Few countries have their destiny as linked to water as the Netherlands. Polders, dikes and canals, sea or river ports, bridges and mills. Many sites, open to visitors, show how much our Batavian friends have played with the waves throughout their history.

To visit the Netherlands on the water is to discover a whole section of the culture and traditions of this country, through landscapes of beauty worthy of the great masters of the golden age of Dutch painting.

Head for the windmills of Kinderdijk, Dordrecht, Giethoorn and the Weerribben-Wieden national park: four destinations easily accessible from Amsterdam, which tell us great stories of water.

Water stories

The Netherlands owes everything to water. First, because they used it to develop their merchant shipping. In the 14 th century, they participate in the Hansa powerful trade organization linking ports around the North Sea and the Baltic. Today, Rotterdam remains the largest European port.

Then, the country nibbled on the seas and marshes in order to expand: 17% of its area is made up of polders. These artificial terrains emerged thanks to the ingenious systems of dikes and mills.

More than a quarter of European Dutch territory is below sea level. The very name of Amsterdam Airport attests to this. “Schiphol” means a “boat hole”. Under the tarmac would be an old cemetery of ships and boats. In the Netherlands, water has become a natural part of the landscape: you step over it, move it, and use it.

In the countryside, less than an hour and a half from Amsterdam, sites illustrate how the Netherlands played with the waves: the historic town of Dordrecht , located at the confluence of three rivers, in the mills of Kinderdijk born of knowledge – to do pumping, in the Weerribben-Wieden national park and the village of Giethoorn, which looks like “Venice of the North”.

Dordrecht, among the canals and the leaning houses

The oldest city in the Netherlands is organized at the confluence of three rivers: the Oude Mass (old Meuse), the Beneden Merwede, and the Noord. A boon for the merchants. But if there is no marketplace, it is because Dordrecht was focused on the open sea and imported products: wood, wine, cereals.

Today, this peaceful town of 118,000 inhabitants has a historic center witnessing this rich commercial activity. At the crossroads of the rivers, there remains an old door in front of which the merchant ships moor before paying the tax and warehouse duties. Restored, the Groothoofdspoort still sees 150,000 boats passing every year.

From this building, a stroll through the Voorstraatshaven district, which has become a marina, reveals splendid old houses and old wine warehouses. We pass in front of the oldest house in the city, the ‘t Zeepaert, with its magnificent Gothic facade in Namur stone. Its construction dates back to the late 15 th century.

For its part, the Kuipershaven building stands out with its bright red shutters. Another impressive building: the Stockholm, to which its seven floors give a severe and majestic air. This same district is home to the Huis Van Gijn museum. The bourgeois residence of this banker, who lived there from 1864 to 1922, now exhibits the notable’s collections (notably of toys).

Crossed by canals and cobbled streets, the old town is dominated by the bell tower of the church of Grote Kerk (“Great church” in Dutch): 275 steps and 67 bells, one of which weighs 9,830 kg, heavy of the country. We bow before the eccentricity of old leaning houses as if to better stare at passers-by. Next to the central square, be sure to go to the Court of the Netherlands (the hof van Nederland) and the Augustinian convent, which has been converted into a museum. It was there that the first Assembly of Free States took place in 1572, which laid the groundwork for the Independent Republic of the Netherlands.

In all, some 900 listed monuments bear witness to the rich historical heritage of Dordrecht, which can be admired on foot, by bicycle, or even from the Dordtevaar, a silent riverboat (from April to October).

The calm of the old town can also be explained by the traffic restrictions. Apart from those of the locals, cars are no longer welcome. What to appreciate a local beer at the edge of the waves. And for a trouble-free sleep, at Villa Augustus, you can even sleep in a water tower from 1883, converted into a hotel.

Kinderdijk windmills

The strength of one makes it possible to tame the other. On the sea, the wind swells the sails. In the Netherlands, the fight of the wind against water is illustrated by the mills. They turn to gain more land. 15 km from Dordrecht, easily accessible from this city thanks to the Waterbus water shuttle, stand the 10 mills of the site of Kinderdjik, classified as World Heritage of Humanity in 1997.

Neatly spread out in nature on the edge of canals, on which you can sail by boat, this set is among the best preserved in the world. According to Unesco, “it is an exceptional artificial landscape which brilliantly illustrates the centuries-old battle waged by the Dutch to drain certain parts of their territory and protect them against flooding “.

The mills were used to keep the lowlands of the Alblasserwaard dry. So, no flour, no miller here, but 500,000 visitors a year. And fifteen families who still live in these mills separated from the Lek river by “the child’s dike” (kinderdijk). Why this name? Legend has it that a baby in his crib was saved from drowning by a valiant cat.

Inside these buildings built around 1740, ” it is cold, and comfort is not always there “, says one of its inhabitants. Nevertheless, it is a very popular place since “the waiting list runs until 22 years. The same family has been in a mill for ten generations,” he continues. Tourists are however kept away. The only company the locals have to complain about is a colony of purple herons, one of the largest in Europe.

In this postcard landscape, 2.5 m below sea level, three mills are however accessible to visitors. And one can be visited, at the tail leu leu please, as the space to circulate is narrow.

Inside, the steep stairs, the creaking of the mechanisms and a huge swivel beam give the impression of living in a pendulum clock. On the outside, the click and the wind speed in the blades give goosebumps. In the mill, a photo of a mother of thirteen children recalls that she died struck by one of the wings.

Giethoorn, the village with 170 bridges

Another example of the Dutch’s close relationship with water? You have to go further north, about an hour and a half from Amsterdam, where there is a sleepy village, which seems out of the imagination of the Grimm brothers. Giethoorn looks like a fairytale, with thatched farmhouses, flower gardens and 170 wooden bridges. But above all, the village is crossed by several canals, so that a third of the dwellings are inaccessible by car. And this is not new.

The construction of a monastery in the 13 th century by Franciscan priests from Italy is the origin of Giethoorn. The name given to the place comes from the discovery of “goat horns”, after the 1170 floods of the Zuiderzee. At the time, it was still a swamp, from which peat was extracted.

Several centuries later, there are y 2 600 inhabitants, thirty restaurants and above 1.5 million tourists each year between 1 st April and 1 st November. Their favorite activity? The boat trip around the lake and canals. Gieethoorn is indeed bordered by an artificial body of water 2 km long by 1 km wide. No risk of drowning there, the depth does not exceed 1 m.

In Giethoorn, hundreds of boats can be hired for around 15 euros an hour. For 20 years, these boats have operated with electric motors, contributing to the calm and cleanliness of the premises. This idyllic environment has brought back otters. During the winter, it is the ice skaters who give themselves to their heart. Please note, during the high tourist season, there may even be traffic jams on the water!

Giethoorn is not, however, a museum city. Since tourists have entered the inhabitant to go to the toilet, the “private property” signs have flowered on the lawns. However, some farms transformed into hotel establishments can be visited, others have been restored into small museums.

Walk in the Weerribben-Wieden National Park

Naturally, it is in national parks that the Netherlands adopted water as an element of the landscape. A surprisingly flat landscape where the sky and the waters often meet on the horizon line. An echo of the low horizon lines in Flemish paintings during the Dutch Golden Age (1584-1702). This made it possible to represent immense cloud formations bathed in a particular light.

A study of Dutch artists of the golden age showed that “it is possible to make weather forecasts by looking at the paintings. Cirrus, cumulus and stratus are thus organized in Dutch skies observed very precisely by the artists”. But let’s leave the water vapor for the soil. That of the Weerribben-Wieden national park, near Giethoorn, which is full of water.

This swampy area of almost 100 km 2 makes this park the third largest in the Netherlands. It is even the most extensive bog in North-West Europe. From the 14 th century, there began extracting the fossil organic material, the dried peat, used as fuel.

In this peaceful place, the wildlife has taken its ease. Bird watchers can discover endemic species such as the black tern, the egret or the great cormorants. Today, the Weerribben-Wieden nature park looks like an elegant patchwork of lakes, reed beds, canals and forests. Enjoy it by bike, on foot or, of course, by canoe.

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