The windmills of Kinderdijk

In Kinderdijk, where the Noord and the Lek meet, sixteen polder mills were built in 1738 to protect the village from the water. The second mill on the west side of the Middelkade can be visited. The mills are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, not only because of the mills themselves, but also because all the technology that has been used for water management since the Middle Ages can be seen here. You make a beautiful round around Alblasserdam and along the water of the Noord (or Oude Merwede), one of the busiest rivers in Western Europe. The direction of the current in the Noord depends on the tide.