The green mill route
The route takes you past the typical windmills through this area. You start at NDSM square and cycle through the working-class neighbourhoods of Amsterdam Noord past windmill d'Admiraal into the rural core of Landsmeer.
Landsmeer is a vast ribbon village set in green and water-rich surroundings, with the beautiful monumental Twiske Mill in recreational area Het Twiske. Along the way, feast your eyes and, if necessary, stop for photos with typical Dutch grandeur and cultural history. You cycle further through Oostzaan past Bliksteenmolen de Vlijt and can admire windmill de Windjager in the Oostzanerveld (breeding ground for many a meadow bird) and head towards the famous Zaanse Schans.
Take a closer look
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Listen | Biksteenmolen De Vlijt
Bikestone mill De Vlijt, built around 1920, has not always stood on this site. The origins of this mill are somewhat controversial. Tradition has it that the little mill originally stood on the Kalf in Zaandam, but its exact location is unclear.
Listen | Biksteenmolen De Vlijt
Bikestone mill De Vlijt, built around 1920, has not always stood on this site. The origins of this mill are somewhat controversial. Tradition has it that the little mill originally stood on the Kalf in Zaandam, but its exact location is unclear.
In 1943, the mill was moved to the former yard of the sawmill the Crowned Hope, also known as the Rasphuis, which was demolished in 1898. The Rasphuis was used for sawing wood and grinding grain. In 1946, Jacob van den Broek from Oostzaan bought the mill for 225 guilders and moved it to the yard behind his parental home on Jacob Corneliszstraat in Oostzaan. There, the mill was placed on four high poles and named Zorg en Vlijt. Due to military service in Indonesia, Jacob was only able to put the mill on a barn in 1950 and it was also refitted for grinding grain and sawing wood.
Between 1959 and 1960, the mill was moved again within Oostzaan to its current location near Dokter Keijzerstraat. Here, the mill continued under the name De Vlijt and was equipped with a pestle mill to grind sandstone into sanding powder. This powder was used in the Sand-Soap-Soda trays from grandma's kitchen to clean pans. Mills like this, which are often small in size, are called Bikestone mills.
After the death of Jacob van den Broek in 2012, the mill came into the ownership of the municipality of Oostzaan. In the following years, the mill received little maintenance and fell into disrepair. In 2016, the Stichting Behoud Biksteenmolen De Vlijt (Foundation for the Preservation of Bikestone Mill De Vlijt) was established, with the aim of restoring the mill. From 2017 to 2020, this restoration was carried out, and on Saturday 3 October 2020, the restoration of the bikestone mill de Vlijt was officially completed. Today, the mill is used to grind glass to serve as anti-slip for boat jetties, for example.
Listen | Twiskemolen
The Twiskemolen has stood on the border between the municipalities of Landsmeer and Oostzaan since 1974. Looking at the dates on the mill, it is immediately obvious that the mill is much older.
Listen | Twiskemolen
The Twiskemolen has stood on the border between the municipalities of Landsmeer and Oostzaan since 1974. Looking at the dates on the mill, it is immediately obvious that the mill is much older.
The Twiskemolen was originally built in 1541. Only then it was not in Het Twiske, but about 40 km away in Barsingerhorn. When people were looking for a mill for Het Twiske, this mill - then stored in Nieuw-Vennep - was bought in the late 1960s.
The Twiskemolen is one of the few polder mills in the Netherlands that is still actually in operation and is managed by a volunteer miller. For decades, the monumental mill combined with an electric drive has been pumping the approximately 650-hectare Twiske polder. Did you know that in one minute the mill can grind 20 to 60 cubic metres of water one and a half metres up to the other side of the dike?
Next to the windmill, on the dike, is an information panel where you can read more about the Twiskemolen.
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