We doubled down on our Dutch culture today and headed slightly north west of the city to a little town called Zaanse Schans. Over the past 50 years many old buildings and windmills have been relocated here from other parts of the Netherlands and it’s become a bit of a tourist Mecca.
There are at least 4 working windmills here, making oils, grinding grain and colours for dye and paint or cutting timber. There is also a clog maker, bakers, spinners, multiple mini museums and a boat cruise you can do which takes about 30 minutes. The mill grinding paint dye is the only one left in the world making them this traditional way
We started by purchasing a boat cruise ticket (€10 each) then bought a ticket that granted us entry to 4 windmills and their museums (family ticket €24).
Going inside a working windmill is quite amazing. During the 17th, 18th and half of the 19th century until steam power became widely available these were the most powerful machines on the planet, and apparently the Zannse area of Holland was the most industrial part of the world with so many windmills. Nowadays what one linseed oil windmill can grind and produce in a year, a modern factory can do in 10 minutes.
Getting to Zannse Schans was easy. You can get a bus from Centraal station, but that takes an hour. It’s less than 30 minutes of you get a train to Zanndijk Zannse Schans station. It cost us €10 per person direct from where we are staying at Amstel station. From the station it’s about a 10 minute walk to the centre of the village
We were there on a Monday and it was quite busy. It would be packed on a weekend. I wouldn’t bother getting there any earlier than 10am as that was when most things started to open. I
It's all about the coffee 