Enjoy the mills

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

The Kagerplassen are an area where islands and twelve peat lakes alternate. The Kagerplassen are not only beautiful to look at, but also culturally and historically valuable because of the characteristic allotment pattern, the striking windmills and the virtual absence of buildings. The Kagerplassen are bordered 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.

Polder mills can be seen in abundance here, they are indispensable to keep this humid area in check. 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.

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

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 there, 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.