On our third day in Amsterdam we took a train out to Zannse Schans. Zaans Schans is a small village on the banks of the Zann river, with cute green houses, working windmills and small topical museums like the wooden shoe museum. It's a bit touristy but since it was the offseason and drizzling, there were hardly any people there. I imagine the whole town is much more brilliant in the spring and summer, but then you'd also be fighting the crowds.
Zannse Schans is a 20 min. train journey from Amsterdam Central. That is if you get on the local "sprinter" line, which we didn't. After we zoomed past the platform, we got off at the next station and started making our way back. Once again the train schedule posters were useless and there was no information booth so finally I asked some young men how to get where we were going. They pulled out their phone and trainline app and quickly figured out our route. We needed to take the express train back one station and then change to a local train and go three more stops. Boy am I glad I asked because we never would have figured that out. J has already downloaded the app for future trips to Amsterdam. Always the boyscout!
From the train station it was a good 20 min. walk to Zaanse Schans. The first thing you noticed when you get off the train is a wonderful chocolate smell wafting through the air. Turns out there is a cocoa factory right next to the train station. Yum. After walking past the factory we crossed over a bridge which provided the best views of the windmills along the river.
Visiting the town is like going back in time. It is very quaint and picturesque, with cute green houses and walkways connected by bridges.
Most of the area is farmland and there were lots of chickens just roaming freely. And if you're not careful, you might even end up stepping, or in K's case, sitting in poop. Yes, that was a fun surprise even more so given that we didn't have any other pants for him to change into. All part of the adventure though, right folks?
We walked along the river making our way towards the large windmills. Because it's the off season and a weekday, most of them were closed to visitors except for the Saw Mill.
For a small entrance fee we got to watch a video of how a windmill is built and then were able to tour the windmill itself. Since this was a Saw Mill with lots of sharp equipment I ended up taking the kids downstairs while J enjoyed a tour. The power the windmills can create is astonishing. The windmill power is used to pull the logs out of the water. It's also used to saw through the tree to make planks. Hard to tell from the photo but there are a series of blades at the far end that the log is pulled into.
After visiting the windmill we walked to the De Kraai pancake house for some traditional dutch pancakes. Ham and Cheese topped pancake for lunch and Apple & Cinnamon for dessert.
On our way out, we stopped in front of the wooden shoe museum to try on some shoes. Luckily we refrained from buying any as I'm not sure they would be practical for hoofing it around London.
Glad we made the trip - it was a fun day out (although we could have done without the extended train journey and the poop). To see more photos from our trip to Amsterdam, click here.
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