You can’t help but love this place with its 19 working windmills. It provides such a wonderful “Dutch” scene. What could be more stereo-typical than this? Perhaps a winter scene, when it’s all frozen over and people are out skating the canals.

On this occasion I visited with Linda who had never been to Holland before. The drive to Kinderdijk takes you past some glorious Dutch countryside. Parts of the road is right on top of the levees, which are called “dykes” in Holland and are built to keep the water out. This is also where the windmills come in as they were designed as pumps, pumping water out of the lower lying lands. They still work at Kinderdijk and it is quite normal to see some in action when you wander around here (although there is no real need for them as a pump, they turn mostly for the tourists these days.

This shot is not an HDR, but a single image treated with Topaz Adjust. I tend to apply the effect on one layer, then blend copies of the original image together to get the effect I want. This provides me with a lot of control and avoids that “grungy” look you can get so easily with Topaz.

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I also knew that the textures of the sandstone wall and the cobble stone pavement would look great in HDR so I couldn’t resist snapping a series of shots. Here is the result.

Bikes are everywhere in Holland of course and Linda and I, not being used to so many of them on the street, had to be on a constant lookout (they are silent too by the way).

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The town of Gouda is also a gem. It has a very picturesque town center that just oozes charm with its cobblestoned streets, gorgeous old houses and the old market square, which isn’t square but triangular.

Right in the middle of this “square” stands the old town hall pictured below. The building dates back to the 15th century, 1450 to be exact. An amazing 560 years old! Perhaps most amazing is the fact that council meetings are still held there.

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Linda and I walked and walked in this fabulous city. It is vibrant and very picturesque.

Sadly, there was a strike on by the workers of the city and there was garbage everywhere as it had not been collected. So sad to see such a wonderful city portrayed in such a way. On the train, a total stranger had heard us speak English and, as we entered Amsterdam, came up to us and, in very broken English, apologized for the garbage. At first we had no idea what he was talking about, but the moment we stepped out of the station, all became clear.

However, this did not spoil our appreciation of this wonderful city. We walked down little cobble-stoned streets, dodging the bicycles (which were EVERYWHERE) and stopping at every shoe shop and bakery we stumbled upon (and there are many of them, believe me). The bakeries were fun. I had told Linda of my favorite baked goodies so we had to try them all of course. We stocked up on things like Spekulaas, Gevulde Koek and Stroopwafels and munched our way through the streets of Amsterdam.

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Kinderdijk is famous for its collection of windmills. There are 19 of them clustered together, more than anywhere else in the Netherlands. While not all 19 are visible in the picture below, there are quite a few. I can count 13. How about you?

This shot is an HDR, but is only made from 2 exposures. One exposed for the grass and water, the other for the sky.

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There is a region called De Zaansche Schans, where there are a bunch of windmills in working order. There is one setup as a saw mill and another for grinding wheat. Yes, wind power was put to good use in the old days, kind of ironic that wind is once again a power source that is popular.

The shot below is taken just around the corner of those windmills (don’ worry, I’ll be posting pictures of them too). I loved the sky and the wide angle view of the water and house, just seem to make the composition come together for me. The two ducks were a bonus.

This is an HDR, made from 3 exposures each two stops apart.

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No wonder that water has been such an influential force in so many aspects of every day life. After all, this is the country with dykes everywhere and is a nation that plays a dominant role in many water-related sports such as speed skating and swimming.

Today, modern engineering takes care of keeping land dry, but the Dutch are immensely proud of their wind-powered water management legacy. Windmills are a nostalgic icon of those early days and are enthusiastically preserved whenever possible. Nowhere is this more evident that in a place called Kinderdijk, where no less than 17 windmills are clustered together and present just about the most classic view of Dutch country side one can imagine. Needless to say it is a popular tourist spot and a great place to go for a day of photography.

I am hoping to take Linda there in May when we will be in the Netherlands so here is a shot to “get in the mood”. This is one of those 17 windmills at Kinderdijk and is a 3-shot HDR. It was a rainy day (as you can see from the clouds), but I was lucky to get this shot with some great reflections during a break in the rain.

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They are quite spectacular to look at and every time I see them I wonder what they look like inside. Each cube is a home and the interior is split into 3 sections. The lower section being the living space, the middle section the sleeping area and the top creates room for an office, family room or a spare bedroom. While I have never been inside them, I read they are quite comfortable to live in, although owning bulky furniture like a piano is somewhat out of the question.

The architect is Piet Blom and the creative spark behind the design was to build a series of homes where each home represented an abstract tree, the cluster of “trees” forming a forest. You can see this concept in the first image below.

I visited Rotterdam in 2008 with my brother in law (who lives in nearby Gouda) who needed an excuse to go out and shoot with his new Canon 40D. We both had a blast shooting these cubes and many shots ended up being quite abstract. The angles are just phenomenal and so much fun to look at.

I hope you enjoy these unusual buildings.

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