Kinderdijk

A few days we .took a break from packing and went to visit Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a village in the Netherlands that is located on a polder. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built in 1740.

The name Kinderdijk means, "Children's dike" in Dutch. This is a story about the name :

In 1421 during the Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421, the Grote Hollandse Waardflooded, but the Alblasserwaard polder stayed unflooded. It is said that when the terrible storm had subsided, someone went on to the dike between these two areas, to see what could be saved. He saw in the distance a wooden cradle floating. There was no hope that anything would be living in it, but when it approached, movement was seen. When the cradle came nearer, someone saw that a cat was in the cradle trying to keep it in balance by jumping back and forth so that no water could come into it. When the cradle eventually came near the dike, someone fished the cradle out and saw that in it a baby slept quiet and dry. In some of the stories the cat kept it balanced and afloat. This folktale and legend has been published as "The Cat and the Cradle" in English.

No wonder the windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the most popular Dutch tourist sites!