Friday, May 29, 2009

Day 4: windmills, clogs, cheese

The hard part about going to sleep is that at 10pm it is still light outside. Last night I had a plan . . . stay up until midnight and hopefully we would wake in the morning. It worked . . . we both hit the bed at midnight and woke at 9. It was hard to stay up that late but hopefully we are on Europe time for the next 4 weeks . . . hard to believe it is almost time to 'move'.

Our day started late; we did not leave our room until 1pm which was planned since we were going on one of those organized tours . . . I normally don't do tours (I hate being around annoying people who are never on time) unless they are private but knew that Colin would enjoy the change of pace of seeing yet another museum.

First stop was a total tourist area but we both enjoyed walking around the "de Zaanse Schans" which is a windmill village that also has a clog maker on the grounds. I was amazed at how fast a machine could make a wooden clog and of course we left with a new pair of bright red clogs for Colin.



The next stop was to a cheese farm to see the process of making cheese and even had a taste . . . too bad we can't bring home these tasty treats due to customs rules. Colin loves cheese and when we walked into the room below he was like WOW! Yes, that is real cheese that he is smelling . . . thankfully it has a wax coating to 'protect' it from germs, lol.




The final stop was taking a ferry from the town of Volendam to Marken. Both were cute 'sleeper villages" that once thrived on fishing but now tourism seems to be the main industry. The ferry ride was nice . . . I tell you there is something about the water that is just so relaxing and the cool brisk air in your face so nice. Hmmmm, I think I am ready to move!!!

We did have a tasty snack of mini pancakes with butter and powder sugar while we waited on the ferry, YUM! Since we had a nice filling snack . . . tonight we grabbed a Pizza Hawaii (ham and pineapples) for me and a Pizza Margarita (cheese) for Colin. The B&B has a nice garden so it will be nice to enjoy eating outside because tomorrow is time to head to a new location.

3 comments:

T Ridgeway said...

I am so enjoying "seeing" Europe thru your eyes & experiences. I have been to a lot of the places that you have just visited in Holland. I can't wait to see your next stop. Happy travels!

Love, T

ABW said...

I'm loving your trip! Looks like y'all are having a lot of fun and still seeing a lot, which is not always easy with a child in tow. Sounds like Colin is a great traveling companion!!

Unknown said...

Can't wait to find out where to....