While visiting you’ll find so many to do in Amsterdam, and several side trips you can take around Holland within a bike ride or short drive of the city center.

Many small villages and people still live in their ancestral homes in the Dutch countryside. These people work in the trades passed down through generations and are happy to share their traditions with visitors.

You’ll see land (polders) reclaimed from water, many dairy farms, old barns, houseboats, bridges, and windmills among your travels. This is classic Holland. I visited four places.

Zaanse Schans

It is only about an hour’s bike ride from Amsterdam to reach this lovely town on the Zaan River, where you will find a postcard-perfect scene of several well-preserved windmills dating back to the 17th-century.

You’ll also be able to talk with and learn from the people who live and work in the mills. I was so ignorant before my visit; I had no idea windmills were machines.

Windmills

I learned that windmills are essentially massive gears used to do a variety of jobs. Originally, many in Holland were used as pumps to remove the land’s swampy water, but they’re so much more than that.

In Zaanse Schans, you’ll see a windmill that mills flour as the grain is worked by large stones that continuously grind it into flour. Another makes peanut oil, another, spices and another, miraculously, saws logs. Talk about ingenuity.

The millers are happy to show you the mills, how they function and even sell the products they create. 

Modern windmills are often used to harness electricity and you’ll see many of these in your travels as well. Perhaps one day, America will catch up? This was one of my favorite things to do in Amsterdam.

Volendam

Northeast of Amsterdam and a short way from Zaanse Schans, this old-world fishing village handles time differently – by completely ignoring it.

Do you know the traditional image of the Dutch milkmaid carrying two buckets of milk? Welcome to Volendam. Here, the residents still wear traditional Dutch clothing, including wooden clogs with wool socks, vests, long skirts or dark trousers and a hat for men or “hul” cap for women.

Here, the making of clogs, clothing, and cheese are still the main industries, along with tourism. Some of the best cheese in the world comes out of these small farms. In America, we’d call it craft (not Kraft) or small batch. I gained 12 pounds on my four-hour visit to Volendam and I’d do it again. It was an spectacular thing to do in Amsterdam.

 

 

Clogs

Here you can see artisans make wooden clogs – klompen – out of fresh Poplar wood. 

We entered a room full of clogs and wood shavings to see a klompen-making Dutchman busy at this dying art form.

There, he whipped up a clog in just minutes. Clearly, he’d done this before. He took a square block of wood and began carving and scooping out the soft, moist wood. The Poplar is ideal for clog making, he said (I think) in a strong Dutch accent, because it is so soft when first cut but hardens stronger than Oak after drying.

He handed me a finished shoe to see for myself. “Is it hard?” he asked.

“Yes, it’s very hard,” I said.

When I looked up, he was grinning broadly and clearly pleased with himself.

Clogs are the perfect work shoes for farmers in the wet, marshy soil, he said. The wood is highly water-resistant while their flat bottoms stay atop the marsh and protect farmers’ feet from mud, moisture, and injury. 

I was dearly tempted to buy a pair, but my minimalist resolve won out.

Cheese Making

In Volendam, I also experienced my first of many cheese-making demonstrations. In Holland, the making of cheese, typically Gouda, is religion. The idea that a Dutchman would eat cheese from anyplace else is laughable as Dutch cheese is as good as it gets. 

After the Dutchman finishes his clog making, he assists the women in another barn with the cheesemaking. We followed him.

Here they demonstrated the entire cheese-making process, starting with the milking of the goat. I pause here to let it sink that I watched with keen interest as this Dutch milkmaid vigorously milked a goat for our education and allowed some guests to try as well. The Dutchman was eager for my participation, but I demurred. 

The milkmaid explained that at least five liters of milk are needed to make one pound of Dutch Gouda cheese. That’s a lot of milking. Her arms were quite buff.

From there, we entered a place with machinery that looked like it had been pulled from a history museum. It is here that the milk is heated in large metal vats while being constantly stirred so that the fat content starts to separate.

Eventually, solid curds are scooped out and put into circle plastic molds. After some days, the cheese is dipped in brine to preserve it and then in plastic. Walla, your classic cheese wheel, is born.

Finally, the cheese is put on wooden shelves to cure like fine wine.

Marken

Marken is a small island off the coast of Volendam, Holland, accessible only by boat. Besides being an island, it’s also recognizable for its wooden stilt houses and in them, the craftsmen and women who live, work and sell their wares or skills.

There are vendors with carts lined up along the waterway on the small island, and I stopped at several.

Poffertjes

These tiny, two-inch pancake puffs are made fresh by the dozen in a cast iron pan for just this purpose. Poffertjes are traditionally doused in powdered sugar and tossed back like a shot, or at least that’s how I did it. They also give you a tiny wooden fork, if you prefer.

Stroopwafels

Imagine two thin five-inch wafers held together by fresh caramel and you begin to understand the basic stroopwafel. This Dutch specialty can then be dipped in chocolate and adorned with any variety of toppings such as M&Ms, chocolate chips, nuts, you name it. I didn’t pass by a stroopwafel; I didn’t eat anywhere in Holland.

Kibbeling

While in Marken, you’d be remiss not to eat kibbeling (codfish) and they’d be personally offended. I know this because I tried to order something other than fish and the waitress was so stunned and upset that I gave in and ordered the kibbeling. And it was delicious.

Don’t forget to eat your .. Whey. Or just put it on your face

In Marken, at another cheese-making demonstration – yes, I’ll watch cheese making whenever I can (which you know if you’ve been reading this blog), I met a woman who looked to be in her mid-30s. She told the group that she used whey from the milk as a skin moisturizer (whey is liquid that is left once the cheese curds are removed). She said it works wonders for anti-aging and she should know because, she said, she was 70 years old. (and eat kibbeling, she added).

I can’t decide if I believed her or not, but she wasn’t selling anything other than cheese, so yeah, I starting drinking whey each morning. Women in Holland stay young forever – it’s the whey! 

Delft is a classic thing to see in Amsterdam

Only about an hour’s drive outside of Amsterdam, Delft is home to two well-known things: world-famous blue and white Delft porcelain or Delftware and master painter Johannes Vermeer.

Delftware

You can visit the Royal Delft factory, the only remaining earthenware factory from the Golden Age of the 17th century. You know me; I headed straight for it and received a tour of the entire process.

The factory, and the artists at work, are fascinating and I guarantee you will be convinced to buy some of this fine product on your way out … through the gift shop—the Dutch – very smart. I bought a few pieces from their Peacock Symphony line because I couldn’t not. 

It is also a museum with a large collection of Delft antiques, including a version of Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch,” reproduced with original Delft blue tiles.

Visit Royal Delft at Rotterdamseweg 196, 2628AR Delft, Holland.

Vermeer

You can walk around the town square and see the town and former home where master painter Johannes Vermeer lived and worked. You can imagine “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” just walking by on the street, as so little has changed. You can also see the masterpiece for yourself nearby at the Mauritshuis museum in the Haag. 

Many of Vermeer’s masterworks are applauded for their luminescent quality and having been there; you’ll understand he was simply depicting the light of Delft.

Visit Muritshuis at Plein 29 2511 CS Den Haag.

Each of these Dutch villages is worth visiting to explore and experience culture in an immersive and interesting way that will give a newfound appreciation for the art of tradition. 

Which of these things to do in Amsterdam would you choose? 

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