Kinderdijk, located 15 miles east of Rotterdam, is a UNESCO-listed
site that boasts 19 pristinely preserved windmills. The windmills were
erected in the 1600s to drain the Alblasserwaard polders, which had
suffered floods since the 13th century. One such flood, the Saint
Elizabeth Flood of 1421, is both the source of the name Kinderdijk and
of the associated fairy tale, "The Cat and the Cradle": after the storm,
a wooden cradle was spotted on the flood waters, in which a cat jumped
to and fro to keep the cradle afloat.
When the cradle approached the dry land of the
dyke, the locals discovered a baby inside -- hence the name Kinderdijk,
Dutch for "children's dyke".
Nowadays the windmills have been
relieved by more efficient screw pumps, but you can still visit the
monumental 17th-century windmills that comprise the incredible man-made
landscape of Kinderdijk.
