Kinderdijk, The Netherlands

Kinderdijk is located about 15 km (9 miles) east of Rotterdam, where the Lek and the Noord rivers meet.  Around 1740, a system of 19 windmills was built here to drain the low-lying land and today they are the largest collection of old windmills in The Netherlands and one of the best-known tourist sites in the country.

 Along the river

Touristic

We wander along the paths through the windmills.

Among the windmills

The land around the windmills is filled with active farms and fields of animals ignoring the tourists passing by.

 Local residents

 Small farms

Walking a bit further up the river, we find more modern windmills at work.

 Modern windmills

Leaving Kinderdijk, we pass through locks and observe first hand how close the ship is to the side of the locks (very) as we change elevation.

Ship on left, lock wall on right

We're now on the final leg of our trip, onward to Amsterdam.