Kinderdijk: Windmills as Far as You Can See

We had late lunch at Grand Cafe Buena Vista (the Info page that has English and music), just outside of the windmill park.  In short, we were happy with the meals.  The food seemed traditional.  We especially loved the apple pie.  Even a small cookie accompanied with coffee tasted good.  In addition, this restaurant inside was uniquely decorated with various antiques.  It was a good restaurant to visit after we walked around the windmill park.

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Unfortunately, it was cloudy when we visited Kinderdijk.  It was not a great photo-taking day.  However, it was impressive to see a number of windmills together at one place.  A large network of 19 windmills was built in the middle of the 18th century.  Surprisingly, many of them are still in use, as a water management system, residential space, or both. 

The windmill park is free to enter unless you need to park your car.  You can enter the visitors' mill at the price of 3.50 Euro.  I enjoyed seeing the inside of the visitors' mill, which was more intricate and noisier than seeing the windmill from the outside.  Also, the visitors' mill showed how the people used to live in a small space of the windmill.  I wondered how come the Dutch people, who are generally tall, could live in such a small space.  (Maybe, tolerance?)

When I stood next to a mill, I noticed that it was quite bigger and taller than what I imagined.  Moreover, it was fascinating to sense that the land where I could stand and walk was what the Dutch people created with those windmills in motion.  Just seeing beautiful pictures of Kinderdijk, I would not get such a awareness. 

I did not stay a night in Kinderdijk.  If you want to get away from a city and spend a quiet time in a peaceful countryside, Kinderdijk is a place for you.  However, it would be generally inconvenient for tourists, especially those who have tight schedules, to have an overnight stay in Kinderdijk, because it does not have any other attractions than a network of windmills. It also needs a long time to reach a city and airport. 

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From Amsterdam to Kinderdijk and vice versa:

We took a train from the Amsterdam Central station to the Rotterdam Lombardijen station.  The trip took approximately 1.5 hours.  From the train station, we walked for less than 5 minutes to the bus stop called Station Lombardijen.  We learned that buses to Kinderdijk did not run frequently.  Despite a long wait, we had a 40-minute bus ride to the bus stop called Molenkade.  From the bus stop to the entrance of the windmill park, we walked against the river for a few minutes.  At first, the park entrance may not be obvious to you.  However, it should be just ahead of you from the bus stop.   

After the trip, I learned that there was the journey planner site in English.  You can have the same but more detailed information from this web site.  For the departure, change a drop-down menu from Address to Trainstation and type "Amsterdam Centraal".  (You have to type the Dutch name.  You need double a.)  For the destination, change from Address to Bus/ tram/ metro stop and type "Molenkade" in the Stopname field as well as "Kinderdijk" in the City field.  This site does not provide a ticket price.  For your information, I paid 26.80 Euro for the round train ticket and 3 Euro for each bus ride.  The current price may be changed.  In terms of the train ticket, you can check its price and other latest information on the Dutch Railways site. 

By the way, I have a funny story to share regarding the Dutch railway trip.  I traveled to Kinderdijk with three friends of mine.  On the way back to Amsterdam, we happened to ask each other whether we had our train tickets.  In a few minutes after the talk, a young officer came and asked us to present the tickets.  Each of us showed the ticket to him, but one girl could not find her ticket.  Four of us jumped up from the seats and started looking for her ticket.  We panicked and said something like, "We just talked about it." "Where is it?" and "Do you have one?"  I then noticed that an older Dutch lady was giggling and looking at us.  We were definitely making a scene.  I do not know what the officer thought about when he saw four panicky Asian girls searching for a ticket.  He politely told us to get off the train in the next station to buy a new ticket from there.  He did not penalize her.  He was definitely kind, and she was definitely lucky.  Well, do not lose your ticket during your railway trip.  You may not be as lucky as she was.   

Within the windmill park in Kinderdijk:

We just walked around the windmill park.  One of my friends could not ride a bicycle, so we decided not to rent a cycle.  Cycling there should be fun and easy because the path is flat and paved.  I think it only cost a few Euro to rent it for an hour.  We did not try the canal cruise, either, because we saw a boat just left when we entered the park.  Rather than waiting, we started walking.  In a while, some of us got bored with scenes of just windmills, which should be a highlight of Kinderdijk.  In addition, the park was huge.  We were hungry and tired when we walked back to the central parking lot where the cruise started.  We wanted to have lunch, instead of the 30 minute cruise.  Thinking back now, I wish I had energy to ride a boat at that time so that I had photos of windmills from different angles. 

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