“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
– Bernard M. Baruch
Kinderdijk windmills mirrored at the channel
These waterways were built centuries ago, along with pumps, dykes and the windmills pictured here, to protect the village of Kinderdijk from flooding by diverting water from the land. It’s an important job, since Kinderdijk, like much of the Netherlands, lies below sea level. Nowadays a modern water management system with pumping stations does much of the work while the windmills maintain an iconic Dutch scene. In 1997, the Kinderdijk windmills were designated as a Unesco World Heritage site.///CRIMSON TAZVINZWA/////
Bibury, in the Cotswolds, hosts two races on the River Coln – one with more realistic decoy ducks, and another with the plastic yellow variety pictured here. Banwell in Somerset and Kenilworth in Warwickshire are among other English towns and villages hosting annual Boxing Day duck races – which are also a tradition elsewhere on New Year’s Day and the Easter weekend.
Back to Boxing Day though, and there’s no shortage of other unusual traditions across the UK. For some, December is the perfect time for a dip in freezing UK waters, ideally in fancy dress, while raft races, barrel rolling and wheelbarrow races are not unheard of across the country.
