Seeing the rows upon rows of tulips, of all different color varieties, in the The Netherlands has been on my travel bucket list for awhile. I've seen the pictures and I imagine seeing them in person would be spectacular. Back in the fall, Geoff and I had briefly talked about visiting Holland this coming spring to see the sight. But sadly, when we found out in November that we were being moved back to the USA in early 2017, any thoughts of seeing those tulips were halted.
However, I still wanted to get over to Amsterdam because it was the last big place on our European travel bucket list that we had not yet visited. You'd think after living in London for 4 1/2 years that we would have made it there before given its short jaunt across the English Channel, but I guess we were busy. You know, visiting other countries around the world! So with our one last free weekend in January, we hopped on a plane for the 45 minute flight over to Amsterdam.
Our visit there was short and sweet, arriving Friday evening and departing Sunday evening. On Saturday, we took a short journey via city bus outside of Amsterdam to De Zaanse Schans. I'm not sure what you would call the area, maybe a little village. There were working and non-working windmills, a museum, cheese making shop, restaurants, cute little houses and a wooden clog shop.
This windmill below was one of the mills working that day. Plus, it was open for visitors to go inside. This particular one was a sawmill and we were were able to see how the power of the wind was used to saw the wood into boards.
Going to De Zaanse Schans in early January is definitely not peak tourist season. It was so cold outside and there is a good reason they built windmills in that area. It was well, windy! Thankfully that meant few other tourists there along with us. I can't imagine how packed the place must get in the spring/summer/fall when the weather is better.
The clog workshop was especially fun to visit. The girls loved seeing how a stump was wood was carved into the shape of the clog. There were all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors of the clogs. It was also nice to take shelter somewhere warm for a few minutes to briefly unthaw.
On Sunday, we spent our day in seeing with city of Amsterdam. We took a short boat tour of the city around many of the city's canals. We walked across many bridges. We tried to stay out of the Red Light District and way from "coffee shops". We visited the Ann Frank House. No photos were allowed inside but it was very fascinating. I particularly loved Olivia's curiosity about the young girl and her house. She had so many questions! Some of them were difficult to answer (How do you really explain war and the Holocaust to a 6 year old??), but I love exposing her to these pieces of history.
And with that...the Streit family's European travel adventures (at least while being European residents!), reached its conclusion. So long, Europe! Thanks for all the memories. We'll be back!
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