Experience the countryside and windmill tour Amsterdam

Scattered throughout the Dutch landscape there are more than 1000 mills. You can see these relics of a recent past everywhere during a countryside and windmill tour from Amsterdam.

Explore the Dutch windmills and see them in action

Not all of them are as beautifully restored as on the Zaanse Schans. They come in all sorts: as stumps, hulls, mill bodies without a cap, or with a cap but without wings.

The rise of the steam engines, later the diesel engines and ultimately electricity made many windmills obsolete. Draining mills were replaced by powerful electrical pumps and industrial mills made way for factories. What remained gradually fell into ruins.

Most mills survived because the body – or part of – proved to be suitable as storage space, as a home or for housing new machines. For example, various pumping stations are located in old water mills. For the preservation of mills it is essential that they also work regularly. A windmill that actually works, requires a lot less maintenance.

Visit the working windmills of the Zaanse Schans during the Amsterdam countryside and windmill tour

Some old mills get a new lease on life. Water mills for example are kept in full working order, just in case of flooding. Then they help the modern mills to drain the water. More and more flour mills grind grain for artisan bakeries.

Over the centuries mills have changed their function, moved, burned down, were rebuilt, raised, demolished and renewed. As is the case with monumental machines with a monumental history.

Legends of Holland the Dutch windmills

After decades of decline, the number of mills has increased again in recent years. See them during a countryside and windmill tour Amsterdam.

Since 1972 Holland has a guild of voluntary millers. These volunteers, about 700 people, are allowed to work at a mill after an exam. The Dutch windmill association tries to maintain a ‘windmill biotope’.

A Dutch windmill is a bit like an endangered species: it needs a healthy habitat!

A windmill can only function in a mill-friendly environment. Holland is a very heavily populated country: there are more people per square kilometer here than in India or Bangladesh.

That’s why lots of windmills in Holland are threatened by high buildings, noise barriers, dike elevations and city expansions. All these modern buildings block the wind.

So now is the moment to see the windmills in action in a typical Dutch landscape.

Experience countryside and windmill tour Amsterdam

Holland Windmills provides a carefree package for your holiday in Holland and Amsterdam: an easy pickup point, smooth transport to experience the countryside and windmill tour Amsterdam. See the best Holland has to offer outside of Amsterdam during the best windmill tour in Amsterdam.

Book your countryside and windmill tour Amsterdam now.