A side quest to visit some windmills (I’m a pro cyclist now)

Today I decided that another day in Rotterdam wasn’t going to be a very riveting day, and I felt like a day excursion to somewhere cool would be the perfect afternoon activity.

Of course, something on the top of most people’s lists when visiting the Netherlands is going to see the Kinderdijk Windmills, which I had most definitely heard of, but didn’t know they were in such close proximity to Rotterdam itself. I only figured it out last night that a daytrip wasn’t only entirely possible, but a must-do whilst in Rotterdam! The windmill site itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and with beautiful weather forecast for the day, I decided that would be the perfect side quest.

Getting to the windmills was an adventure in and of itself, which always makes me happy. If the journey to the attraction can be part of the attraction itself I’m usually a fan. First, I took a tram from outside my hostel down to the Erasmus Bridge where the waterbuses leave from. Turns out I had walked past there the day before and had no clue that’s what it was! The trams here are so easy to figure out, and they can’t stop for pedestrians or cars like the ones in Melbourne can, so they’re much faster than the metro. From my hostel I was by the water in less than 10 minutes.

The next step was to take the waterbus 21 from there to Kinderdijk, which was around a half an hour trip, and dropped you off right outside the tourist info centre. Unluckily for me they left every 30 minutes and I had just missed the 1pm departure, so I had to wait for the 1:30pm. It ended up being a blessing in disguise; even though the transport itself was simple to figure out, buying tickets was definitely a challenging activity, mostly because my google translate wouldn’t work and I ended up needing to ask a Dutch person at the pier to use my phone to book my tickets for me. Luckily they were very nice about it and didn’t mind! Eventually we figured it out, and in the meantime I ended up giving directions to a Kiwi girl who was travelling pretty much on the same itinerary as me before going to a wedding in France. We chatted for a while at the pier, and the half an hour passed quickly.

Once we boarded the waterbus, it went directly from there to Kinderdijk, and we arrived just before 2pm. I hadn’t done too much research into the best way to actually see the windmills. Luckily I didn’t need to book a tour or anything, they would’ve been booked out anyway. I first noticed how many people there were, I don’t know where they call came from, especially since Rotterdam never seemed that full of tourists, and the waterbus wasn’t that crowded. It’s been a while since I’ve visited somewhere that crowded with people, it reminded me this was Euro summer after all, and I had just been visiting some less touristy places previously. This was more of the standard for everywhere I guess.

The tourist information said that there was no entrance fee at all, which I found really surprising considering the number of people, they could charge whatever they wanted, everyone would still go. The staff explained that the road you walk/cycle down to see the windmills was a public road to access the town of Kinderdijk itself as well, so they can’t charge access. Instead, they set up a single windmill as a museum to their history and function, so that’s the paid experience part. I could’ve don’t it if I wanted to, but I was just keen to explore the area. Of all my niche interests, the history of windmills isn’t one of them. Not yet, at least!

Just around the corner from the tourist info centre was the bike hire place, which I thought hey, why not? That could be fun, get the full Dutch experience. The bike hire was €10 for 2 hours, which I thought would be more than enough time. I went up and down the street for a second, just to actually remember how to ride (it’s been years since I’ve been on a bike) and get familiar with how the different gears felt. Once I felt a bit less rusty, I set off down the main path. The first kilometre or so was very congested with people walking, so much so I started to think there wasn’t much point in hiring a bike when I couldn’t go faster than walking pace anyway. But after that the people thinned out, eventually there were only cyclists, which made my life a whole lot easier. It was also further down that you got the best views of the windmills themselves, and would’ve been too far to walk in an afternoon. That meant I got some great shots of them right from the canal, with no other people in it!

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be impressed by the windmills themselves before I came, it just seemed like a cool thing to do. I don’t know what I was expecting really, but seeing so many in such a picturesque area was so cinematic. I also didn’t expect the windmills themselves to be so big (maybe that’s just my ignorance) but I found I didn’t need to know about their history to appreciate the structures in their own right. They fit in so well into the surroundings, I’m not sure if that makes sense, but it’s like the canal was built to have windmills right there. It felt so right in that environment.

The weather was also nice and warm, although very humid. Staying on the bike was the only way I got a decent breeze, another reason I was thankful I decided to not be on foot. I couldn’t say how far I cycled throughout the afternoon, at least 15km would be a rough estimate.

Ironically, my favourite part of my little bike journey weren’t even the windmills. It was the houses I found by accident after taking a wrong turn and ending up in overgrown marshland. There was an entire community of people living right on the canal, mostly engulfed by vegetation. One place in particular I didn’t even know it was there until I went right passed and saw a front door peaking out of the jungle. It was quite a small town, with large properties and veggie patches and animals, usually their enclosures marked by wherever the canal started. It was so cool to cycle past these places, definitely some of the most uniquely situated homes I’ve ever seen. It was evident the path I had found was not well-worn, and eventually it got too overgrown to continue, so I turned back to retrace my steps and figure out how to get back to the windmills. This actually took a bit of time to work out, mostly because the canal system is laid out parallel to each other, with paths between them. And they all looked the same at the start, so I had no idea which canal I had cycled up to get there. Luckily I was weirdly sure of the direction I needed to travel in, and eventually I just had to pick a path and make sure I kept going in the right direction. It wasn’t until I passed a little pen with some baby goats that I remembered from earlier that I was sure I was going to the right place at all!

Back at the tourist info centre I bought my postcards (necessary) then had to race back to the bike hire to return the bike before I would be charged for a third hour (not happening). I decided to head back to the main viewing part for the windmills that was the most crowded on foot, since it was pretty hard to access on the bike. After I got my last photos, I was more than ready to head back to Rotterdam, and just in time, the waterbus I needed pulled up to the pier and I jumped on.

I did the same trip this morning just in reverse, and got back to the hostel around 5:30pm. I popped into the small supermarket opposite to buy some garlic bread to have with my pasta (they didn’t have any, I was devastated). I then went back to the hostel and made some early dinner; I had only eaten some hummus that day so I was in need of a good meal. This seemed like a popular idea, and I finally made some friends in the kitchen whilst we were all cooking. Of course on my last night here is when I actually meet some cool people, but that’s ok. Helena was from Belgium actually, Ghent more specifically, and I jumped at the opportunity to talk about my favourite city. Refreshingly, she shared a similar love for her hometown that I did, which I feel like often the people I talk to can’t see the beauty in their cities from an outside perspective. But Helena definitely did, so we got on well.

She had to do some work that night for her meetings the day after, so she didn’t hang around too long, but I ended up then getting to chat to Lisa, who was in Rotterdam for a trial job. Lisa’s originally from the small town of Ponte di Legno, which is in the north of Italy right at the base of the Dolomites. Go search it up, it’s genuinely stunning. I think we ended up chatting over dinner for the better part of 2 hours, about anything and everything. We got along really well, I was only disappointed my end of year travel plans don’t include northern Italy, I would’ve loved to have paid her a visit. I guess that’s what future travel is for! Meeting all these amazing people has just reinforced the fact that now I have so many more reasons to come back to Europe, and explore more places from a local perspective (my favourite thing to do, ever).

Tomorrow we head to our last destination of the Euro summer extravaganza… Amsterdam! I’m very much looking forward to exploring Amsterdam, it’s been on my list of places to visit in Europe forever, I can’t quite believe that I’ll be there tomorrow night! We’ve still got a couple of days left of the trip, so it’s not completely over just yet, but I can definitely feel myself winding down travel wise. It’s going to be such a great to be able to wash my clothes and put them on hangers instead of in a suitcase, and be able to cook full meals and actually store them in a fridge without thinking about carrying it with me on the next train. Whilst I’ve been having an amazing time exploring so many new places, I’m in need of a bit of stability, and to be able to meet people then not have to say goodbye the next day. Looking forward to being able to call somewhere home for the rest of the year!

But not before we have a blast in Amsterdam 😉

Currently MIA,

Lauren x