On my previous post, I told you the story about my journey to Barcelona. After I got back from Barcelona, my uncle pick me up at the airport to stay over at his house. He lives in Zaandam, a town in North Holland. In the Golden Age, Zaandam served as a large milling center. Thousands of windmills powered saws that were processing Scandinavian wood for the shipbuilding and paper industries. Okay, enough about Zaandam. One of interesting tourist attraction near Zaandam is Zaanse Schaan (ZS). Also known as the windmills museum. In Zaanse Schaan you can see how the windmill works, and what they use it for. To enter each windmills you have to pay 3euro (Click here for details). To get here you can take a bus 391 direction to Zaandam from Amsterdam Central Station and pay 3.65euro (if you have OV-Chipkaart). You can also buy the ticket from the driver, which usually cost a lot more. You can check the 9292.nl for other alternative. Other than windmills museum and zaanse museum, they also have the wooden shoes factory and huge wooden shoes which is fun take a picture with :p
After Zaanse Schaan we went to Volendam. Volendam, is a town in North-Holland, a home to Dutch Famous Singer, Nick&Simon and also the handsome Jan Smit. Volendam is very famous for tourist to take a "Fisherman Costume" picture. It's also a nice place to visit, with beautiful seaside view and lots of interesting souvenir shop where you can buy souvenir cheaper than any other store you find in big city. To take picture with "Dutch Costume" you have to pay around 15euro per person. Price may vary, it depends on how many people you take the picture with and how many picture you want. There are lots of studio that offer this service, but my choice goes to zwarthoed, because it's indoor and you can take as many picture as you want with your own camera. To reach volendam you can take a bus 110 direction to Edam from Amsterdam Centraal Station and pay 4.04euro (with OV-Chipkaart) and get down at visserstraat, and then walk for 4 minutes. It's quite tricky to find volendam, so the best way is to ask local people where it is. Other than taking picture you can also try various kind of cheese at the cheese store, the best time is when the store is crowded, so you can try all kind of cheese without them knowing that you just want to eat free cheese without buying any :p
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| Huge "Klomp" in ZS |
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| Windmills |
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| Klompen Museum |
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| Zaanse Schaan Map |
After Zaanse Schaan we went to Volendam. Volendam, is a town in North-Holland, a home to Dutch Famous Singer, Nick&Simon and also the handsome Jan Smit. Volendam is very famous for tourist to take a "Fisherman Costume" picture. It's also a nice place to visit, with beautiful seaside view and lots of interesting souvenir shop where you can buy souvenir cheaper than any other store you find in big city. To take picture with "Dutch Costume" you have to pay around 15euro per person. Price may vary, it depends on how many people you take the picture with and how many picture you want. There are lots of studio that offer this service, but my choice goes to zwarthoed, because it's indoor and you can take as many picture as you want with your own camera. To reach volendam you can take a bus 110 direction to Edam from Amsterdam Centraal Station and pay 4.04euro (with OV-Chipkaart) and get down at visserstraat, and then walk for 4 minutes. It's quite tricky to find volendam, so the best way is to ask local people where it is. Other than taking picture you can also try various kind of cheese at the cheese store, the best time is when the store is crowded, so you can try all kind of cheese without them knowing that you just want to eat free cheese without buying any :p
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| Sad Fisherman |
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| Picture in Costume |
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| Volendam |