Pre-Tour

Pre-Tour "Highlights of Holland"

The pre-tour started on the evening of Tuesday May 29^th, 2007, and ended on Saturday June 2^nd, 2007, after breakfast.

The tour had Holland’s struggle with the sea and the polder creation process as a main theme as well as industrial milling in the Dutch Golden (17^th/18^th) Century. It took the participants to some of Holland’s most famous, impressive and ancient “must-see” mills, mostly situated below sea level.

The tour began in Alkmaar and ended at the symposium hotel in Putten. Mill friends who had visited some of these mills before, experienced during this tour what the difference is between an individual visit and a specially prepared tour!

Schedule: (still subject to alteration)

Tuesday May 29^th	arrival; registration (3.00 - 6.00 pm); dinner and introductory presentation (6.30 pm); hotel in Alkmaar.
Wednesday May 30^th	(after early wake-up call) the wind-powered drainage system (drainage mills) of the 17th century Schermer polder below sea level, including museum; Zaansche Schans (oil/paint/saw mills and mill museum, historical village); hotel in Kinderdijk/Alblasserdam
Thursday May 31^st	world's largest cornmills in Schiedam; related distillery museum; working spice & tobacco windmills in Rotterdam; evening boat tour with a view of the 19 mills of UNESCO World Heritage Kinderdijk site; hotel in Kinderdijk/Alblasserdam
Friday June 1^st	visit of Kinderdijk mills and museum and 17th century former office building (with beautifully decorated and furnished rooms); hollow post drainage mill and working diesel pumping station at Langerak; post mills on city ramparts of Heusden; dinner and accommodation at symposium hotel Mooi Veluwe (Putten)
Saturday June 2^nd	end of pre-tour after breakfast

Optional Excursion to the Netherlands Open Air Museum

Saturday June 2^nd, from 09.00 am to 4.00 pm; here the participants had the opportunity to visit the Open Air Museum in Arnhem.

Last update: April 29th, 2012

NL2007 Pre-Tour