Amsterdam vacation by Nancy

We are spending our half-term break in Amsterdam. Yesterday, we did a day excursion to the Zaanse Schans village. It’s a place where original buildings from other parts of Holland have been assembled so visitors can see some of “Oud Holland”. We took a train and then walked about 15 minutes to get there. We did a tour of a biscuit and chocolate factory (so far, a chocolate factory in every European city we visit…) and also looked through the wooden shoe making shop, the cheese making shop, and the old grocery store. There are many sheep, goats, and cows, with whom Molly visited. Probably the highlight was going into one of the six old windmills. The one we visited was a sawmill, and the power from the windmill was used in the pretty huge space underneath to cut logs into planks, with both straight and circular saws. We climbed up to the top (reminded us of climbing the Gay Head Lighthouse) and the very nice, older, Dutch volunteer gave us a lot of information about windmills. He had apparently recently retired and just been certified as a “miller” after much studying. He stopped the blades and we touched them and learned what to do when the wind is too high. Then he let Noah pull the rope to start the blades spinning again saying, “You can now tell your friends that you set a Dutch windmill in motion”.
We have gone to the Anne Frank house, which was remarkable. Even more exhibits and sections than I remember from when I came here with Nancy Showen in college. It’s been very cold here, so when we rented bikes to go through the large Voldenpark, we had to stop at the Blue House coffee house for large mugs of hot chocolate before resuming our biking. Afterwards, we found a cheap spot to buy hats and mittens. Fortunately, we also found a place where, according to Noah, “there are the best french fries I’ve ever tasted.” I think the exact quote was something like, “They are really big, and when it’s really cold, they are crispy on the outside and warm on the inside and so good.”