2019

[Netherlands 2019] Zaandam + Zaanse Schans

Zaandam - A fairy-tale-like town with colourful, adorable buildings.

After our short trip to Utrecht, we took a 40-minute train to Zaandam.

This is the first sight we had after walking out of the station - Wow!! Look at these quirky wooden houses!!

And this famous landmark of Zaandam, which is actually a hotel called Inntel Hotel!

I wonder how the interior looks like and how people get to different floors hahaha.

But we didn't choose to live here due to our poor amount of budget :'( But at least we could take selfies with it!!

Since we arrived slightly earlier than the check-in time, we thought it would be ok to leave our luggage first but it was not!! And also we got charged additional tourist tax here -_- Well, then we had to explore around with our bulky luggage first... Actually, there's only one main street (where all the hotels located) so we just strolled along and came back.

These buildings are all shops and restaurants and they look so cute...!

Of course, there is at least one canal in every city of the Netherlands! That's why everywhere in this country is dreamy and picturesque. However, only the houses in Zaandam are colourful :D

Finally checked in at 3pm, it's time to depart to the most popular attraction - Zaanse Schans the windmill village! We decided to take the train (the cheapest option & took only 25 mins).

Zaanse Schans - Windmills! Cheese and Chocolate! (which are so expensive so we didn't buy any of them huhu) Everything is closed at 5pm so better going earlier, but a 2-hour short trip is more than enough. We didn't try to cycle around there but it's actually a good idea, maybe you can try it when the weather becomes warmer.

After arriving at the station we have to walk around 10 mins to the village. The weather was breezy so it was a pleasant walk and you could feel how desolate is this little town lol... Almost every shop was closed and only tourists were walking with us. Maybe just because we were not there at the right time, or not in the right area? My assumption is that this town is relying too heavily on tourists so it lost its residents.

You have to cross a bridge, and it's time to start spotting the windmills. (and taking out your camera!)

Finally we arrived at the village that's already packed with tourists. It's free to look around as long as you don't spend money on souvenirs/museums.

The village is pretty, really pretty, like in the fairy tale. But there's nothing much to do other than visiting souvenir shops.

Oh and I remember there was this windmill, the only one that was free to the public, which is not operating anymore. It was a museum inside to learn more about windmills and also selling souvenirs (of course). There was an interesting section that you could smell the spice and guess what it is.

There were so many duckies. Always want to feel how fluffy is the duck but I always scared them away... And I felt bad to chase them like a monster :(

Three windmills in a row! You can pay to enter them but nah...

Well, since there's nothing to do... photo!

With my dear yuhong <3

This is the bakery museum, a very cute interior.

We went to a cheese museum and couldn't stop eating the sample again hahaha

There is a farm behind the shop. A bit smelly.

Come duckie!!

Don't go...!

A path with dead trees...?

There were lesser people after 5pm so we went back to the same place (near the entrance) to take better photos haha.

We were so shocked when we went back to Zaandam after we found out every shop is closed!!!

We thought we could have dinner and shopping at night!! But why every shop here is closing so early!!!! TAT

The only restaurant we could find is this Asian food franchise restaurant called "Eazie" lol.

It's funny to know that Asian food is considered as healthy food... (Not hard to understand after finding out the food they usually eat...fries..pancake...)

And they actually tasted really good!!! It feels so good to have pipey hot & spicy rice and noodle!!! They cost around 6-7 euro for each, quite cheap.

Before going back we managed to get some drink from the supermarket

(our second home in Netherlands lol)

Sweet or Spicy?

And we projected Japanese drama and movie to the TV in hotel room, so chill hehe~

This is how our room looks like in the morning. The room was very nice actually, we stayed in the Easyhotel Zaandam. Spacious and cozy, we had everything we need.