Tour Boat

Kinderdijk, in the Alblasserwaard polder east of Rotterdam, is the best-known windmill site in the Netherlands, and a tour boat is one of the most relaxing ways to see it. The site has nineteen historic windmills, built in the first half of the eighteenth century, standing in two rows along the water, and in 1997 the whole landscape was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. The boats glide along the canals that run between the mills, passing under bridges and past the grassy dikes where the sails stand against the sky.

The mills were built for one purpose: keeping the land dry. The Alblasserwaard lies below sea level, at the meeting point of rivers, and without constant pumping it would turn into a lake. Windmills lifted water from the low fields into a system of reservoirs, and from there into the river Lek, in stages. Teams of mill keepers lived in the mills with their families, working in shifts to adjust the sails to the wind and to keep the machinery running. Many mills had tiny living quarters inside, with box beds and a stove, and some can be visited.

The name has a legend. According to the story, in the great Saint Elizabeth's flood of 1421, a cradle with a baby inside was found floating on the water, and a cat balanced on the edge to stop it from tipping over. The place where it came to rest was named Kinderdijk, the Children's Dike. It is a story that every Dutch child knows, and it gives the village its charm.

On the boat trip, the skipper or a recorded commentary explains the history of the polder and the working of the mills, and the slow pace gives time for photographs. Along the way you may see the Wisboom pumping station, a nineteenth-century steam-driven pumping house that took over part of the work from the wind, and the mills that are open as museums. The Museum Mills show how the mill keepers lived and how the machinery worked, and an audio tour in the Kinderdijk app adds more detail.

Tour boats run mainly in the warmer months, and it is wise to check schedules and buy tickets in advance for busy days. Wear a jacket, as it can be windy on the water. The area also suits cycling and walking along the paths between the mills, and a waterbus connects the site with Rotterdam.