Enjoy the mills

Just above Leiden are the Kagerplassen and the Bollenstreek. Here you can enjoy beautiful views over the water and over colorful fields. And of course the ancient mills that drain the polders in this area.

The Kagerplassen form an area where islands and twelve peat lakes alternate. The Kagerplassen are not only beautiful to look at, but also cultural-historically valuable because of the characteristic allotment pattern, the striking windmills and the virtual lack of buildings. The Kagerplassen are surrounded by a network of small reed ditches and canals. Soon after boarding you drive to the only reasonably inhabited island: Kagereiland with the picturesque village of Kaag. On some other islands there are at most one or two farms.

You see polder windmills here in abundance, they are indispensable to keep this humid area under control. Each island in the lakes has its own mill to grind it dry. The municipality of Kaag en Braassem even has the most windmills (20) within a municipality in the Netherlands.

When you have crossed with the bicycle ferry to Zevenhuizen you will see the Vrouw Venne, a seesaw mill from the seventeenth century, just past this village. Just above Leiden, on the south side of the Kagerplassen, you will pass the Boterhuismolen, which dates from 1744. A little further on you pass the Broekdijk mill from 1862. This octagonal wooden polder mill went wild in 1972 during a storm and could only be stopped with difficulty. Unfortunately, the mill burned down due to overheating. In 1974, a windmill from the Waarderpolder was placed on the masonry substructure.

Towards the end of your route you will pass De Engel. The name of this hamlet comes from the former seventeenth-century Herberg de Witte Engel. In the 1920s, the flower bulb trade began to flourish in this hamlet. A Laboratory for Flower Bulb Research was even established, although this building burned down in 1928. A little further on is the Lisserpoel mill. This polder mill dates from 1676 and has the status of a national monument.