One of the things on my list for Holland was to see the windmills and explore the country outside of the vast city of Amsterdam. With some encouragement from Mr. Stannix and a few other people I went ahead and booked myself on a tour with loads of other people and I fell in love with Holland. Our tour guide spoke Dutch, English, and Spanish! And almost every other presenter we met on our tour also spoke three languages.
We started out visiting the windmills of Zaanse Schans, which is a pretty town situation on the Zaan River. The windmills are well preserved and date back all the way to the 17th century. We were able to tour one of the windmills that made peanut oil and see the process work and learn how they turn the sails throughout the day to follow the wind. The windmills help grind wheat, nuts, spices and coloring for paints. I found it super interesting!!
As the windmill turns, these millstones turn relentlessly to crush seeds or nuts under their weight (which is about 5000 kilograms). The heavy millstones are driven by a mechanism of the mill powered only by the wind. The kind miller showed us the whole process start to finish.
The end result of this mill is gorgeous bottles of peanut oil shipped and sold all over.
The second place we went to was a small fishing village, just a short drive away named Voldendam. We began our tour with a walk down De Dijk (the main harbour strip) which is full of little shops and lots of people biking! One thing I learned there was to walk near the side of the cobblestone streets and run when you hear a bike bell. Ha! It seems that everywhere we went, the bikers had the right-of-way and were never pleased with crowds of tourists blocking their streets.
On the one side of the strip was traditional buildings and homes, and on the other side were working trawlers and fishing boats. Many of the food places mainly sold fresh sea food or fish and chips.
We had the opportunity to go into the basement of a cheese factory/shop and learn how cheese is made right from the fresh cows milk to the finish. After four weeks it's ready to eat. We were able to sample a whole bunch of different kinds of cheese and purchase our favorites.
While everybody else ate sea food for dinner, I went and bought myself a Stroop Waffle. I have been craving one ever since I learned about them! We had a chance to hang out on the docks before jumping on a ferry across the lake to Marken.
The ferry ride was about twenty minutes, and I had to pee so bad! Thankfully the bathrooms on the ferry were free! Most bathrooms here cost up to 1 Euro per person to use, so I got good at timing pit stops to restaurants where we ate or our hotel.
We arrived in Marken at the golden hour which made for perfect lighting to capture the harbor. The little village was quiet and most of the shops were closed for the day. Marken is a former island in the Markermeer. The peninsula is a popular seaside getaway that's reachable by a long causeway or frequent ferries.
It was so quaint, and lovely, and quiet.
We walked from one side of the village to the other where we were able to go inside a small shoe making factory and learn how clogs were made. Another process that's so intriguing. While they used to be hand made, they have now developed special machines which are fast and effective.
They were all so beautiful! There were bundles of them hanging across the ceiling in every direction and a nice display for purchase in the main store.
Visiting Marken was such a lovely end to the day! It was so peaceful and wonderful.
As we walked to the bus we listened to the birds, the sheep, and bike bells in the distance. It was just a short jaunt across the causeway and back to Amsterdam. We arrived back late in the evening just as the sun dipped behind the tall rows of houses. I caught the train back to our hotel and met up with a very sleepy Mr. Stannix who listened as I told him all about my adventures. This place will always have a piece of my heart!
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