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Since the distance to our destination at The Hague seemed quite short, we decide to make a detour to Haastrecht, a nearby village where we expected to find cheese farms and shops. We didn't find them but the visit was well worth the excursion as we were able to visit the small Polder Museum housed in a former pump house and supervised by the retired village doctor who gave us a 45 minute personal seminar on the history of the land drainage in this part of Holland.
The area between Gouda and Utrecht had originally been wooded and about 1.5 metres above sea level. From 1000 AD the local bishop allowed the local peasants to farm strips of it. They cut the trees, which had served to evaporate the water. The land shrank so they cut ditches to drain the lower land and used sluices to let the water flow out of the fields into the rivers when the tide was low. The land shrank even more, but by then windmill technology with water wheels to raise water became feasible and they were used to lift the water into storage areas. The water was passed down the river when the tide was low. Shrinkage continued until the land was 2.5 metres below sea level. Dykes to form higher lakes to store the water and used windmills to raise the water in several steps. Wind power was replaced by steam, then diesel and finally electric pumps, all of which removed the need for the intermediate steps. But with the fuel shortages of WWII and after, the windmills, which were numerous at the time were once again pressed into service for a few years. Now, most of the windmills been demolished. We also learned that the all the houses and other buildings that were built on the recovered land require piled foundations extending 20 to 60 metres downwards.
We set off back to Gouda where we ate a quick lunch in a café in the Grote Markt before joining the LF2 route alongside a dyke lined with walnut and willow trees to Boscoop, a centre for nursery and market gardening (and a source of the ubiquitous Dutch tomato). There we rejoined the LF4 route which we followed to the outskirts of The Hague. Since LF4 skirts the town, we took a signed route to the Central Station and from there found our way to George's daughter Anna's house in the Statenquartier area.
Today's distance: 68 km, weather: cold and dry, accommodation: at Anna's house.
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