Kinderdijk

Mills face each other along both banks of the channel further than the eye follows. On a Saturday with good wind several of them are set turning at once.

Inside one mill you find how a family of twelve managed to live there. Cupboard beds and steep ladders connect the floors.

A steam station of 1868 was added for when the mills could not keep up, and it still stands. Diesel took over the duty, and the old boiler is left on display.

A small boat shuttles between the two channels and drops you on the far dyke. Buying the combined ticket puts the boat and the mill entry together.

A flat cycle route threads between the mills and carries on to the river. Straight into the wind, even level ground refuses to give you speed.

The record of villages lost to floods sits alongside the methods used to hold the water back. The account opens with the great flood of 1421 that shaped this land.

Warblers and coots nest in the reeds along the channel edges. On a spring morning the calls overlap enough that placing them is hard.

For a few nights in early September all nineteen mills are lit through the dark hours. The water doubles them, so the far dyke is where to stand.

A sluice where the dyke finishes lets water out to the river, opened and shut with the tide. When the river runs high it cannot open, and the water inside simply waits.

Behind the mills the low pasture runs on, with cattle grazing between the channels. The land lies under sea level, so a few days without drainage would put it under.

A fast river bus from a landing near Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge up to the mill village. On the way, riverside shipyards and dyke settlements slide by on the river. Sailing season and departures change each year, so look up the current schedule first.

City rights came in 1220, earlier than anywhere else in Holland. Old harbours and merchant houses line the water where three rivers meet, and the great church tower shows across the centre. The waterbus links it with the mills for a day trip.

A small walled town across the Lek, known for its silversmiths. It has a silversmithing school and a silver museum, and workshops line the canal. A little ferry crosses the river from the mill village side.