Tuesday morning came, and I was off to Zaanse Schans, a wonderful little tourist spot in which a typical historic Dutch village has been put together, complete with working windmills.
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| Amsterdam Centraal is huge and seems to go on forever. |
The train stops at a station about a mile walk from the village, giving me ample opportunities to get some smaller-town Netherlands pictures.
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My first windmill--not part of the Zaanse Schans village,
just a random one. |
As I crossed the large bridge to the village, I was struck by the view.
The village itself was just waking up for the day. The mousers were out in force, and I was able to befriend one. Then it was off to explore the various buildings and windmills.
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Albert Heijn is a major grocery store chain in the
Netherlands. |
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| Yes, that's a rodent in its mouth. |
I stopped at the first windmill I came to--one that was used for making spices. I sat and watched a video for a few minutes, and heard a loud clomping over my head as a man got it moving for the day. Then he came downstairs, and I realized he was wearing wooden shoes.
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| Look at his feet! |
I wandered out to the farther windmills. Some had shops that were open, some were closed. It's not the main tourist season yet.
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The Cacaolab invites you to make your own hot cocoa,
which I was glad to do. |
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| Cocoa beer |
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| I bought some of the Maya's Secret, and it is delicious. |
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They did not have samples, and I did not buy any, so I can't
tell you anything about it. |
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| Chocolate molds. |
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Cali doesn't speak Dutch, but all ducks speak Quack, so
it's all good. |
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| Goedemorgen, goat! |
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| The cheese shop. |
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| I bought some of this--it is very yummy. |
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| I also brought home some truffle cheese. |
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| I bought a fresh, warm stroopwafel. |
I visited the clog museum, which was actually interesting. I mean, who knew there were regional clogs and clog boots and all that?
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| I tried on some shoes. |
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| Work clogs |
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| In the Novelty Clogs case. |
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| More novelty "clogs." |
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| Where they make clogs. |
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For the rest of my stay in the Netherlands, I contemplated
buying a pair of clogs at a cheesy souvenir shop so I could
do this, but alas, I didn't have room in my suitcase. |
For lunch I found a warm cafeteria with pea soup.
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| The bakery looked amazing and smelled heavenly. |
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| Stroop is syrup. |
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| Making waffles. |
Zaanse Schans had a great little antique shop (with some new stuff), so I had to have a wander.
I wandered some more, in search of something I really needed to see...
Found it!!
The Kuiperij is a good old-fashioned cooper's workshop, where the cooper makes barrels. It wasn't open, but I was able to get some pics of barrels and a selfie of the Cooper at the cooper's place.
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| A Cooper's Playground |
On my way back, I met two charming residents.
Finally, I crossed back to the main town, and took a few more pictures as I wandered to the station to return to Amsterdam.
Upon my return, I found Centraal's piano, and I even played some Clementi. Sadly, the piano is waaaaay out of tune and the keys ring because people don't know how to play it properly. Still, I love the idea of a baby grand in a busy train station.
I did a lot more on Tuesday, but that warrants its own post.
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