Zaanse Schans, a neighborhood of the town Zaandam near Amsterdam, is the closest you'll find to a traditional 18/19th-century Dutch Village, albeit a bit commercialized. We still loved it! ;)
Riana and I took a train, and then a ferry to the Zaanse Schans neighborhood from Amsterdam. We stated by walking around to absorb the chilled farm-like atmosphere, smell the fresh bread from the bakery and took photos of the windmills. There well-preserved windmills and old building were actually relocated to this area and collected from all over the Zaanstreek between 1961-1974 (according to Wikipedia).
There are various handicraft shops and stalls where you can experience a bit of old-school Dutch culture. Our first visit was to the awesome cheese factory where they make all sorts of amazing cheeses! Tasting is free and we tasted everything!
Finally we went to the clog factory. It has an awesome museum with any type of clogs you can think of... even Spy-Clogs! I bought some soft clogs-shaped slippers for those cold winters. ;)
Tell me what you think and stay tuned for more?!
Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Location: Zaanse Schans, Zaandam, The Netherlands
More in this series on our travels to the Netherlands:
Keep exploring...
!steemitworldmap 52.473648 lat 4.817711 long Zaanse Schans D3SCR