next day we had a nice breakfast, where I cooked some omelets for everyone, and then we headed for the train up to Amsterdam.  We said goodbye to our terrific hosts and headed for some new sights and experiences.