So much to see, so much to do … clogs, windmills, cheese and fish … all in one day!

We headed off to Zaanse Schans this morning to explore some of the countryside near Amsterdam.

Our first stop was a place that makes traditional wooden shoes, called clogs. Did you know that there were special clogs for different jobs, like farming or walking on icy roads, even wooden clog like shoes for horses, and fancy ones with intricate carvings for weddings or pretty painted ones for dressing up. After we watched a demonstration about how the clogs are made with today’s special machines we looked through the clog shop and found some that might even fit our feet.

As we headed along the dijk we stopped to see windmills along the canals. Sam told us that in 1700 there were about 600 windmills powering production for all sorts of industries making the region one of the largest industrial areas in the world. Now there are only a few remaining that have been preserved and still run. We went to the sawmill and watched a film on how that windmill was built, then watched a log cut into wood planks, all powered by the windmill. Fascinating!

And, of course, no day would be complete without food, so we checked out a nearby cheese factory to learn a little about how cheese is made. It sure needs a lot of milk, the lady said they use 10 litres of milk for just one kilogram of hard cheese. They let us taste lots of cheese, too!

All this talking about food made us hungry so Sam took us to the town of Volendam for a lovely lunch at a seafood restaurant. We even tried a bit of salted eel! Then we walked off some of our lunch along the dijk, checking out some of the shops in the brightly coloured buildings along the way.