Mother's Day Windmills

When I was little, our mom was obsessed with all Holland and everything associated with it:  tulips, wooden shoes, the dykes and windmills.  She read the story of Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates to me often.  I also remember her sketching all those things on little bits of paper.  One year, when I was about 8 or 9, she made me a Dutch girl costume for Halloween, even down to fashioning wooden shoes out of yellow crepe paper.  For the record, they didn't do well in the rain!

It was always my intent to take her to Holland so she could see the windmills but, while we did visit Amsterdam once and I am pretty sure we spotted one or two windmills on the drive there, we weren't there at tulip time and I didn't know the place where the windmills lined the canals.  That is, until recently, when I read about Kinderdijk and its 19 windmills.  It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997 so visiting it was important to me.  It was also somewhat fitting, given that Sunday was Mother's Day, that I head out of Rotterdam on that day.

As an aside, before I left home, I had found a tour from a company called Rebus which has a boat taking you from downtown Rotterdam on a "guided" tour to Kinderdijk.  The cost was 17.50 Euros.  I had been told there was also a water taxi to take you there but I opted for the former.  The boat left at noon for the promised 4 hour return trip.  We passed lots of landmarks along the way and ride which took about ¾ hour travelled along the Nieuwe Maas river and then the River Lek.  

However, I was surprised when we arrived at Kinderdijk that I could not see the windmills.  I had thought the boat went along the canal with them given the photo on the brochure and website but, no.  We had to walk along the canal and then over to another one to see them.  I noticed that the water taxi from Rotterdam actually docks closer to the windmills than our Rebus boat did.  That being said, the Rebus boat has a commentary as you go along the rivers and there is a cafe where you can have coffee, drinks or a light lunch.  Not sure if the water taxi offers that.  

Once at the canal, and it wasn’t too crowded, the 19 windmills lining both sides of the canal were lovely.  I couldn’t help but think of Mom on this Mother’s Day.  She would have loved seeing them.  I enjoyed walking along the dyke although I left early and walked back to the Nehalennia.  At least I got some photos of the windmills.  There was also the possibility of buying a ticket for a boat ride on the canal that would take you by all the windmills.  Another time, I would just take the water taxi here and then do the canal boat trip.  I think it was only about 7 Euros.  It would have been wonderful but I didn't have enough time to do that.

From the internet, I found the following information about Kinderdijk.  It is a village in the beautiful wetlands around Dordrecht known for its iconic 18th-century windmills.  Its water-management network features 19 mills built around 1740 and 3 pumping stations, plus dikes and reservoirs that control flooding in the polder (low-lying land). Waterways, footpaths and bike trails crisscross the area, leading to the main visitors center and museums in preserved working windmills.  Facing each other, the windmills form an iconic Dutch scene. I concur.  It was magical - even in the cloudy weather.