This morning we got up and went straight to Zaanse Schans. We had watched a YouTube video about the place and decided we had to go, haha. Somehow it ended up being more beautiful and magical than we ever imagined!
Basically it is a little traditional town with the cutest houses and buildings along the river. Sheep, goats, and ducks roam freely, as do us and the Asian tourists as we cross over the small canals on adorable bridges. The ground is grassy and green, with wildflowers growing in many parts. So charming! To top it off, there is a chocolate factory nearby so the air literally smells very strongly of chocolate in the entire town. Many times this morning I felt completely overwhelmed by how sweet the place was!
We roamed around a bit and stopped into the cheese shop. A girl in traditional clothes gave us the run through of how Gouda cheese is made and then released us into a wonderful sort of heaven - a room with about 20 samples of different cheeses to try! I tried every single kind and highly recommend the truffle gouda and the aged sheep gouda.
We then went on a walk near the river to see the historic windmills. They were beautiful!
We stopped in one to see how they made paint powder. It was interesting to learn about the process, and we loved climbing up the steep, narrow stairs to the top to get a beautiful view!
Our last stop was the clog shop where we saw a variety of interesting clogs on display, a demonstration on how they are made, and a wall full of clogs to buy. I’ve been so curious about how they feel so I tried on a pair. They are comfy enough but I can’t imagine walking around in them all day! They seem kind of bulky and I don’t know how you’re supposed to keep them on. The guy told us you’re supposed to buy them about a finger width too big on the heel.
We could spend the whole day there just enjoying the atmosphere, but we decided to head back to town because we wanted to see the National Maritime Museum. We are a fan of boats! We especially enjoyed walking through and exploring this old ship.
The museum was cool and definitely worth a visit for us as we got the student discount, but we were a little bit disappointed that many of the exhibits were under construction. We are glad we were able to see what we did though! It did help us learn a little bit more about Dutch history, which regrettably we don’t know that much about.
We ended the evening with Indonesian food at a cafe close to our Airbnb. We had never had Indonesian food before! It was pretty darn tasty (our favorite was the chicken satay!) but nothing to call home about. I’d eat it again but wouldn’t necessarily choose it over other ethnic food options. I’m glad we tried it though, I’ve been wanting to!
Tomorrow we leave Amsterdam which is kind of sad, but I am looking forward to our next destination. We will be back by the end of the week anyway. Stay tuned my friends!
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