Now that Rotterdam has really picked up as a cruise port, Kinderdijk has its peak times too. But, most people just venture out to the bridge where the bike path to Alblasserdam is and if you walk beyond that it's much quieter.

And, instead of looking at windmills as a piece of old style technology, I always like to point to the Cruquius steam pumping works near Haarlem:

https://www.haarlemmermeermuseum.nl

yes on our bike trips we always rode thru Kinderdijk from west to east and everyone thought it were so cool! Yes a whole lot more room to spread out in from bus groups that typically stick to one location for photo opt and to tour one mill. Biking or walking thru them is great. Agreed mch much nicer than Zaanse Schans - Kinderdijk is rather bucolic - the Zaanse Schans area indusrtrial.

Uhm, well, look to the west and you'll see the huge IHC shipyards. That entire area, our river landscape, is the highway to Germany. That's why going by Waterbus is so interesting: the entire network now stretches from Maasvlakte (the westernmost port area) to Sliedrecht, where much of the large, international dredging companies are. It's one long, rather industrialized area along major rivers. When you use the waterbus you can see how incredibly busy with freight traffic it is.

Yeh the boat trip part would be part of the fun in going to Kinderdijk. How frequent to they run? From where exactly?

Dank u (very) wel!

Every hour on the hour, more frequently in summer, from Rotterdam Erasmusbrug

Use the "reisplanner" function for an itinerary

https://www.waterbus.nl

Thanks. This is all very interesting. I'll plan to do Keukenhof Friday and maybe Haarlem and Leiden. Don't think I went to either of the latter two. Saturday will do Anne Frank House late after dinner. Saturday day: Still not sure.

Why not kick back a little. For instance, have coffee and excellent appeltaart at Winkel on Noordermarkt and browse the farmer's market there. Then a wander around the Jordaan, lunch somewhere perhaps. Or an expedition to the old NDSM shipyard, a rough, industrial location where a lot of artists live and work and where you can have a beer at Noorderlicht with a beautiful view of Amsterdam from across the IJ. The trip there by ferry is already a harbour cruise in its own right, and free.

Or take the tram to KNSM eiland, east of the city: interesting residential architecture to a human scale and good places to go for lunch or dinner and interesting shops.

And just because Leiden University is my Alma Mater: go there, not Haarlem!

Haarlem or Leiden?

tough call - I would say flip a coin unless some certain museum like Corrie t'Boom House (Haarlem's Anne Frank House sans long queues) plays a part. Leiden has a wonderful university museum of medical stuff I believe. Phsyically both very cute.

That's Museum Boerhaave.

Leiden also has a great antiquities museum with an Egyptian temple in its courtyard
An ethnographic museum that rivals Tropenmuseum
De Lakenhal, with art from the 17th century, altar piece by Luca van Leyden etc
Von Siebold house, japanese ethnographica
University building with botanical garden
Naturalis: zoological museum, with emphasis on the life sciences

Also, Leiden is where Rembrandt van Rijn was born and you can still see where his parental home was located.

Flip a euro coin for either whose key attraction are physical canal-laced old-world looks.

Absolutely. Almost every provincial town in the western Netherlands has canals and a fine church and interesting museums.

I'm confused on online Anne Frank house tickets. Due to renovations can only buy online now, it seems. Is open until 10 pm Saturday but tickets end 5:45-6 as the last window. How do I buy for later?

You would do best to start a new thread with this Q in the title to draw more attention to it.