Windmills Tour: Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Edam

Windmills Tour

The tour meets at 9 am by the Church of St. Nicholas, where we’ll board our bus on the way to visit the famous windmills of Zaanse Schans and the Westerland: the famous image of traditional Holland!

Zaanse Schans comes first, a town known for its windmills – the lasting mark left by the industry that drove the region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These windmills were used to produce oil, paint, mustard and paper, among other goods, and you’ll have the opportunity to visit some of them to see how they work.

The area is also home to one of the country’s most iconic products: clogs! On the tour you’ll also visit a workshop which still makes this traditional footwear – much appreciated y peasants and workers in the middle ages, and still worn by some even to this day.

Then it’s on to Marken, a rural fishing village unique for its location as a peninsula (almost island!) jutting out into the bay near Amsterdam. Its greenery blends into the traditional wooden houses painted the same colour, and it retains its traditional air, giving you the feeling of stepping back into Holland’s history.

Then just a few kilometres away are the villages of Edam and Volendam. Edam is famous around the world for its cheese, but in the middle ages it was one of Europe’s most important ports. And Volendam, despite its rural charm is known as one of the most vibrant cities in the north of Holland.

Here you can explore the picturesque streets, see the traditional clothes of the locals, or hear the Palingsound or “sound of the eel”.

You’ll have free time to eat lunch, before arriving back in Amsterdam at about 5 pm.