An early morning Sprinter train to Amsterdam Centraal and a walk brought me to the meeting point for a Countryside Tour. Our first stop was Zaanse Schans, a heritage village of windmills- a former working factory town. The windmill concept was imported from Persia; the Dutch invented the drive shaft. With this, they could out-produce everyone, especially in cutting wood for ships, both military and merchant. The village also featured a goat, Eurasian Moorhens, a European Robin, and a very peckish group of mallards.
The next stop was Edam. We walked through the small village, including seeing the oldest functioning shipyard in Netherlands, Scheepswerf Groot Edam, originating in 1462. There were also a pair of Catholic-turned-Protestant churches, and a few cheese shops.
The next stop was a farm and cheese shop called Simonehoeve. We learned about their cheese making process, then watched them carve a blank of a one hundred year old pair of machines, three quarters of the way to making a clog. We then got to try on clogs (don’t fit me well), and sample all the varieties of cheese they sell. I may have bought some 🙂
If the cheese was our appetizer course, the main came at Volendam, a historic fishing village by the Markermeer. Here we could select from a number of restaurants. I took the guide’s selection and tried kibbeling, spiced, battered fish pieces, traditionally the offcuts. It was delicious- a level up on plain fish and chips. A short time was left to peruse the shops before a waterfront walk back to the bus. Along the way were House Sparrows, the fattest European Starlings I’ve ever seen, lots of Jackdaws, and a Gray Heron.
Driving I saw huge flocks of Egyptian Geese out of the window, as well as a Great Egret. Closer to the water there were also Mute Swans. As we went out to the next destination, the sea was full of Tufted Ducks.
Our last stop was the village of Marken, where we learned about dyking and flooding in this below-sea-level land. We also saw how high recent floods were, and a Great Crested Grebe.
Cormorants and more Mute Swans and Moorhens punctuated the drive back to Amsterdam. The bus ended across the river from Amsterdam Centraal, and we took the foot and bicycle ferry across. It was a surprisingly large ferry, and could have accommodated cars, but it runs every six minutes or so.
A Sprinter back to Schiphol, some grocery shopping, and a shuttle back to the hotel ended the day.
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