On our last full day in Amsterdam, my husband wanted to take me to see the windmills. He had been there in the past and really loved it and knew I would like it too.  It was my favorite day in Amsterdam. 

We took the train straight to the town and it was only about 6 euro a person round trip.  It took about 20-30 minutes to get there.  After exiting the station, you walk through a lovely small town to get to the bridge.  As you are walking you smell chocolate in the air. Why?  There is a chocolate factory right next to you!  We stopped on the bridge to take a few pictures and then walked by all the windmills.  My husband said the last time he was there (about five years ago) there was barely any people visiting.  We went on a Saturday so it was packed with tourists. It cost nothing to walk around the village and by the windmills.  There are two walkways by the windmills.  One is for pedestrians only and is right next to the windmills. The other is down a small hill and is also used by bikers.  The pathway is wide enough for maybe three people across and there are people walking both ways and stopping a lot for pictures.  There were sections that were very congested and it was frustrating.  

You can go into a number of the windmills for a fee.  You can pay 5 euro for just one or 20 euros for two windmills and the windmill museum.  There are a number of different types of windmills.  There are oil, spice, sawmill, flour, and dye.  There is one in which you can climb up around the sails and take in the view.  I decided to enter an oil mill.  It was the oldest one that I saw on the line from 1676.  It was relocated to Zaanse Schans in 1968 after it had gone through a number of changes. 

There was no one inside the mill with me except for the man who was running it.  They had a video that you could watch to see how they made the oil and it was that same man that was in the windmill with me.  Obviously the first step is for the stone to flatten and break the seeds for whatever oil they are going to make. This mill makes linseed (used for linoleum, paint, and varnish) and rape-oil (which is used in cooking, making soap, and for oil lamps). 

After the seeds are flattened, they are put into woolen bags. These bags are placed between two iron plates and then the miller starts the pressing machine.  You can see in the picture there are two areas for the bags and in the middle is the wedge that presses the blocks sideways on the bags.  The oil runs down into flat pans. 

After the bags are released there is a flat cake.  They sell this cake for cattle feed.  The oil is refined by another factory and distributed for use.  

I thought this process was very interesting and entering the mill was like going back in time.  After we left the windmill area, we walked over to the village section.  Both of us were hungry and there happened to be a stand selling sandwiches, ice cream, and stroopwafel. I got a sandwich and a stroopwafel.  While we were eating a female mallard duck joined us.  At one point she tried to fly up to eat my sandwich.  She also nipped my jeans once because I was not spilling enough crumbs.  I know bread is not good for the duck’s stomach so I did not feed her.  The stroopwafel was one of the best things that I have ever eaten. 

We visited the chocolate and biscuit museum and with our admission price they gave us a bar code to use the bathrooms for free. This was very handy because it cost a euro to use the restrooms.  The museum itself was much bigger than I anticipated.  We got a free audio tour. The first section was all about the windmills and what they produced for the area.  The second section had paintings and photos. The third was filled with antiques from the area and the audio tour told different stories from the past.  The last section was a reproduction of what the chocolate and biscuit factory looked like and how it functioned.  They had a game you could play in which you virtually sorted the biscuits (and later chocolates) into boxes.  It was much harder than it looked. It reminded me of the famous I Love Lucy episode in the chocolate factory.  You just start to panic when the machine moves faster. Plus the chocolates were more difficult because they were different shapes and sizes and had to be put in certain wrappers.  We did not score well on either. We did get to sample some biscuits and they were delicious!

After the museum we wandered around the village. We stopped and looked at the goats, tried some samples in the cheese barn, checked out the wooden shoes (I used to have some as a kid and wanted a pair, but they are really frivolous, so I bought tiny shoe magnets instead), and wandered through a few gift shops.  It was a lovely day.  We took the train back around 4:30 and it was quite busy.