SPECIAL TOUR
Tour the developments of Dutch Wind Mills from Medieval through Modern times.
The Dutch Windmill Tour
Through the ages: from the 1300's to the 1930's A Mill Journey
7 Day Tour
Follow your guide through the centuries visting and working on mills dating from the 1300's through to the 1930's. Minimum number of participants: 5 Maximum number of participant: 7 Please contact us for more information.
Next Regular Tour
Our tours are only booked on certain dates. If you want to book this tour with a full compliment of six participants at a time of your convenience (not a regularly scheduled tour) send us an email under Contact.
Dutch Mill Tour Itinerary:
Day One
Amersfoort
Leave the US on Saturday afternoon and arrive in The Netherlands midday. Meet up with tour guide and drive to the beautiful, historic, Amersfoort.
Eat a nice dinner and sleep ’til morning in a hotel that is housed in what was formerly a 17th century tobacco factory.
Day Two
Terschuur
Have a nice Dutch breakfast in the Hotel (you’ll learn what that means). Take our time getting ready and visit our first mill, Den Ouden Florus.
This mill is mentioned in a document from 1406 and is still the original mill from that time. A Standerd Molen (Stand Mill). Once there we will open the mill, learn about safety in and around mills, and (if there is enough wind) do some work on the mill (lifting grain, grinding wheat to flour, etc), and finally put the mill to bed for the night.
On to Haarlem, to a Hotel that was a former castle (19th century).
Day Three
Haarlem
The city which lends it’s name to the neighborhood in NYC.
Today is a big day. Starting at a Wip Molen, the next development from the Standerd, we visit De Schoterveense Molen in the north of Haarlem.
Then a surprise as we make our way in style to a sawmill from 1776 called De Eenhoorn (The Unicorn), a Paltrok Molen.
Lunching underway after the sawmill we arrive at De Adriaan, a grain mill on the old city wall.
After a behind the scenes tour of this amazing grain mill it is off to De Zaanse Schans to sleep in a Dutch house from the 1600’s.
Day Four
Kop van Holland
Waking up in an old Dutch town we eat classic Dutch breakfast of Dutch pancakes and walk around this beautiful museum town.
This famous mill museum is the only mill experience most visitors to The Netherlands get to see. But you get to see it better, from closer by as our Tour Guide, a Dutch Miller himself, arranges for unprecedented access to the inner workings of these mills.
In the afternoon we travel to a row of mills used originally to pump the lakes of the Kop van Holland (Head of Holland) dry allowing crops to be planted there.
Then on to Friesland, where we’ll dine in an old Admiralty House on the historic harbor and sleep in Harlingen.
Day Five
Friesland
Waking up in Harlingen, we drive to Franeker, a famous Friesian town where one of the oldest universities in Holland was founded. There we will visit Eise Eisinga’s Planetarium from the 1780’s. Built by a collaboration between watchmakers and millwrights.
Taking in the sites of Friesland as we go to another mill, one which has more than one function – grain milling and sawmill.
Finally we go to Groningen to sleep on a boat on a canal.
Day Six
Groningen
Ok, so pancakes are a bit deal in The Netherlands, and after sleeping on a ship it only makes sense to eat on one too.
We’ll visit a Klompenmaker (Clog Maker) in Eenrum and before visiting a Burcht from the 1300’s, ending up in Bourtange, a Star Fort from the Eighty Years War.
Day Seven
Harkstede
Having slept in either Captain’s or Soldiers Quarters in this old Star Fort, we venture to Groningen to two mills, one grain and one water, to see some amazing advances in vane construction. There you learn about the final stages of mill technologies, when steam was just starting to make inroads, and the efficiency of these mills was paramount.
We then travel to Harkstede to meet the Tour Guide’s Mill, Stel’s Meulen. We can putter around and gawk at this beautiful wood and iron machine, the apex of its day.
Since this is the last day of the tour, we’ll be staying somewhere special, again. This night we go to Oldendendam to sleep inside a mill! A delicious seven course meal and drinks into the wee hours is the plan. As the next morning we are off to Schiphol to get you all back to your non-mill lives.
For a price breakdown click here.
*Price includes a $1400 flight allowance. Should your flight cost more than the added cost is not included in the state price. Price also includes $400 for Travel and Health Insurance. Should your particular situation require a more expensive Travel and Health Insurance Plan, the added costs are not included in the above stated fee.
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