Trip 46

April 23,2024

We took a day trip out of Amsterdam to Zaanse Schans, about 20 minutes by train from Centraal Station. Zaanse is known for being a collection of windmills, workshops, museums and shops. In the 18th century, there were over 1,000 windmills here, but now only 12 remain. The area’s beauty attracted and inspired Claude Monet to live here for a few months. Hidden in the Zaan-style houses, separated by a maze of tiny bridges are several museums, workshops and cafes.

Walking from the train station towards the city, you’re aware of the scent of chocolate in the air, because there are two chocolate factories in the city and the scent comes from roasting cocoa beans. Holland’s cocoa industry started in the early 1600s when the first cocoa beans were brought back from the New World. The business of refining g and making chocolate changed forever when C.J. van Houten invented a disruptive new technique to process cocoa called “Dutching”. By this process, cocoa solids are treated with an alkalizing agent to reduce the natural acidity of cocoa, giving it a less bitter taste. With this, the Spanish-introduced thick drink was replaced by a ‘candied’ chocolate. In the 18th century, Dutch merchants controlled most of the trade in cocoa beans and Dutch cocoa remains a superior product to this day.

It’s about a 15 minute walk from the train station station directly into the heart of the city and over a drawbridge that connects to the other side of the Zaan River where the windmills, museums snd shops are located. There was a ship coming down the river and we watched and waited as the drawbridge was raised for the ship to pass through.

Standing on the bridge, you get an expansive view of the windmills that line the river on one side.

As we’d later learned, these windmills had specialized purposes, and it wasn’t to pump water to keep the land behind a dyke dry. Some grind flower, one grinds materials to make paints; we’ll visit de Kat later and climb up inside. There are a few sawmills (Houtzaagmolen), a spice mill , a flour mill (Meelmolen), an oil mill (Oliemolen). molen= mill.

Walking over the drawbridge brings you to the area where the museums, shops and windmills are clustered and a walkway winds through the small village past each, where you can visit. A number of small footbridges cross over the myriad of waterways coursing through the village.

It was busy today and the weather was good, if cool, but I can only imagine the crowds later in the season.

There’s a short line to go into De Kat and we pay the 6€ entrance fee and walk through the lower floor where the (wooden) machinery and huge grindstone are located.

The windmill De Kat was originally built in 1781 is an octagonal mill with a rotating cap and external gallery. It was restored and partially rebuilt in 1960 it has been fitted out to grind coloring materials.

There’s a set of stairs going steeply up and out to the gallery outside of the windmill.

But the view from outside is worth the climb.

This mill wasn’t operating today, or we wouldn’t have been able to be outside.

Descending backwards down two sets of steep stairs wasn’t my favorite part of the tour, but there’s no elevator, remember, 1781.

We didn’t make it all the way past the remaining windmills , but returned to the village and back across the drawbridge to eat a Dutch pancake lunch at a restaurant just on the other side of the river.

Walking back towards the train station, you’ll pass directly by the chocolate factory, which is massive. We had about 15 minutes to wait for the next train back to Centraal , and what better way to wait on the windy platform than to have a hot chocolate!