Alblasserdam, Kinderdijk, Ammerstol, Bleskensgraaf

The Alblasserwaard region used to have 150 mills. Nowadays, you will have to make do with 'only' 53 mills, 48 of which are watermills.

You will see that the water in the ditches is often much deeper on one side than on the other. When all 150 mills were still there, they pumped the water a metre higher into the low basins of the Nederwaard and Overwaard. Nowadays, the pumping stations do that.

Just past junction 9, you will see the Peilmolen (sounding mill). This mill was located in the deepest part of the polder. When the water rose too high, the miller would hang a lamp in the sails and the mill would become a sort of lighthouse. The signal was passed on by all the millers to Kinderdijk. This way, the millers communicated throughout the Alblasserwaard!