Another wonderful breakfast at the hotel.
We decided to be adventurous today and walked to Central Station to take a bus (Bus # 391) to Zaanse Schans to see the windmills. It cost €10,00 each for an all day bus ticket. This is called the Industrial Heritage Line. The bus departs every 15 minutes from Platform E at the bus station at Amsterdam Centrale Station. The bus makes several stops along the way so we went through NDSM Wharf (where the largest ships in the world were built) as well as Zaandam City Centre. We had planned on stopping there on the way back for lunch but we spent too much time at the Zaanse Schans windmills.
The Zaanse Schans http://www.dezaanseschans.nl/en/ takes you back to Holland at the 18th and 19th centeruy. Dutch wooden windmills are on display and available for tours at €4,00 each. We visited the windmill that was working as a commercial saw mill.
In addition to the windmills we saw the Zaanse Schans museum, Verikade Pavillion. Together, the Zaans Museum and the Verkade Pavilion make the tastiest museum in the Netherlands. The collection is extremely wide-ranging and is presented in a contemporary way. It features utensils, clothing and paintings as well as factory equipment from the food industry, and as you make your way through the museum you can press on various displays and try and package as many biscuits and sweets as you can in a computer game. There is always something exciting to experience in the Netherlands’ tastiest museum. You can imagine you are in an early 20th-century factory, with authentic machinery in full working order. The history of chocolate and biscuits comes to life in the place where the famous Verkade girls used to work.
We also visited an old cooperage and a wooden shoe making workshop. There were a few other smaller museums we missed (A.H. supermarket, bakery museum, time museum etc..)
We took bus #391back to Amsterdam. We had a little trouble navigating Dam Square as it was a Dutch holiday Memorial Day and the Dutch royal family was placing memorial wreaths in front of the Royal Palace.
We rushed to get back to the hotel to freshen up and change for our fancy evening out at Haesje Claes.
“Haesje Claes” is a restaurant situated in the historical center of Amsterdam, between the Spui and the Dam square, across from the Amsterdam Museum. The restaurant occupies six, epic buildings, in which the original architectural features such as little steps, corridors and hallways all have been preserved. Likewise, the exterior of the building is a beautiful example of traditional Dutch architecture. We had three appetizers (smoked eel, carpaccio of beef with Old Amsterdam cheese and pea soup w/sausage); Entrees: Sauted salmon with lobster sauce, Sauted cod with mustard sauce. Beverages: Malbec wine, two different bieres: De Koninck and Op &Top. (Cost €76,00)
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