NL-3341734 The windmills of Kinderdijk

Kinderdijk is a small village in the province of South Holland and located only 16 kms from Rotterdam. Kinderdijk is situated in a polder in the Alblasserwaard at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands.

19 Windmills from the 1500's

Kinderdijk is a well-known Dutch tourist site. The windmills have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

The Name - Kinderdijk

The name Kinderdijk is Dutch for "Children’s dike". In 1421 the Grote Hollandse Waard flooded 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. In the distance, he saw a wooden cradle floating on the waters. As it came nearer, some movement was detected. A cat was seen in the cradle trying to keep it in balance by jumping back and forth so that no water could get into it. As the cradle eventually came close enough to the dike for a bystander to pick up the cradle, he saw that a baby was quietly sleeping inside it, nice and dry. The cat had kept the cradle balanced and afloat. This folktale and legend has been published as "The Cat and the Cradle" in English.
 Postcrossing  NL - 2123142 Dini  Received  Nov 2013

I received a second postcard of Kinderdijk from Petre (2 March 2016) Postcrossing.