Europe Trip- Day 3- Kinderdijk, Netherlands

Day 3

I was in Denmark by myself but I met up with my brother, Tim, in the Netherlands and he traveled with me the rest of the trip. 

I arrived in Haarlem, Netherlands in the late evening the night before and Tim had arrived earlier that day before. There was a bus straight from the Amsterdam airport to Haarlem Central Station which was nice because it was close to where we were staying.

On this day, Tim and I went to Kinderdijk, Netherlands. It was quite the adventure getting there. We had to take an hour train ride from Haarlem to Rotterdam. Once we were in Rotterdam, we took the metro a couple of stops to a bridge where a water bus picked us up and took us the rest of the way to Kinderdijk (about a 40-minute ride).

It was rainy, cold and windy this day, but we still decided to go to Kinderdijk because if we didn’t go this day, we wouldn’t be able to go at all.

Erasmusbrug- the bridge in Rotterdam where the water bus picked us up.

A cruise ship docked in Rotterdam!

We made it to the water bus. 

There were other tourists on the water bus braving the weather and going to Kinderdijk also. For some reason that made me feel a little better about going there that day. 

Erasmusbrug from the water bus. 

A building we saw from the water bus. The brown part of this building looked like a pencil to me.

Another interesting looking building! 

And we made it to Kinderdijk! We went in here bought tickets and then went on our way to the windmills. 

Kinderdijk is a group of windmills that were built in the 1740s to keep the low-lying surrounding areas dry. Much of the Netherlands is below sea level and if they didn’t have machinery and other things to keep the water away, it would be underwater.

The windmills are no longer in use because modern technology is now used to keep the land dry but the windmills were important for the land back when they were first built. 

The windmills are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

As I mentioned it was rainy, cold and windy this day, but we braved the weather to see the iconic windmills. 

Although the windmills are no longer in use for keeping the land dry, they could be used in emergency situations.

It was a beautiful area!

We were able to go inside this windmill and see where a miller and his family would live back in the day. There were millers that lived in each of the windmills. 

Actually even now most of the windmills are inhabited by at least one person. One of the people being a miller. 

Inside the windmill!

A view from the window inside the windmill. Although I didn’t take many pictures inside, there were beds and a kitchen etc that the millers and their family used.

It’s so pretty!

I like this shot with the cobweb and the windmill in the background.

Sheep!

We also got to go inside this windmill. It was nice to have a place to sit and get warm for a few minutes out of the rain.

I enjoyed walking around Kinderdijk. We didn’t do all of the trails because of the weather but I felt like we saw a majority of it. We were able to take a boat back to the trail entrance so we didn’t have to walk back in the rain. 

The next water bus back to Rotterdam wasn’t for an hour or so. So we went to the cafe near the entrance of  Kinderdijk and bought some snacks and hot drinks to warm us up. 

We got back to Rotterdam, hopped on the metro to the central train station, then got on a train back to Haarlem. 

We were going to do a couple of things in Rotterdam, but ended up not doing anything. It took us longer than we thought to visit Kinderdijk and since we were both tired and wet and cold, we decided to just go back to Haarlem.

Once we got back to Haarlem, we went to a grocery store for a few items and then got food at a kebab place near our hotel. 

I am glad we went to Kinderdijk this day. It was cool to see such an iconic part of Dutch history.