Kinderdijk centre advice

I was there in June. Access to the place is free but the boat trips and some of the windmills are open by paid ticket.
Food looked good and loos are really clean and free (which is pretty normal)
The main walking area is a shared cycle path so keep your wits about you especially when taking photos
Opposite the main shopping area there are also street food vendors.

Menachem, that might be the better way to go. Thanks for the suggestion. After reading about the luggage horrors at Schiphol, we intend to each travel with just a carry-on and backpack...which will be a first for me. I always over pack! So we should be okay taking the #300 bus with just that, right?

Menachem, I've read somewhere that there is a way to get to Kinderdijk by boat from Rotterdam. Do you have any knowledge about that? Would it be running in April?

Paqngo...thanks for the link!

Yes totally. They're large bendy buses with a luggage area, wifi and usb ports :)

You can take the regular Waterbus from Rotterdam Erasmusbrug (you can get there by metro from Rotterdam centraal, stop Leuvenhaven, or walk there from Centraal)
You need the #20 to Dordrecht: get off at the Ridderkerk De Schans stop and take the little Driehoeksveer to Kinderdijk
You can buy a Waterbus ticket ahead of time, but OV chipkaart also works, Driehoeksveer you can pay by card or cash on board.

That's it. It's full on travel, but you get to travel a good distance up river. It's a quintessential Dutch landscape with shipyards, a lot of river traffic, always interesting. Dordrecht is also worth a visit: the City where both the Dutch state and a standard Dutch language came into being. Arriving at Dordrecht from the Noord river gives you a view essentially unchanged since the 17th century.

https://www.waterbus.nl/en/destinati...oed-kinderdijk

My advice would be to walk a little further and keep left for the Overwaardpad: crowds are fewer, the mill array is even more beautiful than closer to the visitor's centre, and there are a couple of very nice benches in good spots and some picknick tables. Worth the walk, I think.
April is still pea soup month: they make their own, in the visitor's centre and it's pretty good. I go there a lot because it's a coffeestop on one of my cycling rounds.

Thanks!

This is so helpful! Thank you!

When I read your comment on split pea soup, at first I thought you were talking about the weather! 😂
Thanks for the tip!

Please do not ask for split pea soup. The dutch say Erwtensoep (pronounced by an native English speaker as: Air-ten-soup) https://forvo.com/word/erwtensoep/Some times also called Snert. April maybe too late to find it in restaurants.
It is not for vegetarians or vegans.

Heerlijk

they have it on their slate as "split pea soup", so don't worry. Kinderdijk is completely geared to international river cruise travellers

Sorry I forgot you are recommending eating in a real tourist trap café. ;)
I doubt if the other establishments in the area will be any better.

There are none. Maybe a word to the wise: the visitor centre is the only place now. There used to be a regular place just around the corner, but it wasn't able to stay open during corona, and now it's closed.
I've been stopping at that place when it was still a green shed with a counter, some chairs and tables and some souvenir stuff they sold. There was a lot of opposition locally to the ugly glass box they put over the Molenvliet (beautiful view from the terrace though), but river cruisers must be accommodated I guess. There's more upgrading in the works and it won't make the place more beautiful I'm afraid.