The Windmills of Kinderdijk, and a perfect overnight spot

We took our time yesterday before leaving the campground. When you are paying for it, you might as well make use of the facilities and take the opportunity to do some cleaning. And of course we made sure to drive away with the holding tanks empty and the fresh water tank full.

As I said yesterday, it was a nice campground. For €13 ($19.25 CAD, $15.50 USD) including electric, WiFi, and nice hot showers. 

Oh, I promised you some photos...

That's Max on the far right.

We went and did some grocery shopping and then drove over to the UNESCO World Heritage Windmills of Kinderdijk. 

There are several famous reasons for visiting the Netherlands. Of course the city of Amsterdam. And the tulips, but we are too late for that. We will return to do the tulips and Amsterdam another year. But the other thing the Netherlands is famous for is windmills!

There used to be over 10,000 windmills here, but now there are about 1,200.

19 of the oldest ones are located at Kinderdijk. They were originally built between 1738 and 1740 as part of the Dutch people's centuries long struggle against the water.

Some of the Netherlands is below sea level. In fact, while we were out wandering around the area, I checked my altitude meter on the phone and it said we were 20 feet below sea level!

At Kinderdijk, the series of 19 windmills were built to pump water out of the low lying land.

Arriving at Kinderdijk.

It is free to visit Kinderdijk, but you can pay to take an on/off boat tour if you don't want to do so much walking. Or, you can rent bicycles. We chose to walk. There is a small parking lot for cars and it costs €7.50 but there is lots of nearby parking that is free. The free motorhome parking was about 1 km away.

A scale model of the Kinderdijk area.

Me, in the giant Dutch clogs, or klompen as they are called here.

It was a pretty busy spot on a Saturday.

These thatch windmills were built in 1738.

Me, with a brick windmill built in 1740.

The windmills are each privately owned, and all are being lived in. Most of them have been passed down through the generations.

This is a different style. We don't know the year of construction.

So we're walking along one of the paths, and we see some water birds that looked interesting...

Great crested grebe.

But what is that poking up??

Turns out she has little ones traveling with her!

Are they ever odd looking.

Dad came by to feed them.

Really interesting watching them for a while, and they were pretty close to shore.

Ruth and a windmill.

There is nowhere in Kinderdijk to overnight for free with a motorhome. I expect they put a stop to that a long time ago.

But checking iOverlander, there were two nearby possibilities listed. The first one had four glowing reviews, but the most recent one was from 2019. Not really surprising since there wouldn't have been many people traveling through here in 2020 due to Covid.

It's just a parking lot, but it's kind of hidden in the trees between some tennis and basketball courts. But if you park right at the end of it, you have a beautiful view of a canal with some horses and windmills on the other side.

We arrived, and the lot was absolutely empty although a VW van showed up later in the evening.

The view out our side window.

These blond horses are common in this area.

Slept well, and this morning during coffee the police drove in. They never got out of their car, just gave us a wave, and drove away. What a great spot. GPS 51.896705, 4.742249

Today, we are headed for a castle!

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