It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine and a nice cool breeze. As it turned out, we were not able to book another night in our accommodations and after considering our options, decided not to spend an extra day, but to do the windmill village tour and then leave for Hamburg, our next major stop. We had a leisurely breakfast and then drove over to Amsterdam Nord where we were to pick up the bus tour.

The tour took us to a small village called Zaanse Schans located about 20 minutes from Amsterdam. The first windmill in the Netherlands (Holland) was built in the late 16th century. There are over a thousand working windmills remaining in Holland, and thanks to the efforts of the Association De Zaansache Molten, 12 of them are in Zaanse Schans. Some pump of the windmills are used to pump water to create/maintain land known as polder fields which are used for agriculture (20% of the land in the village is polder fields). Other windmills grind grain to provide flour (for the bakers in the village), herbs, spices and herbs and plants for fabric dye.

Another interesting part of the Zaans Schans are the colorful, small wooden houses. Most of the Netherlands’ wooden homes were destroyed by fires. Between 1961 and 1974 several of the remaining houses were preserved and transported to Zaanse Schans. Approximately half are privately owned homes. The others are used as shops.

Because of timing and crowds, we missed the wooden clog making demonstration. Clogs are still used by farmers. We did see the cheese making demonstration which is quite interesting and labor intensive. Then we got to taste the cheese – YUM. Of course we purchased some and a small portable cheese slicer. There is a chocolate factory nearby and the wind was blowing the aroma right to the village. Unfortunately, the factory is not open to tours, but they sell the chocolate in the village so of course we bought some. The cheese, chocolate, local bread and “adult beverages” have been dinner the last few nights. (We are trying to eat a big lunch and a lighter dinner.)
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Amsterdam, like other parts of Europe that we have visited, is a wonderful blend of old world and modern day. The windmill village in Zaanse Chans is a good example of how old world ways and technology can be used together with modern world technology.

We are sorry to say goodbye to Amsterdam, but we are looking forward to the next part of our adventure which we tentatively planned to be in Hamburg, Germany.  However, due to the late start we won’t make it all the way and we’ll find someplace to stay along the way tonight.