UK and Europe '24 Day 10 - Chasing Windmills

We decided to have a day off the bikes today and head a bit further out of town, so we rode as far as Centraal station via the ferry, parked our bike there, and caught a train to Zaandijk Zaanse Schans station to take in the windmills at Zaanse Schans. The train ride is under 20 minutes, then about 15 minutes walk to Zaanse Schans, where you can see the windmills lining the water's edge of the opposite river bank. Only one or two of them are original, the rest having been relocated here from the northern regions for preservation. Walking up into the town from the station, we were greeted by the first of many windmills, at the small chocolate factory. Across the road as a pancake place, it's wall lined with clogs doubling as flower pots, where we decided to head for something to eat.

Sadly, as you might tell from my face, the first coffee of the day didn't. hit the spot. After getting lost in conversation about what type of milk they had, we ended up with Americano coffees, but the pancakes were nice and the waitress was only too happy to give us a potted history of her home village, half an hour away, and the impact of tourism once everyone heard about what a beautiful fishing village it was. 

Zaanse Schans is very busy, like any other tourist destination, but nice to see some remnants of old Dutch industry. The windmills line the river bank and old wooden houses are dotted around the property, surround by fields and rambling gardens enjoyed by the birdlife, sheep, and a trillion tourists like us.

We visited the clog factory and saw a demonstration of clog making. Modern machinery reduces the process from three hours to five minutes, before the wood is allowed to dry away from the sun. Clogs are tough buggers. The Dutch equivalent of steel capped boots and were worn by all ages. Work clogs were generally black, and people would often have their good clogs painted for easy identification at the end of a night out. Young grooms (and possibly old ones, too, I guess) would also carve clogs for their brides with special imagery to express their love.

We wound our way past the weaver's mill and the cheese maker's and by the time we reached the end, the ferry was looking pretty good (think less Manly or Kangaroo Island ferry and more tinny with an outboard motor). Their eftpos machine wasn't working and we didn't have cash, but they generously let us hop aboard anyway. 

When we reached the opposite bank of the river, it was a 1.2 KM walk back to the station, down a street lined with some old, traditional residential buildings. 

We stopped for some lunch at Wolfsend where, sadly, the second coffee wasn't quite what we'd hoped either, but my tuna sandwich was primo, as was Chris's chicken and avocado with cream cheese. OK, as I write that that, they sound kind of boring, but they were delicious. Too delicious to wait for a photo shoot! It was time to make our way back to the train back to Amsterdam Centraal station.

Making another pass through the old town, we took in the vibe, which is definitely more busy with tourist activity than other areas we have visited this week, but the sensation of walking through streets that are hundreds of years old, the mediaeval buildings towering above the narrow paved streets, with shop fronts with everything from food to adult goods. And pot. There was an abundance of pot on every table of one of the cafes we passed where cigarette smoking is not allowed. Luckily for the smokers, everywhere else is OK. There's something for everyone, as they say. There are lots of smokers in Europe and you could easily make the mistake of thinking you had returned to the 80's except there are vapers, too, plantings us firmly in the early 21st century. All this aside, the grand architecture of Centraal station and St. Nicholas Basilica is really something to behold. The canals have their own charm that are always worth revisiting, too.

Before too long we felt like it was time to sit and chill for a while, so we headed back to the station, grabbed our bikes and hopped onto the ferry. Back on the north side, we stopped by the cafe near the ferry for a while, sipped on some refreshing drinks, served this time by the B & B owner's son (it's really starting to feel like a family affair!) then cycled back to the B & B.

No cats to greet us today. They're making friends somewhere else today, but our host's husband walked by with their two dogs and stopped for a quick chat. He reminded us there is also a windmill just around the corner, so we took a five minute walk around the corner and found the local chalk mill, Krijtmolen d'Admiraal which is maintained with the help of donations today, and is the last working wind-powered chalk mill in the country. We spotted our Burmese friend around the corner, who accepted a quick tickle under the chin, and came back to collapse in the sun for a while.