The odd name of this WHS has always intrigued me so I was very happy to finally visit Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal in April 2024. The parking lot of the steam pumping station was quite empty when I arrived on a Thursday afternoon. I arrived by car but I could imagine it's easy to arrive here by public transportation too, as the pumping station is right at the edge of the lovely town of Lemmer. The parking lot is few hundred metres away from the station but you'll see it already from the road. When you arrive you'll first enter the ticket/souvenir shop. Just like earlier on the same day at Schokland, the staff seemed bit confused to see non-Dutch visitor showing up. Besides the tickets, I picked up some brochures about Friesland region, they had quite good selection of them!

After buying the tickets you'll be asked to go to the futuristic looking visitor centre where a guide will be waiting for you. You first enter a room with huge picture of the pumping station that is made up of pictures of other World Heritage Sites! Quite fun idea! My English-speaking guide was already waiting for me and a group of Dutch visitors had their own guide already giving a tour to them. The visitor centre has a restaurant with great views over the fields and the IJssel Lake. My guide gave me a brief introduction of the pumping station's history inside the visitor centre and then we were quickly out to explore the station itself.

I was very positively surprised how the pumping station looked inside. I was waiting for old dirty machinery but everything is very clean and very well kept. The guide was explaining very well how the pumping station works and what machine is used for what purpose, but he seemed to misunderstood every question I had and generally the private tour was bit awkward. Anyway, I had not looked too much information about the station beforehand so that I could learn more there and I didn't know the pumping station was so "new", I always thought it was from the 1800's, and that it was fully operational until very recently. The architecture is also very beautiful inside the main hall.

After the tour was over, I checked out the exhibition at the visitor centre. It was only in Dutch, which was quite disappointing considering how well managed the rest of the visitor experience was. After last look of the pumping station I left the site and went to enjoy a late lunch in the town of Lemmer. Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal is one of those Dutch WH sites that have a reason to be on the list but it's not the most exciting place to visit, unless you're into steam machinery or water management.