After an overly warm night, my husband K, daughter J, and I were up at 8. It was sunny and 56°, but felt like 53°. J opened the window to get some air in.
K went down to lobby to get coffee and brought juices for J and me at a cost of 11 Euros. We made use of whatever surface we could to eat breakfast.
We left the room at 9:30. On the way out, I noticed this in the hall. I've never seen one before.
We were in the train station at 9:35 and it took us five minutes to get to the platform. Once there, I noticed how beautiful the old gates were on the far side of the platform. We had under a minute to wait for our train to arrive.
We found seats in a second class car and were on our way at 9:47. We got off at 10:05 at the Zaandijk Zaanse Schans station. (A djik is an embankment to keep back water.) We were actually in Koog aan de Zaan, specifically Oud Koog (Old Koog). The Zaan is the name of the river that runs through here.
We knew from our planning that the sign didn't mean that Zaanse Schans was right here. We knew we had about a 15 minute walk, according to the website. Given photo ops, we knew it would take longer.
There was a handy directional sign outside of the station with lots of info on Zaanse Schans, including this:
Our path led us through a quiet street of shops, a factory, and maybe even houses. The strip between the sidewalk and the street was given over to a wild growth of flowers. Much more practical and beautiful than mown grass.
Just before Lagedijk intersected with Guisweg, we saw our first windmill. It looked nothing like any windmill I'd seen at home, but it did look very much like the ones we'd seen in paintings yesterday at the Rijksmuseum.
I have seen looked it up and found the following at zaanschemolen.nl:
De Bleeke Dood (The Pale Death)
| Type: | Flour Mill |
| Since: | 1656 |
|
| Zaandijk’s citizens have traditionally
and literally – at least since 1656 – lived between life and death:
between the mills Het Leven (Life) and De Bleeke Dood (Death). The
mill Het Leven was a polder mill in the northern most tip of the
village that saw service between 1633 and 1904. Mill De Bleeke Dood was a
flourmill in the south of the village. Until
the mid-19th century, bakers were obliged to grind their wheat into
flourbread in the village mill, and that was the primary function of the
De Bleeke Dood mill in Zaandijk. When this obligation fell into disuse,
the mill itself deteriorated. For many years afterwards, the De Bleeke
Dood mill, with its mutilated body, stook out like a sore thumb in
picturesque Zaandijk. The skeleton that was the mill stood head and
shoulders above the village. In the early 1930s, the mill lost all the
attributes that give it then appearance of a mill: first its sails, then
its ‘tail’ and finally its gallery. In
the 1950’s, plans were drawn up to restore the De Bleeke Dood to its
former glory. In 1954, the process began and at the end of a long and
complex restoration period, Zaandijk had gained yet another monumental
testimony to its rich past. The mill was renovated yet again in 2001. |
At 10:20, we were up on the bridge that carried Guisweg over the Zaan. To our left, was the cute village of Zaandijk, some of which is actually part of the things you can visit as part of Zaanse Schans, although we didn't get there. To the right, we could see the windmills of Zaanse Schans. We could see that there were several models that had either been brought here or reconstructed here.The wind was bracing up there, but that view! Sadly, you can't tell in the still photos, but the windmills were all rotating.
The Zaanse Schans website, where I'd bought our timed-entry tickets before leaving home has this :
The Zaanse Schans is a residential area in which the 18th and 19th centuries are brought to life. Despite
the fact that visitors from all over the world visit this neighborhood
every day, it is good to know that people still live here. Keep this in
mind during your visit. Stroll past the bakery museum and enjoy
the smell of fresh cookies, or take a look at the warehouse where clogs
are made. You should be sure not to miss the cheese factory, pewter
foundry and the various windmills. The Zaanse Schans is a unique part of
the Netherlands, full of wooden houses, mills, barns and workshops.
Make a cycling or sailing trip, browse the shops or treat yourself at
the pancake restaurant. A day out at the Zaanse Schans in North Holland
is fun and educational.
It seems to be related to the concept of open-air folk museums, living history museums, etc. Except, unlike, say Stockholm's Skansen, the first of these, people actually live here.
This is what we saw soon after we crossed the bridge. There was no sign of a ticket booth and nothing on the ticket said where to check in.
We searched the map that the folks are standing in front of, but nothing. We wound up walking toward the parking lot, thinking that would help. No, it didn't, but we could see the museum from there and figured it was a reasonable place to start our visit.
So, we went back to the main path. It was a lovely walk with interesting building shapes and bucolic scenes.
There was also the random juxtaposition of old and new.
Then, there was this artwork called "Pasillo" by Anneke Schollaardt.
I found her website and got this translation about the piece that was done in 1998:
The municipality of Zaan commissioned city the creation of this statue following the construction of the new Zaan museum. This museum in Zaandijk focuses on the history of the Zaan region. According
to the assignment, the new work of art had to respond to the
environment and to what is now missing from it, the history. Only signs and markings remain of this fits. This is how this monumental work of art Pasillo was created. The
starting point was the stormy industrial development that the Zaan
region was experiencing, mainly as a result of shipbuilding and the mill
industry. The image-increased its power from water, wind and, of course, humans.
When we reached the Zaans Museum, our tickets were scanned. We were allowed to use the restroom, only as long as we were in the museum, we were told. If we came back, we'd have to pay to use it. We were given our passes that would let us in a certain number of windmills and some of the smaller museums. Others, were just free to anyone. We had to wait down in the seating area for the café of the museum for a bit before we could actually go in. We had to stash all our bags and such in a locker. I made sure I took my camera, as I take photos on both the phone and it.
We were given headsets that were tuned to English translations and told how to work them at each pad we saw with multi-national flags. Just after 11, we headed in.
It quickly became clear that the beginning of the museum, at least, was focused on the history and industry along the Zaan. We entered a gallery that stepped upward and focused on the products produced here over the centuries. There were buttons to push at times and videos on the big screens above occasionally. Each display was in Dutch and English, which told you something about the clientele.
There were samples of the packaging of the various products that had been/ are produced here: cocoa, rice, starch, hemp, oils, wood, paper, etc. Here, for example, are some of the cocoa.
I was really surprised to see an old Singer sewing machine with the discussion of repairing jute sacks. I'd have expected a Dutch brand.
I, of course, was quite interested in the discussion of cocoa. I cannot imagine what informed the attitude in the second photo about complaining about the permanent smell of cocoa. Who can complain about that??
There was no surprise at all to run into several displays on windmills. Until now, it had never occurred to me that you could construct them, so that they could catch the wind no matter which way it was blowing. I found that fascinating. And it greatly impressed me how long ago they figured it out. I was also intrigued by how the blades cut the trees into planks.
Okay, I'll admit it, in spite of the first syllable similarities, I had no idea that linseed oil and linoleum were related.
After industry, there was more of a general history area. I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to forget that Holland was a colonial power. That, unfortunately, includes some ugly truths.
They were rightly proud to own a painting by Claude Monet, especially since it was of this region: The Voorzaan and Westerhem .
There was a section devoted to the recreation of an exhibition from 1874, which centered on the lives of the folks in the area.
Of course, I was drawn to the miniatures in the exhibition.
We learned why all the buildings here are green.
There were some furnishings from homes that were hard to photograph, but I got these around a fireplace.
A photo exhibition shed some light on the founding of Zaanse Schans through not only photos, but also the captions.
They called a separate building that was through a hall, a "pavilion" and had an interesting display on the manufacture of chocolate and biscuits by a local company.
The first section was given over to the making of biscuits, which are a kind of cookie. Unlike the Schokoladenmuseum, all of the machinery here was pretending to do the work.
J and I tried out the computerized game for making cookies together, because there were so many steps: mixing, adding batter, dispensing batter, cutting the shapes, etc. We were comically terrible at it and I'm a pretty good baker!
Next up was chocolate. The method was pretty similar to Lindt's.
Here, the game was to fill candy boxes without putting in the bad pieces. This involved swiping the candies from the conveyor belt on the screen to the correct spot in the box. We did this independently of each other, but were laughing like crazy and our incompetence. It reminded me of the episode of I Love Lucy in the candy factory. K chose just to enjoy watching us.
Farther along in the self-tour, we learned more about various aspects of the Verkade company. One sign was about their version of daycare.
Another set of signs told of a very successful advertising campaign. They even had a dimly gallery of the original art from the cards in question. They were lovely. The whole idea reminded me of when I was a kid and you could get glasses in detergent boxes.
At 12:35, we finished with the museum and headed for the shop. Of course, we bought some Verkade chocolate to try at home. Before leaving the building at 12:55, we decided to take advantage of the free restroom one more time. Paying for restrooms in the States just wouldn't fly any more.
We thought it best to get some lunch. The café in in the museum didn't appeal to us, but there was a Dutch pancake restaurant called Restaurant De Kraai, which was in an old granary. Due to our Zaanse Schans card that we'd received for our tickets back at the museum, we got a discount here. So, at 1:10, we were reading the overhead menu and trying to decide what we wanted. We picked up desserts of chocolate cheesecake, chocolate blob and apple cake, because we were getting savory pancakes. We also grabbed sodas for J and me and coffee for K. The pancakes were ordered at the register; Pancake with cheese for 9, 95 Euros; Pancake with ham and cheese for 9,95 Euros, and Pancake with bacon and cheese for 10,95 Euros. With the discount, the meal came to 50,83. I snapped a photo of the pancake cooking station, while I had the chance. We paid and took the desserts and sodas to a table in the relatively empty seating area. Some folks were seated outside, but we wanted a little more warmth.
There was a large seating area in the back that was obviously set aside for tour groups. The pancakes didn't take very long, but we were really hungry and it seemed longer. The whole meal was delicious.
We got alerts on our phones that it was time to check in for our flights. We wasted a lot of time trying in vain to do so.
J had easily twisted off the cap to her regular Coke, but I'd not been able to get the one on my Coke Zero all the way off. I wondered what the words on the top of the caps meant. I knew one of them had to be "recycle". J said to try Google Lens. Low and behold it translated the words right on top of the ones that were printed. I was so excited by this discovery that I had to post it for friends on Facebook.
We left at 2:25 and stopped to shop in the nearby souvenir store. At 2:55, we found ourselves in the Weavers House, built originally around 1720. We showed our cards and were let into the living quarters of one of two families who would have lived here. The cozy room was living room, kitchen, dining room and bedroom for a large family of 10-12 kids.
All the kids would sleep together in one of these boxes with babies sleeping in drawers of the parents bed.
Some pretty steep stairs led upstairs to the other family's quarters.
All members of the family worked, with the youngest doing the simplest tasks, we were told in a tour of the loom room.
We went over to the wooden shoe workshop. Luckily, we'd watched the video of the demonstration here before leaving home, because we came in at the tail end of it. We didn't buy any shoes, but it was an interesting shop. There was a bit of a museum displaying different kinds of clogs. Evidently, you could be identified as to your place of origin just by your clogs.
Since they did a demo, they had the big machines of the trade. And a lot of saw dust.
Besides a giant Miffy in wooden shoes as a display, there were so many racks of shoes in different colors and sizes for sale.
Back outside, there were more bucolic scenes and we saw this interesting small windmill. If you look carefully, you'll see a waterwheel attached to it. It was tied down so as to not turn.
By the way, that windmill is called "De Hadel". The Zaanse Schans website notes that it is one of two miniature windmills there. About this one, it says:
Meadow mill ‘De Hadel’, was relocated to Zeilemakerspad in 1968. It was
originally built in the late 19th century and was used to pump water out
a polder. Originally the little mill was located in Midwoud, a small
village in North Holland.
Our next stop was the Catharina Hoeve Cheese Farm. The website has this:
A good old cheese sandwich; it’s what made us so tall! Learn all about
the typical Dutch delicacies at Catharina Hoeve, a replica of a
traditional farm from Oostzaan. The cheese makers, clad in traditional
costumes, will tell you all about the different types of cheese. After
all, what exactly is the difference between Gouda, goats and herb
cheese? There are daily demonstrations, in 10 different languages,
allowing you to see everything that’s involved in producing the cheese.
And, of course, you’ll get to taste some of those delicious cheeses. But
be warned: a little taste probably won’t be enough for you! That’s why
we’ve got all sorts of goodies to buy in the farm shop.
The only demo we saw was in videos over pretend vats and such. We did not buy anything in the shop, but we did taste some interesting varieties.
Even the Dutch do fun, but important signs.
Our Zaanse card would get us into two windmills. The walk out to the long line of them was very pretty, but windy and we got a good view of the Zaan Museum from there. That's De Gekroonde Poelenburg in the background of the first photo. The third picture shows De Kat, which is the only windmill in the world that makes paint. It is not listed as one of the ones you can go in.
The first mill we chose to go in was De Zoeker. The website says:
Oil mill De Zoeker has stood at this location at the Zaansche Schans
since 1968. It is estimated that the mill was built in 1610, as a polder
mill. In 1672 it stood in Zaandijk as an oil mill. In 1891 the mill was
converted into a paint mill, to be reconverted into an oil mill 10
years later. Around 1940, the dilapidated mill was nearly defunct.
Fortunately, the municipality of Zaandijk acquired the mill in the
1950s. In 1958 De Zoeker turned again as… an oil mill! Its relocation
was spectacular: the top part, weighing 18 tons, was moved in one
piece. During the transport the mill was hoisted over, among other
things, the overhead lines of a railway. After that it travelled by boat
to the eastern bank of the Zaan. What a move for such an old mill!
I was very proud of myself for climbing up the narrow stairs to reach the base of the windmill. I am very afraid of heights, but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't do it. I was very grateful that my knees cooperated.
So windy! We managed to get some nice selfies and someone kindly offered to take photos of the three of us. Up here, we had a better view of the sails, as well as the device for turning the cap to use the wind. We also had a good view of our next stop, Het Jonge Schaap, the lumber mill. In the distance, we saw the Oli plant, where they make cocoa products.
The way back down was a different set of steep stairs. But, on this side, I could see the cog spinning from the turning of the blades above.
Our second mill was the next one in the line, Het Jonge Schaap. The website had this:
A very special mill at the Zaanse Schans: Het Jonge Schaap is a
six-sided, over-wheeling wood saw mill. This shape was unique among the
more than 350 saw mills that stood in the Zaan area. The mill was built
in 1680 in the Westzijderveld in Zaandam, and was active there until it
was demolished in 1942. In 2007 the rebuilding process at the new
location at the Zaanse Schans, during which as much use as possible was
made of 17th century building methods, was finished. From
then on Het Jonge Schaap was back in use as a saw mill. The sale of wood
is the main source of income for the mill. Therefore, if the wind
allows, it is very busy in the mill. Come and have a look during the
miller’s work day and experience how a wood saw mill operates. Also
watch the movie about the rebuilding of the mill. Everyone is welcome:
Het Jonge Schaap is also accessible for disabled persons.
Amazingly, someone had the foresight to take exact measurements of every aspect of the windmill before it was destroyed. This allowed them to rebuild it exactly. There was a fascinating video of the rebuilding process. I was surprised to learn that the reed thatch that we'd seen on the sides of the tower of the previous mill is actually standard. You'll notice the black cat in the photo, who was generally just roaming around. Eventually, he decided that sitting next to me was a good idea.
After the film and reading the exhibit, we headed out to the mill. It was really cool to see how the wood was pushed along a track and the blades just kept going up and down due to the movement of the windmill above. The gentlemen working were happy to answer questions and they pointed out the track from the ramp to the water for dragging in the logs.
When we left the windmill and got to (slightly) lower ground, it occurred to me to check our elevation.
Cool!
We decided to head back to the restaurant for dinner, since we had a discount and we hadn't tried the sweet pancakes. Our path led us through a nice formal garden complete with a rose arch.
We saw more canals and the back of some of the houses that definitely seemed occupied. A herd of sheep were on a little island of land. The path was made of broken seashells, which were probably easy to obtain. We crossed over one-way drawbridges over canals more than once and they were charming.
At the restaurant at 5:04, J and I had our usual Coke and Coke Zero, but K figured for his last night in the Netherlands he should have Amstel Radler. He also went against the dessert idea by getting a roll and charcuterie. J and I got a pancake with chocolate and whipped cream(11,50 Euros), as well as the more expensive strawberries and whipped cream (12,50 Euros). They were delicious. With the discount, it all came to 44,50 Euros. The restaurant was pretty quiet and would only be open until 6.
On my way to the restroom, I noticed the lovely tile around their modernized fireplace.
Going out the back door of the restaurant when we left, we were on a little deck. I loved the look of the flower and duck.
We took in more quiet sights of Zaanse Schans, since most everything had closed at 5.
We found the replica bead garden that we'd read about in the museum. It was disappointing that some of the beads had been removed, especially because they were worthless.
As we approached the bridge, we looked over the water to the town of Zaandijk. It might have been nice to roam its streets, but we really didn't have that kind of time.
As we came over the bridge, we saw a Spar on the corner. We had searched unsuccessfully last night at the grocery for a certain condiment that a colleague of J's wanted. Even though this store was small, it was worth a shot. We didn't find it, but we were fascinated, as always, by what they sold that we recognized or didn't.
We left around 6:15. Google decided that the best route back to the station was down S153 to S152, which was the other two sides of this morning's rectangle. Along the way, we saw this interesting grill or fireplace. That same construction was used in Germany along roads and in Iceland as a counter. I was also surprised to see a Hallmark sign, but I was sure it was just for cards.
We arrived at the station at 6:27 and the train arrived one minute later. We were on our way at 6:29. We were in the Amsterdam Centraal at 6:46.At the end of the busy platform, we could see how the Ibis hotel straddled the tracks.
We went inside the station to browse the shops a bit before getting back to the hotel at 7:20. Upstairs in the glass hallway, we had a good view of the tracks and station.
The rest of the evening was spent packing. That backpack of chocolate was going to be heavy!
The phone said that 13,168 steps today equaled 4.4 miles and that I climbed 3 floors.
