A Trip To Holland

Last weekend we took a short trip to Holland (The Netherlands) to see the windmills at Kinderdijk. It’s a two-hour drive from Waterloo, and we made it with little mishap, except we took a wrong turn in Antwerp. I know we should have made a left in Albuquerque. (That’s for Bugs Bunny Fans.) Anyway, Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and features 19 windmills built in 1738-1761.

According to a legend, the location gets its name because a baby survived a stormy night. During the flood, the cradle that contained the child was kept in balance by a cat. After the flood, the cradle was stranded on the slope of a dike. The spot was named Kinderdijk.

Most of Holland, like New Orleans, sits below sea level and often floods. The mills were built after a series of serious flooding problems and were used to pump flood-waters into reservoirs.

These windmills are huge. The blades are close to a hundred feet long and can turn extremely fast. Sails are placed on the blades to control their speed. The entire top of the mills rotates so that the blades are turned into the wind. We had to convince Amelia to close her eyes to go past them because they also sound very scary and dip quite close to the ground.

Enough with the history lesson. The weather cooperated, and we had great time. We rented two bikes and rode along the river and then took a short boat ride. We even went inside one of the mills. We were surprised to learn that people actually live in most of the mills. The miller is responsible for keeping the blades in the correct position.

A windmill being re-roofed. It has a thatched roof all the way down the bottom of the structure.