Day drie in Amsterdam

Sunday was another bright day and I was up bright and early heading to Zaanse Schanse. It's a little, quaint Dutch town, about fifteen minutes from Amsterdam but the two places couldn't be more different. All went well until I got off at the wrong "Koog" stop (I don't know what Koog is but there shouldn't be more than one stop called Koog something or other).

I figured out where I was going and walked down towards the little town. You had to cross over a bridge to get there and it had to be elevated since some of the boats were too big- love it when this happens.

Zaanse was all about the windmills and there were at least seven in the area- an oil mill, paint mill, etc. There were a few that you would go to the top of and see the inner workings of what went on.
The town was exactly what you pictured in a very quaint little Dutch town. Little lanes and shops, beautiful gardens and canals, animals, and lots of Asian tour-groups. I should have been prepared for the last one, frustrating as they were.
There was a gift shop, antique shop, cheese shop and bakery, one of the original Albert Heijn grocery stores, coffee place and of course, a clog shop, I learned all about how to make clogs out of a block of wood, about how men specially make and decorate clogs for their bride on their wedding days, but they still don't look comfy! Explain the appeal to me!


Of course the main attraction was the windmills- paint, oil, grain mills. The paint mill was open and I paid to get inside the windmill and watch it in action. I got to climb to all four levels and watch the cogs and inner workings on the mill, including seeing the various chalks and dyes being ground up to eventually be made into paint. The view from the top of the wind mill, overlooking the river on one side and the massively huge boggy fields and smaller canals on the other was gorgeous.


After Zaanse, I headed over to Haarlem which was a mistake. It was EMPTY, everything was absolutely shut down except for some restaurants and the streets were literally bare. There were a bunch of funny signs and that pretty much sums up my experience in Haarlem. A guy named Sue was my favorite- because it's in a Boy Named Sue?
There were some beautiful houses and churches, as well as a large square and some incredible architecture. I also saw the Corrie Ten Boom house, making it the second house I saw where Jews were hidden during WWII. Sadly it was closed on Sundays (what else is new in Haarlem) so I didn't get to go inside.



After Haarlem, I went to the "Zee"- there were tons of people there but as I walked along the shore, I got to people watch and see kids play football and jump in the waves. The water wasn't as cold as I thought and the sun was out and shining, making it a perfect beach day.

Back in Amsterdam, I wandered around for about an hour, picked up two yummy, yummy slices of New York style pizza and ate my dinner in Dam Square. Of course, no big city can have a square without a street performer, so of course I had to watch a juggling man on a unicycle. Typical. He was pretty funny though- it's easy to make fun of Amsterdam and all of its vices.