"Aarlanderveen, the windmills are still working !!" Aarlanderveen by tompt

Aarlanderveen is a small village on our route to Alphen a/d Rijn. We passed it so much.... And then came the day Rudy (Diamonddog) and Dannie (irisbe) visited our area. We were searching for things to do and see. Aarlanderveen came up on the net. Aarlanderveen has the only 4 connecting windmills in the world that still mill the polder dry. And surprise, suprise just on the day Rudy and Dannie visited it was national milling day. So we decided to have a look at these windmills. We thought it would take us 30 minutes and tried to find other things to do in the area. But the millers were enthousiast hosts and it took us over two hours to visit only two of the four windmills.

Aarlanderveen is a very small village, mainly one long street. The most important streetnames being Zuideinde, Dorpsstraat and Noordeinde. (south end-village street- north end).

In the dictionairy you will find Aarlanderveens , it means:
oldfashioned, mannerless, inelegant, boorish.

In the early days Aarlanderveen was thought to be much more than that though.....
It was first mentioned in the engagement threaty of Floris IV of Holland with Machteld of Brabant (14th century). several families came to own the area, among them: Van Oudshoorn and Van IJsselstein. In 1584 the area was owned by fieldmarschall Ernst van Mansveld. The shield of his family was used as municipal shield untill 1918 when Aarlanderveen was added to the municapality of Alphen a/d Rijn.
Nowadays the shield is still used by the waterschap de Zuid- en Noordeinderpolder.

Dorpsstraat Aarlanderveen

Today it is just not a very touristy place. People do tend to pass it on their way to the Nieuwkoopse Plassen. But if you stop here and have a look around you will be surprised why it is so undiscovered.

• Pros:Not many tourists around
• Cons:Not many tourist facilities
• In a nutshell:Undiscovered, but sure a gem