Wind Mills, Cheese and Wooden Shoes

I really wanted to make it back up to The Netherlands in order to experience more than just Amsterdam. It is a lovely city, but I wanted to see more of the countryside and, ideally, the windmills that made this country rich and famous. We found a great tour that took us to Zaanse Schans and Vollendam.


Zaanse Schans is located in North Holland, about 45 minutes north of Amsterdam. It is actually a recreation of what a traditional Dutch village would have been like in the 1600's. The land has been reclaimed (similar to Venice - they drive wooden pylons into the sandy, peaty soil to create stability for the foundation of buildings. Then, in order to keep the water out of the buildings, canals are created to provide a place for the water to go.) The guide taking us around even had a show-and-tell moment when she had a fellow tourist jump up and down with her so that the rest of us could feel the ground move under us to illustrate the saturation of the ground. Cool and a little unsettling.


Timber was the foundation of wealth along the Zaan River in the 16th and 17th centuries. A burgeoning Dutch merchant marine and navy needed the wood and the innovation of applying the crankshaft to windmills, therefore creating floating sawmills, powered production - an increased production of 3000 percent. This rural area became a hotbed of wood-product production: timber for homes, timber for ships and paper products. One of the first printings (200 copies were made in 1776) of the Declaration of Independence was watermarked with the Zaanse region stamp. There were over 1300 windmills in an 11 mile region on this river in the 16th and 17th centuries.


Windmills and historically significant buildings (houses, workshops) had been moved to this site when industrialization leveled their original locations. All the windmills are working windmills, providing products ranging from wood (sawmill) to oil (nut and seed oils) to paint (dye mill). The paint mill, which makes the pigments for the paint, was called De Kat and we visited it on our tour.


The miller was on hand to talk us through his profession. He was wonderfully dressed in traditional costume - blue hat, blue and white striped shirt, blue pants, wooden shoes (with leather liners) and pipe. He had great personality. The windmill "cap" weighs around 15 tons and needs around 40-45 mile an hour winds to work at capacity. De Kat produce paint dyes with the same formula used to provide paint to the Dutch Master (Ruben, Rembrandt and Vermeer to name a few.) [The linseed oil used for the base was available at the next mill over.] It was somewhat shocking to hear that. This is why I love visiting historical places. You begin to feel connected to the past (and more importantly the people) like you can in no other way. By walking the same paths, visiting the same shops, witnessing the same processes as these great painters is moving.


We moved from artistry to gastronomy. We got a short demonstration of how the cheese is made at the Henri Willig farm (live chickens and everything - we have a sign aimed at the tourists asking us not to let the chickens into the showroom.) It is aged anywhere from 3 months to a couple of years. After our short education, we moved on to the tasting. They gave generous portions and didn't mind 2nds (and 3rds). We, naturally, bought some cheese. We controlled ourselves and only bought the smoked gouda (cow, although goat was available and good) which is just YUMMY. If our tour group is any example, Henri Willig's cheese shop cleans up at this location (I don't know if there was one out of the 20 in our group that didn't buy something). I was glad to see that they ship internationally and have fair prices. (I will definitely be taking advantage of that later.) If you are interested, here is their website: www.henriwillig.com


Yes, wooden shoe making was next on the agenda. D really enjoyed the large tourist shoe out front - he said that he was channeling Slim Pickens from Dr. Strangelove. He was very pleased with the way this pic turned out.


We had another short demonstration of how shoes were made by hand, and how they are made today, by machine. The shoes were originally made from willow wood - an indigenous tree to Holland and a hard-wearing wood. They are currently made from poplar from Portugal - the wood is lighter but still very durable. We resisted the temptation to buy a pair - really, where would I wear them?! They are cool looking and very unique, but I think admiring them for the day was enough.


I did, however, want this picture. If I couldn't own a pair, I at least wanted a picture of me in a ridiculously large pair. No goofy pose with this one, but D did discover that they are not tied down in any way so one could, if one was so inclined, just walk off in them.

We finished off our visit in Zaanse Schans by taking a river boat trip. The views were lovely and so much easier to appreciate (and get pictures of) from a distance.

This was the best picture I had of the historic houses on the canal. The homes are all painted green (never did get an explanation for that) and were very well cared for. They are all inhabited by private individuals (similar to Colonial Williamsburg, for those that are familiar with this VA gem) but are required to keep them in the historic shape and style that they represent.

On to Vollendam, which is a fishing village that has become a hot tourist location. D and I didn't care much for it - there wasn't really anything to do there other than shop in tschotsky (e.g. junk) shops. We did, however, find a lovely park just out of the city center to sit and read and enjoy the breeze. The homes along the way were very nice and we enjoyed seeing all the different ships in the harbor.

They had these beautiful life-sized bronzes of villagers in traditional dress. I found them poignant. I wish I could have seen the city when the fishing ruled the economy instead of tourism.

As we walked around that day, it made sense that The Netherlands became a merchant marine powerhouse in the 16th - 17th century given the glut of finished timber available. I had been curious why Holland, of all countries, would be such a leader in trade. Along that same line, it also made sense that there was an art explosion given the newly industrialized production of oils and pigments. An educational day.