Kinderdijk windmills

Kinderdijk shows how the Dutch kept low land dry before engines, using machines you can walk into. Its 19 windmills pumped water off the surrounding polders, and the eight brick mills of the Nederwaard date from 1738. Museum mills such as Blokweer are open inside, so you can see the machinery and the cramped rooms where miller families lived, and miller families still live in many of the other mills. The Wisboom pumping station of 1868, the first steam pumping station at Kinderdijk, shows the next stage of the story, with preserved machinery including its flywheel. A boat trip past the mills is the easiest way to see the whole site, which is one of the few UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Netherlands.