Zaanse Schans

Such a busy day!

After falling asleep around 9:15 I was awake around 6am. I lay and listened to a podcast giving Ben some more sleep. Got up and had a shower around 7pm and we were out of the house about 8:15. Petra had a list of places nearby for coffee/food so we chose one and had pastries and excellent coffee.

By 9 we were on the tram to Central Station. We are dab hands now at the tapping in and out at the right doors!

We got to central and bought tickets on the machine for a day trip to Zaanse Schans a residential area in which the 18th and 19th centuries are brought to life.. I really wanted to see the windmills!

After buying the tickets at the machine , I popped over to the nearby information kiosk to ask the guy when the next train to ZS was as there were no boards with departures at that part of the station. 9:48 he said, but you won’t make that, next one is at 10:13, at Platform 2. It was 9:45. He didn’t reckon for the speed of us. We ran down the steps, along the platform and on the double decker train. ‘I dont think this is the right one’ I said to Ben, and I asked someone who had no idea. Ben looked over and saw another train at the adjoining platform so we rushed off the one we were on and dashed over to the other train. The door was shut but I pressed the button and on we got just as the door then closed it was off. We had a laugh saying we may have ended up in Rotterdam!

We arrived at ZS and walked around 15 mins over the bridge to the windmills and houses and factories. People actually live there and there is a clog making wooden house . It’s a nice area to walk around with beautiful old house, Ponds, boats, restaurants , boats but best of all a row of windmills. It really was like getting transported back in time. It wasn’t too busy as we were there early before the hoards.

We got the sprinter train back to Central and across from the front of central station are the free ferries across the river. We took the one that takes you over to the Noord, as we wanted to visit the EYE Film Museum and Culture Centre. It’s a striking futuristic style building which is next to the big building that has the big Swing on the top.

What a fabulous place the Eye was. First of all we went to the restaurant and we had a fab seat at the front which has huge picture window overlooking g the river with all the many boats and barges drifting by. Didn’t realise it was a vegetarian restaurant but anything takes good with chips and I had some sort of croquettes filled with something that was called chicken but not! The waitress told me the Dutch way was to spread the sauce in the bread then crush the croquettes on top. I must admit it tasted good and Ben enjoyed his cheese toasty.

We then explored the inner part which has two screening rooms, interactive areas, old film posters , the museum with a variety of stuff from the early 20s upwards. We loved exploring the whole place! The gift shop was great too!

Once we got the ferry back over we had a wander round centre area, Dam Square , seeing the sights.

Got the tram back to our Guest House for a cuppa and some chill time. It was a full on day and I was feeling quite exhausted. I had a sore throat for a couple of days before I came away and a bit of a choked nose and cough. No idea what it was. Let’s say a virus.

Ben was hungry and there was a pizza place round the corner so we went there. I didn’t have anything as I don’t like pizza but wasn’t hungry anyway. He said the pizza was top notch so I was happy he enjoyed it.

Back around 9 and got ready for bed and sleeping by 10! Day one done!