Wantij

Great visit to the windmills! Got to climb up in a working mill. volunteers live in these and have to take a 2 year course just to be able to do so. Long waiting time to get chosen. One of the windmills has been occupied by 11 generations! One windmill family had 13 kids! No idea where they stuffed them all! You can adjust the sails on the windmill to speed them up or slow them down like on a ship. "Three sheets to the wind" is not a good situation, meaning it is unstable. When the owner goes to work, the gears need to be stopped. Once back at home they can engage the wheels and let it rip. Some of the mills have thatched roofs and side walls.

A little background here: "Kinderdijk is situated in the Alblasserwaard polder at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997"

Remember "Cat in the Cradle" ? - "The name Kinderdijk is Dutch for "Children dike". During the Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421, the Grote Hollandse Waard flooded, but the Alblasserwaard polder stayed unflooded. It is often said that when the horrendous storm had subsided, a villager went to the dike between these two areas to inspect what could be salvaged. In the distance he saw a wooden cradle floating on the water. As it came nearer, some movement was noted, and upon closer investigation, a cat was found, trying to keep it in balance by leaping back and forth in such a manner that water couldn't flood the cradle. As the cradle eventually came close enough to the dike for a bystander to pick up the cradle, he saw that a baby was quietly sleeping inside it, nice and dry. The cat had kept the cradle balanced and afloat. This folktale and legend has been published as "The Cat and the Cradle" in English.[1]"

One technical note of help to future travelers - when you're traveling on the bus and the guide is telling you all sorts of good info, then use the Voice Memos app on your phone. I have every bus ride recorded for all of our Gate1 trips we've done over the years. Great to listen to later. Brings back the scene immediately.Read more