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With a creak of wooden cogwheels, the two men turn the huge sails into the North Sea breeze coursing across the flat Dutch polders outside Amsterdam.
“We bring the mighty blades to the wind so that the work can begin,” says windmiller Jippe Kreuning, 30, flanked by Sjors van Leeuwen, a volunteer who is more than twice his age and sports a jaunty pilot’s cap.
Soon the sails of De Bonte Hen (the colourful hen) oil mill in Zaandam spin freely as deflection shafts transfer the wind’s force to the twin millstones weighing several tons.
The linseed is ground to produce oil for a factory as raw material for oil paints. Just like in the old days.

De Bonte Hen has 330 years of toil and transition behind it. The mill ground linseed until 1926, before the building was partly demolished a decade later and turned into a warehouse.
Today, it is rebuilt and milling again, thanks to a fundraiser in the 1970s, and visitors can gain an insight into a centuries-old craft.
“Our Queen Juliana also donated money and bought the mast for the Dutch national flag,” says van Leeuwen. Just how many guilders the wealthy monarch pitched in remains a secret to this day.
Behind the site’s resurrection was the Zaansche Molen association, founded in 1925 by the Zaandam teacher, painter and windmill enthusiast Frans Mars.

Mars wanted to preserve the old mills on the River Zaan as distinctive monuments in this region north of the Dutch capital, where well over 600 windmills used to work.
“Today, the association looks after 13 listed windmills in Zaandam, as well as in neighbouring Wormer and Westzaan,” says art historian Katelijne Prinsenberg.
She coordinates the volunteers who show visitors round the adjacent mill museum or cut the grass and hedges in its gardens. They also lend a hand to the workers at De Bonte Hen, for example.
“We are not a museum, but a working mill,” volunteer van Leeuwen impresses on visitors.

Meanwhile, mill chief Kreuning gauges the sounds of the grinding mechanism: “As a windmiller, you listen very carefully and know pretty quickly if something is wrong with the wooden gears.”
Everything is running smoothly and he can talk about his own path to the craft. “I was born in a windmill, so I had little choice but to become a windmiller,” says Kreuning, who studied archaeology and biology in Amsterdam, but finally came back to the windmills.
He spent two years as an apprentice at the neighbouring Het Jonge Schaap (the young sheep) sawmill, before passing a specialised exam before a board to receive “the driving licence for windmills”, as he puts it.
This was followed by two years as a young miller before Kreuning took charge of De Bonte Hen in 2023.

Het Jonge Schaap is another working example, but for the production of wood, its voracious saw blades tearing through light-coloured pine trunks.
“We make boards for furniture workshops, carpenters and joiners, but I can’t say how long it takes to saw a log – we depend on the power of the wind,” says Tim Doeves, who has milled on the Zaan river for 16 years.
The sawmill was built in 2007 as a reconstruction of a historic mill based on drawings and computer simulations. This makes it the youngest windmill on the Zaan.
Doeves also guides daily groups of visitors through the sawmill, a stereotypical delight of a Dutchman for the tourists as his wooden shoes, or clogs, clack on the floor.
Some of the milling legacy stems from the trading heyday of the Dutch East India Company in centuries past.

Shipowners and merchants working out of South Africa, Ceylon, India, Persia and Indonesia traded goods with the Baltic states, Norway and the Netherlands, including fabrics. Here too, the windmills of Zaandam made history.
De Schoolmeester (the schoolmaster), built in 1692, stands in the Westzaan district. According to the mill association, it is said to be the last working wind-paper mill in the world.
Here, windmiller Ron Botterman duplicates the process of turning cotton waste into the thick pulp traditionally used to make heavy paper for stylish invitations and certificates.
But one particular end-product stands out above all others in the annals of the local milling industry.
The United States Constitution, the world’s longest surviving written charter of government, written in 1787 and in operation since 1789, is believed to be written on paper from a Zaandam mill.


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Tourism

Tales from the blade runners, Dutch windmillers who are still grinding a living

Around the River Zaan in the Netherlands the windmill blades still turn, drawing tourists who watch and listen while the windmillers explain their operation. Photo: Instagram/@fede_zevo_qv

De Bonte Hen grinds linseed using its hefty twin grindstones. Photo: Instagram/ @zaanseschans

De Bonte Hen has 330 years of history. Photo: Instagram/@zaanseschans

De Bonte Hen ground linseed until 1926, before the building was partly demolished a decade later and turned into a warehouse. It has since been rebuilt and is grinding again. Photo: Instagram/ @zaanseschans

De Schoolmeester (the schoolmaster), built in 1692, stands in the Westzaan district. According to the mill association, it is said to be the last working papermaking windmill in the world. Photo: Instagram/@corazwaneveld2

De Schoolmeester turns cotton waste into the pulp used to make heavy paper. The US constitution is said to have been written on paper produced by a Zaandam mill. Photo: Instagram/@jenniferhoes1973

Why Athens, with its food, history, and contemporary apart-hotels, hasn’t lost its charm

Flowers in bloom in Athens in spring. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Tourists look out over Athens from the Acropolis. The Greek capital has received bad press of late, and it is true that its most famous site does draw big crowds, but a visit reveals the city to be as charming as ever. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Graffiti beside railway tracks in Athens. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

A soldier marches during the changing of the guard outside the Greek Parliament Building. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

A view of the Parthenon from the rooftop lounge at Monastik Living. Photo: Monastik Hotel

The Panathenaic Stadium, or Kallimarmaro, is a multipurpose venue a short walk from the Mets neighbourhood. Joggers are welcome in the morning for free. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Tourists are briefed ahead of a tour by an Athens by Bike tour guide. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

The busy streets of Plaka, the “charming” centre of Athens. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Plaka has many cafes along its historic lanes. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

A statue on the trail leading up to the Acropolis. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

A crowd begins to form on the top level of the Acropolis. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Tourists at the main gate of the Parthenon. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

A couple finds a gap in the crowds to take a photo of the Parthenon. Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Exploring Burgundy by bike, it’s easy to get off the beaten track in French wine region

Cyclists on one of the many bike routes that take riders through Burgundy’s vineyards and villages where wine is produced. For a change from these mainly flat routes, and the best views of the French region, ascend one of the ridges that protect the vines against the wind. Photo: Steve Wartenberg via AP

A vineyard along the Voie des Vignes near Beaune, in the Burgundy region of France. Photo: Steve Wartenberg via AP

Cyclists ride through the village of Pommard. Photo: Steve Wartenberg via AP

A fountain in the village of Meursault on the Voie des Vignes. Photo: Steve Wartenberg via AP

The view from atop the Cirque du Bout de Monde. Photo: Steve Wartenberg via AP

Thailand’s ‘Lost Kingdom’ in suburban Chiang Mai, where ancient temples sit beside houses

Wat E-Kang, one of Wiang Kum Kam’s best-preserved temples. Visitors to Thailand’s “Lost Kingdom” in a suburb of Chiang Mai can see ancient statues, remains of buildings and other Lanna Kingdom relics that lay buried for centuries. Photo: Ron Emmons

A statue of King Mangrai at Wiang Kum Kam Information Centre. Photo: Ron Emmons

Wat Nanchang, one of the sites of Wiang Kum Kam, was buried beneath a longan orchard before being discovered in 2002. Photo: Ron Emmons

A good way to see Wiang Kum Kam is by pony and carriage, which can be hired, along with a driver, at the Wiang Kum Kam information centre. Photo: Ron Emmons

Wat Ku Pa Dom, with its retaining walls, stands near houses in a modern Chiang Mai neighbourhood. Photo: Ron Emmons

Ornate details of Wat Chang Kham’s scripture library. Photo: Ron Emmons

Colourful poles support a bodhi tree at Wat Chang Kham. Photo: Ron Emmons

The cannonball tree near the back entrance of Wat Chang Kham. Photo: Ron Emmons

The ruins at Wat Pupia, including a stupa with original stucco carvings, are some of Wiang Kum Kam’s most complete. Photo: Ron Emmons

The square-based, five-tiered stupa at Wat Chedi Liam, erected by King Mangrai in memory of his wife. Photo: Ron Emmons

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Around the river Zaan, sails have been harnessing the power of wind for centuries to grind seeds and grain, saw wood and make paper pulp


Windmills have been a fixture in the Netherlands for centuries, and working mills still harness the wind to grind seeds and grains, saw wood and make paper, while welcoming visitors and volunteers.


The Netherlands

History

Sustainability

Norway