A visit to the Windmills

On our first day in Amsterdam, we took a half day tour to see all things typically Dutch – windmills, a cheese factory and a clog factory.


Zaanse Schans - Windmills and Cheese Factory

                                                                                                                                                          




Our first stop after the bus leaves the city of Amsterdam into the countryside is to Zaanse Schans to see the traditional wind mills of Holland. These days, there's not many traditional wind mills left as they have no use for it anymore, but instead heaps of 'ugly' ( in the tour guide's words) wind turbines are being erected.

Just had to try to make myself look like a wind mill :)

At Zaanse Schans, we also had the opportunity to visit a cheese factory where blocks and blocks of cheese are made. There are a variety of flavours of cheese made here, which I find really amusing - there's even chilli (spicy cheese) and pesto (green) cheese.

The variety of flavours of cheese

Cheese in its original form....
almost look like plastic containers :)

Holding a really large block of cheese

The Famous Fishing village of Volendam


We then visited the the world-famous fishing villages of Volendam – a very cute village, with cute houses by a canal.  The canal however, is filled with green algae...making it look like a very green garden. 

Raw herring - a traditional dutch delicacy

We had pancakes by the sea, and I tried the traditional raw herring fish….YUMMY!!! The walk along the village is lovely, with cute, small houses and shops, and small canals around. Here, we could also dress up in traditional clothes and have a photograph taken – we didn't do it, but a group from our bus did

Picture of a family in our tour group - all dressed up in dutch traditional clothes

Marken and the Klog Factory

We then took a boat over a large stretch of water to Marken (a former island that is now connected to the main land by a small bridge). Here, we had a short walk around the village, which is made out of  cute little wooden house, and  visited a clog factory, where a guy demonstrated how a clog is made. It's also here that we experience the wonders of nature with 'swan lake' – see separate blog.  

A tree covered with klogs