Zaanse Schans

The place for well-preserved historic windmills and houses

It is a unique place to see the Dutch history on the River Zaan. The moment we entered the place, there was a smell of melted chocolate. There was a fresh chocolate making factory nearby. It was quite a treat for our smell sense. Then we were moving towards the main place where all windmills and the museums and factories are there.

We crossed a road over the river to reach to the area of the windmills, that road has a special kind of setting, it automatically moves towards the sky whenever there is a boat which has to cross the river area which is under the road.

There are so many museums and the windmills all over the place. The windmills are quite ancient and are of different colors. We happened to visit some of the museums there.

1. Spice museum: There we saw how the spices were made at that time. There is a gigantic windmill which has huge turbines. We could relate how difficult it would had been for the people of that time to make all kinds of products. They have all the Indian herbs such as cinnamon, turmeric cloves and etc which are available for buying as well. We could also smell all the fresh herbs there.

2. Cheese museum: There’s nothing more Dutch than… cheese! There they have a large screen which showed us a movie how the cheese was made at that time and how it was stored. It was quite fascinating to see that. They used to store the cheese in the colorful boxes . There was a constant smell of cheese also. They have made an artificial stable also where they have artificial cows and also a artificial person who is milking the cows, it looks quite natural though. We clicked pictures there too. We could here sounds also of the cows and the birds which was of course also artificial.

3.Bakery Museum: Outside that museum they have very special area decorated. It have all sorts of pots, utensils and other equipment which are general used in the bakery. They have kept fresh waffles and other eatable also. We also saw the place where the bakery products were made in the ancient times with the molding boards to shape up the chocolate or cookies and etc. The entire place was smelling like heaven.

4. Shoe Museum: As Holland is especially famous for its shoes. We happened to visit the shoe factory also. Outside the factory they have created the beautiful ambiance on the walls and have created some arts with the kinds of shoes they make. We clicked so many pictures there. Inside the factory they have a small workshop also. They showed us how those shoes are made. They are mostly the wooden shoes. They have a large variety of those shoes which were available for buying as well. It was a unique experience.

After seeing all these museums, we decided to grab a quick snack/bite. Luckily, there are plenty of bars and restaurants where we can indulge our sweet tooth with a cup of coffee and a pastry or satisfy our appetite with a delicious meal. We went to a café called “Restaurant De Kraai”. It is especially famous for its pancake. We had a very nice coffee, filling sandwich and the strawberry cheesecake (which is a must have).

After spending sometime there we went to the other side of the area. They have made an area there to play with man-made wooden toys which were used in the ancient time. They have kept two long wooded foot sort of thing, small buckets with the rope which we could wear on your foot and try to walk and they have a throwing rope game as well. It was quite relaxing. We were kind of reliving our childhood. Nowadays we can't find such sort of games/toys.

After that we went ahead and saw a wooden house which is actually a three storied house. We went on the top story and saw the whole place of the place from the top view.

Then while going back to the bus station, we decided to walk through the whole place again.When we were about to reach then we sat on the grass for some time. It is a dreamy location. Water on one side, Old Dutch houses on another, smell of chocolates , bakery products and cheese was everywhere and on the top of that it was windy too that day which helped us to sooth our senses.

That’s how we ended our trip to Zaanse Scans. It was an overall 3-4 hours of experience and is definitely a must visit place if you are in Netherlands.

I like the look of a windmill. - Jeff Duncan