WINDMILLS, CHEESE, AND WOODEN SHOES

We set aside a day during our time in Amsterdam to visit a few villages outside the capital city. Since time was short, we signed ourselves up for a tour to Volendam and Zaanse Schans. It looked like a nice way to see a bit of the countryside and (ahem!) a few windmills. A trip to the Netherlands would not be complete without seeing a windmill in action. Just saying.

It turned out that nearly every tourist visiting the Netherlands also decided to visit these locations on that particular day. We should have known better. Zaanse Schans was even built specifically for tourism! Still, we had a nice break from the city complete with beautiful weather, scenic countryside, cheese tastings, traditional street food, a wooden shoe workshop demonstration, and several windmills. And we learned so many interesting things from our guide.

It was a good day in the Netherlands.