We rode the ferry again today to leave Schoonhoven. We cycled though lush green farm land and along canals bordered with colorful wildflowers. The main attraction today was Kinderdijk. According to its website, "The Kinderdijk windmills are considered a Dutch icon throughout the entire world. The seventeen windmills that were used for water drainage were built between 1738 and 1740. Before then, the area already had polder mills, two of which can still be seen. For many years, these windmills kept the low-lying, peat land of the Alblasserwaard dry. This land was continually threatened by floods and soil compaction. In Kinderdijk, the almost one thousand years of 'battling the water' is still visible in the polder landscape. It’s with good reason, that the Kinderdijk-Elshout windmill complex was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997".

 

We noticed a lot of tourists on the main path and several tourist buses in the town of Kinderdijk. This is a very well-known attraction in Holland. We stopped for several photo ops and then continued on to Gouda where we did a bicycle tour of the city including a stop at Great or Saint John Church to see its famous stained glass. Then met the Merlijn at its port. That evening we strolled through the main part of town seeing some very large rounds of cheese and the animated figures on the Town Hall Clock Tower when the time reached the top of the hour.