When you think about the Dutch and what you’ll see if you visit The Netherlands you think of cheese, clogs and windmills.
Amsterdam sells cheese in cheese dedicated shops, clogs in tourist shops and has one awesome non-operational windmill which is also a brewery. All these things are great, but if you want to see the above mentioned Dutch items come to life, there’s no better place to visit than Zaanse Schans!
Placed about a 20 minute drive north of Amsterdam, or 45 minutes by bus, Zaanse Schans is super easy to get to, and thus has become quite the tourist attraction!
Windmill Overload
The town has quaint old-world buildings, but the star attractions really are the 8 working windmills along the river all next to each other! If you want Dutch windmills, you’ll get Dutch windmills!
All of the windmills cost €4 each to go into, so we decided on 2 of the windmills, the paint mill and the saw mill.
The Hunk was in awe of the saw mill, whilst my favourite was the paint mill because we could climb to the top and stand on the roof of the windmill, close to the working blades/wings.
Klompen
What you shouldn’t miss is a 5 minute showing of how clogs are made inside the clog workshop! It’s pretty incredible to see such old machinery still in use and still producing an impeccable product. And also it was lovely to see the clog workshop is still run by the same family!
I tried on a few pairs of clogs for fun and decided my downstairs neighbours might not be too happy with me if I walked around the house in a pair – so I’ll be saving the clog purchase for when I have a detached house!
The Oldest..
Also, the oldest grocery store (Albert Heijn) in The Netherlands is in Zaanse Schans, so definitely do not miss out on seeing what it was like back when it all began! It has not been updated and is more of a museum than a store selling real produce any more.
Interesting also to see the old advertisements. This one asks if you have chosen your colour yet (referring to the kind of coffee roast).. Though looks a touch racist… No?
Go on, visit!
Being such a short drive from the ‘big smoke’ it seems prudent to make the pilgrimage out to Zaanse Schans whilst visiting Amsterdam for a little view into the past and to get a really big gulp of Dutchness!
Oh and you CAN avoid the tourist groups, but sometimes you just CAN’T… Case and point… ?
Australian expat, married to a Dutch guy, living in Amsterdam. Previously lived in London for 3 years, too! Lover of travel, coffee, brunch, beaches, fresh flowers, and family. Now a new mum, navigating life with a baby!
