Final day on the bus, and it’s all about discovering more about the beautiful Netherlands. We collected a few new tourists today, including a young family of mum, dad and a 3 year old and a 1 year old. After a day of travel with the family, I was pleased to be finishing the tour. I’m not sure that keeping kids crammed on a tour bus for extended periods is the most ideal option with very young children.
With my bag packed and stowed under the bus, we were soon at Zaanse Schans - what I would call a historical village, built around a lake, and filled with windmills, cheese factories and clog-making shops. The buildings are all repurposed from their original locations, and put together as a tourist spot - my parent’s visited the same place on their trip to the Netherlands.
We were treated to a clog-making display, where the clog maker showed how clogs would be made traditionally (about 3 hours for each pair), and then the modern method with a “clone” lathe - where a pair of clogs can be made in just over 15 minutes. They even helped us get fitted for a pair, keeping in mind the need for a finger’s width gap between the heel and the clog for comfort.
In our free time we were encouraged to explore the village further and I discovered the cheese factory, complete with the cheese making demonstration and free tastings. Unfortunately I couldn’t buy any cheese to take back to London, as there is currently an embargo on meat and milk-based products from Europe due to an outbreak of mad cow disease.
After buying some samples of mustard and sauces, I walked the length of the lake to discover each of the windmills (they are all individually named) and indulged in freshly squeezed orange juice being sold of the back of a cargo bike by the “Bike Juice Guy”.
Daniel, our new tour guide was pretty awesome at the start of the day, advising us not to buy anything souvenir-wise here. He guaranteed that anything we saw and wanted in the shops at Zaanse Schans would be available at our next stop would be just as available but cheaper at our next stop - Volendam Fishing Village. Daniel gave us a comprehensive education on the history of Volendam and the construction of the lake and islands in the area. We had a traditional Dutch meal in a local restaurant, and I had herring for the first time (as well as my first green vegetables in quite some time!) Also enjoyed a glass of the local beer - yep, a pint of Heineken!
True to his word, the souvenirs were cheaper here, so I loaded up with wooden tulip bunches for my mum, and a range of quirky chocolates, lollies and biscuits for the family.
Final stop for the day was Amsterdam. We enjoyed a flat boat ride through the canals, with a commentary on the history of the city and an explanation of all of the things we were seeing. The final stop before I got dropped at the Centraal Amsterdam train station was Royal Coster Diamonds. We were treated to a demonstration of diamond polishing and given a presentation on the four C’s of diamonds, finishing with the chance to be locked in a secure room with some very expensive diamonds. I even had the chance to have a 150,000 euro diamond on my hand - there were some nerves when handling that little sparkler!!!
Time to say farewell to my tour group, and I boarded the tram to my hotel for the night - the Generator Amsterdam, a pod hotel nestled on the edge of the Oosterpark. But let’s leave that particular adventure until the next chapter!
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