Adventures on our doorstep: Deserted windmills in Zaanse Schans
Updated: Mar 9, 2021
Since travelling far away and foreign adventures will not be on the cards for a little while, I am starting a new travel series on this blog called "Adventures on our doorstep". My family and I are really missing exploring and discovering new horizons. So let's do this in our beautiful small country. Over the coming weeks, we will visit a number of destinations, touristic and less so, in an effort to feel like we are travelling again.
"It really feels like they opened Disneyland just for us".
Last Saturday morning, we decided to grab a car and drive to nearby Zaanse Schans for a change of scenery and a nice little adventure. This village of windmills is located about 20 minutes North of Amsterdam (by car). It is a residential village with working windmills, museums, a little farm with chickens and goats and some tourist shops. The main attraction is obviously the row of windmills by the water. All looking very picturesque and Dutch.
I had never visited Zaanse Schans and to me, this was one of those destinations appreciated just by tourists on a tour of The Netherlands.
We had the place literally to ourselves with only 1 other car parked in the entrance. Everything felt very quiet but the little cafes and cheese shop were still open.
The cheese shop has a small museum, explaining cheese production, showing the equipment and animals.
The little shop has a large selection of treats such as waffles, old sweets and chocolates. For the folklore, the person attending has to be - ridiculously - dressed in a traditional outfit. (skip the coffee).
Along the walk, another little cafe serves delicious hot chocolate with whipped cream. This was the perfect reward for small humans, giving them some courage to finish the windy walk.
It was a lovely simple morning. We walked along the water, all the way to the last windmill, and around the 'village', took some lovely pictures and enjoyed the fresh air. A perfect 1/2 day activity, a perfect low key adventure on our doorstep.