We headed to the train station and hopped on the 7:45am train for the 30 minute ride to Zaanse Schans, a neighborhood in Zandam, Netherlands. What a charming little village! Adorable traditional green cottages line the River Zaan.

6 windmills are still in working condition and there are 12 more that are part of the landscape. It is 7 euro to tour each windmill so we chose one and headed in. I was surprised to find that the windmills were used as heavy duty industrial factories rather than just moving water: they ground limestone, made pigments, were used as oil mills, saw mills and spice and mustard mills. The stairs that lead up to the grinding floor are almost at a 90 degree angle!! Going up wasn’t so bad but coming down made my palms sweat! We watched as the worker moved the angle of the sails with a huge rope wound around a “spindle”. 

The village also boasts a cheese making shop (lots of yummy tasting and purchasing of delicious cheeses) and a wooden shoe making shop. The wooden shoes used to take 3 days to make. Now they are made in a matter of minutes! This machine copies the model in 2 minutes, then the inside (where your foot goes in) drilled out by hand. Then the shoe needs to dry out because they use very wet poplar. I opted to purchase more modern clogs with a Van Gogh design. They have come in very handy already!

Walking back to the train station the sky looked threatening but we lucked out as the drizzle hit as soon as we got under cover. Hopped off the train and onto the Metro to go to the Albert Cuyp market. Trying to find a spot for lunch was a little challenging. It seems that lunch is not a thing that Amsterdamers really do. Most places just had snack plates to share. Everyone had burgers and potatoes of all kinds made the menu as an entree. We ended up with Jackie getting Tiger Prawns, Paul got a burger and I got chicken croquettes which I could have easily subbed with wallpaper paste!!

Then on to the market. The main goal here was to get a freshly made Stroopwaffle. A stroopwaffle is a thin, round biscuit made from two layers of sweet baked dough held together by a syrup filling, often caramel. I have had them many times from a package (United Airlines offers them as one of their snacks these days) but had never had a fresh one. I had twisted my ankle a few weeks ago and it was hurting today so Jackie was gracious enough to stand in the line for all of us. We got one regular and one dipped in chocolate. We were all surprised to admit  that the chocolate really did not add to the dessert! 

Getting an Uber around here is not necessarily easy! Lots of one way streets, lots of bicycle only streets, etc that the car cannot drive. This was the most challenging time of Ubering as the app kept telling us to go to a different pick up spot. Finally made it back to the hotel for a little break in the A/C. Speaking of the hotel, we stayed at Mr. Jordaan and it was great. We discovered that having an “airco” room was not a given. So going back to the hotel after being in this sweltering heat was a gift. The hotel was charming and comfy. The biggest drawback was the elevator…never have I seen a slower elevator. It was very possible to walk up four flights of stairs and be waiting in the room before the elevator got to your floor. 

We  walked around the hotel area (Jordaan) to find a place for supper. A fish place I read about was filled so we made reservations for tomorrow night. Ended up at a cute little bistro where we shared roasted cauliflower and elote as appetizers and all enjoyed our entrees of trout (Jackie and I) and steak (Paul). Walking back to the hotel in what seemed like broad daylight, we realized that it was 10:00pm!! I realized that darkness gives your body a signal to start slowing down and get sleepy…no such clues here! I went to bed thinking I was going to be awake for hours because I was not sleepy at all! I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow!

Sunday we took a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter. Our guide, Patrick, was an amazing treasure chest of knowledge. Hearing of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam was new to all of us. You hear about lots of other places but I don’t really recall hearing about how Amsterdam and the Netherlands were involved. The tour was informative and very sobering. We followed this up by a visit to the Anne Frank House. (Jackie was the hero here because she got up at 2:30am to get our tickets which are very hard to secure.) I was glad to see it but I feel like the museum did not do a great job of explaining things, especially what led up to the Frank family going into hiding. Patrick’s wonderful tour really prepared us well for understanding the circumstances. We were all surprised by how big the hiding space was. Yes, it was smallish for 8 people to live in for 2 years but it was bigger than what we all had in our minds. (sorry, no photos allowed)

Afterwords we started the search again for some place to eat. The streetside cafe we ended up at was fine but so far the food in Amsterdam is pretty much of a disappointment. 

After a quick refresh in the A/C, tho it is definitely cooler today, we headed to Pesca, Theater of Fish, for our dinner reservations. What a cool place! First, they give you a sardine can with your table number on it. Then you go to the “fish market” which is right in the restaurant and the staff explain all the different fishes and how they are prepared. You pick what you want and they weigh it there and tell you how much you have “spent” so far. Our fish selections were a total of 120 euros. (about $137). Then you move on to the Beverage station and choose a wine or beer or soft drink. Then you sit at a communal table (in our case, 2 very loud couples that were not missed when they left!) Then they start delivering your yummy selections: I had tuna ceviche which had corn nuts in it, mussels in a very yummy tomato sauce and we all shared a grilled whole sea bass. Other table selections were scallops and prawns, roasted cauliflower, mashed potatoes and leeks. Then a shared dessert of coconut cheesecake with a passion fruit sauce. Yum!!

Tomorrow we leave for Copenhagen.