Kinderdijk Windmills, Holland, The Netherlands
The Netherlands is famous for its dutch windmills, there are more than 1000 windmills in the Netherlands. So we thought Kinderdijk was worth a visit as it’s only just over an hours drive from Amsterdam. Kinderdijk is a small town near Rotterdam where there are 19 old windmills which were built around 1740, which are still in immaculate condition.
Kinderdijk is situated in a polder (The Dutch term for land which has been reclaimed from the sea, lakes, or river deltas. The land is bounded by a dike, is drained, and is maintained by pumping.) at the the Lek and Noord rivers.
The Alblasserwaard polders are situated below sea level so these windmills were built to drain the excess water, this water is sluiced into the river Lek. These mills are the biggest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands.
These dutch windmills are possibly the best known tourist site within the Netherlands are were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1997.
It was really interesting to have a look around the inside of one of these old windmills, they are much bigger inside than they appear. However I’m pretty sure they didn’t have plasma screens in back in the 16th Century. We had a little boat ride up the polder to look at the windmills… they were great but once you’ve seen one windmill you’ve seen them all.
Comment by Alexa on 8 November 2008:
It is a beautiful, worth visiting place. I have been there this autumn, while traveling in the Netherlands with my friends. I made a travelblog with photos for this trip also. It’s not finished yet, but my last post is about Kinderdijk. I took some nice shots.
Comment by Alexa on 8 November 2008:
It is a beautiful, worth visiting place. I have been there this autumn, while traveling in the Netherlands with my friends. I made a travelblog with photos for this trip also. It’s not finished yet, but my last post is about Kinderdijk. I took some nice shots.
Comment by Arie Uittenbogaard on 19 December 2010:
🙂 I grew up near Kinderdijk. Whenever we had foreign guests over, we’d take them to Kinderdijk. Always a hit!
Thanks,
-Arie
Comment by Arie Uittenbogaard on 19 December 2010:
🙂 I grew up near Kinderdijk. Whenever we had foreign guests over, we’d take them to Kinderdijk. Always a hit!
Thanks,
-Arie
Comment by Bob Hilscher on 2 November 2012:
Hi there. I never had a chance to travel down to Kinderijk, I will look to go there based upon your post next time I am in The Netherlands. My wife, Jean, and I did spend a day at the village of Zaanse Schans where we got to see their large collection of windmills on our last trip from Canada. For us, a trip to Holland just wouldn’t have been complete without seeing windmills in action. We are so glad that there are people in Holland working to save them! If anyone would like to check out our pictures of the windmills that we saw, they are at: http://frametoframe.ca/photo-essay-windmills-holland
We also really enjoyed our visit to the beautiful gardens at Keukenhof, which is considered the best outdoor gardens in Europe. I would say the world!! As Canadians, we have traveled to many places on the planet, and The Netherlands is at the top of our list. And one of the key things to witness in Holland are the Keukenhof Gardens in April!!
http://frametoframe.ca/photo-essay-tulips-keukenhof-gardens-holland