Kinderdijk
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Mill Network At Kinderdijk Elshout (1997) Nineteen 18th Century Windmills That Drained The Polder · Kinderdijk, South Holland
Kinderdijk is the best-known view in the Netherlands: nineteen windmills standing in two long lines along reed-fringed canals in the flat polder east of Rotterdam. They were built mostly around 1738-1740 to lift water out of the low-lying Alblasserwaard into storage basins and then into the river Lek, and together with the dikes, sluices and pumping stations around them they form the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. The mills are still in working order and several are lived in by millers' families. People come for the picture - mills reflected in still water at sunrise - but the real story is how the Dutch have kept land below river level dry for centuries. The paths along the canals are free to walk or cycle; a paid ticket covers two museum mills you can enter, a film at a pumping station and a boat along the canals. The honest caveat: it is open, windy and exposed, with little shade or shelter, and river-cruise groups crowd it from mid morning.
Nederwaard 5, Kinderdijk, Molenlanden municipality, about 15 km east of Rotterdam, Kinderdijk, South Holland, Netherlands
The dike and canal paths are public and can be walked at any hour, free. The paid site - visitor centre, museum mills, pumping station film and boat - opens daily from roughly spring to autumn, about 09:00 to 17:00-17:30, with shorter hours or reduced services in winter and closures around Christmas and New Year - confirm. Buy tickets online for a lower price. From Rotterdam take the Waterbus fast ferry (often with a change at Ridderkerk) or a bus via Rotterdam Zuidplein; check 9292.