Found an article in the Saturday paper on Kinderdijk – the place that tourists go to to get a feel for the fact that 60% of the Netherlands is under sea level. It has a series of  beautiful windmills, built in the 18th century to pump the land dry. The windmills have tourist-attraction-value only, their function being taken over by a diesel-powered water pumping station.

The article (my translation):

400.000 tourist visit Kinderdijk

The 19 windmills at Kinderdijk, built in the 18th century to pump the land dry, are a tourist attraction only since the fifties. They attract 400.000 tourists every year. in 1997 Kinderdijk mad the Unesco World Heritage List. Not just because of the mills, but also because the water authority celebrated its 700th birthday that year.

Hsin-I Yeh (36), Bruce (10) and Jasmine (10) from Taiwan

“They don’t want to leave any more”, Hsin-I Yeh laughs as her nephew and niece run rings around her. “In busy Taipei they can’t play outside, but here they are just free.” Bruce and Jasmine are going wild. They point towards the Kinderdijk mills, giggle continuously and keep shouting how much they like the Netherlands. The three are visiting the brand-new couple Yiu_Tsu Yeh (30) and Erik van Zuilen (47). For Yiu_tsu it is a choice opportunity to show her sister,nephew and niece the country where she has been living for two years now. They also visited the Zaanse Schans, took pictures dressed in Dutch national costume and learned a lot about technology at Nemo in Amsterdam.

Text by Jeannine Julen, photo by Friso Spoelstra.

This is where I spent my summer’s holiday: in the Netherlands of the 17th and 18th century. Went a little overboard on the windmills myself, even, witness the pictures below.