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The first fact people recall about The Netherlands as a country is of course its ‘Windmills’. Windmills have been built in The Netherlands for many centuries. In the beginning, the mills were developed for corn milling, land drainage, saw milling and for many other industrial purposes. Dutch wind mills are actually in many ways quite primitive. Only using canvas sails and turned to the direction from where the wind was coming from by hand. Quite different to the automated mechanisms that can also be seen below which were developed for English windmills which included fantails and shuttered sails. There are still a very pleasing number of functioning remaining windmills in the Netherlands and even a set of ‘Dutch Style’ Windmills in the US to be seen in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA.  The number of operating mills in The Netherlands is currently about 1200 and rising, in that the Dutch only count complete workable mills, and in the past years, many extensive rebuilds have occurred to add to this number. Aren’t they just beautiful? 

Classic Dutch Windmills

“A breeze came wandering from the sky, light as the whispers of a dream; He put the overhanging grasses by, and softly stooped to kiss the stream, The pretty stream, the flattered stream, The shy, yet un-reluctant stream of wind”
William Cullen Bryant

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