Zaanse Schans really would have been beautiful, had it not been February, barely above freezing, and incredibly windy. As such, it was a pretty bleak environment!
But we had a great time learning all about the making of cheese...
And clogs (they really were interesting!)...
And the history of a famous to the Netherlands biscuit and chocolate factory...
Actually, what was interesting about that is that it was a very similar story to that of Cadbury and Bourneville. We listened to a "The Rest is History" podcast last year on the way up from Mallory Park on the history of chocolate, and Mr Cadbury (or whoever he was) essentially created the first 'village' for his workers with health care and child care and all sorts (or at least that's as much as I can remember!). Seems like this was exactly the same - can't for the life of me remember the name of the brand! - but thousands of women worked there with free child care and extra education and by all accounts, it seemed to be a really socially forward company.
In the end we never even went properly inside one of the 9 windmills - not sure why now - which on reflection is a bit of a shame!
Maybe because then the sleet properly came, so we travelled back to Amsterdam (picking up a phone number of a lady in Istanbul should we ever travel there! That's what you get for being able to read a train timetable. No joke, three people asked me for help, and I was like, I'm just a tourist! I'm just assuming these things!! But clearly I looked knowledgable ;) and on to Schipol, ready for what turned out to be another delayed flight and really long drive back home.
Great time though, great food, and great memories!
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