Beyond Amsterdam: Muiden & Zaanse Schans

One advantage of staying in Amsterdam is convenient access to the rest of the province of North Holland. Travelers can choose to visit flower fields, windmills, a castle, or any number of settlements ranging from fishing villages to small, scenic cities. After weighing the options, two destinations made the cut: Muiderslot (AKA Muiden Castle), and Zaanse Schans.

Muiderslot

The town of Muiden, with its population of ~7000, doesn’t warrant a train station, so it requires around 45 minutes, a train, a bus transfer, and a bit of walking to cover less than 15 miles to the castle. The walk goes along the waterfront, with sailboats docked along one side, and a mix of well-kept residences and small businesses on the other. It’s attractive and especially relaxing scenery after spending time in the city center.

The castle is in excellent condition thanks to a thorough renovation at the turn of the 20th century, and that’s led to repeated use as a medieval film set. The original construction dates back to 1370, a time of smaller, simpler structures. As such, it lacks the pizazz of later castles. In comparison to the recent visit to Kasteel de Haar, it was a little underwhelming. Speaking from experience, it’s still large enough for two people to lose each other for a half hour. That could also be due to the lack of a clear path, with options to take more than one staircase or explore in opposite directions on a given floor. Overall, it’s a recommended destination on a sufficiently long trip to the region, but shouldn’t take priority over certain other experiences.

The number of steps isn’t really the issue.

It’s the unevenness of the stairs that’s problematic. That’s not a lens effect distorting the bricks; it’s really that concave. Maybe this was a defensive measure?

Each tower and top-level room is unique, and the various support structures were a highlight of the visit.

Not recommended for people with arachnophobia

They’re hard to see, but with all of the spider webs overhead, they chose to place two more fake spiders on the center beam.

On the way back, the town’s bakery was beckoning. The bag is full of pepernoten, which resemble gingerbread biscuits. These were tasty, but maybe a bit stale, or at least too hard. They’re most commonly eaten in December as part of the Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) celebration. It’s a bit like Christmas, only Sinterklaas arrives on a steamship from Spain in the first week of December. His companion, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), has become a controversial figure for obvious reasons. A white guy in blackface is just a bad look, even if many Dutch people see it as a harmless tradition. Piet is at least a favorite among children because he goes around tossing them a mix of candy and these spiced cookies.

Zaanse Schans

This is actually the name of a neighborhood in Zaandam, adjacent to Zaandijk. The pattern is hard to miss: virtually everything in the area is named after the Zaan river. Zaanse Schans is a popular tourist destination showcasing pieces of Holland’s culture, such as clogs, cheese making, cocoa processing / chocolate, and windmills. It all comes together as a wonderfully entertaining experience that’s not to be missed when visiting Amsterdam.

One of the most noticeable things when walking in from the train station is the smell of this cocoa factory. They don’t produce chocolate, so the scent is a bit bitter and only mildly alluring.

Windmills are everywhere along the water.

This is the local chocolate shop with people queueing in the background to make their own hot chocolate. That just means scooping cocoa powder and sugar into a cup before coming to the counter for hot milk, but the line was constantly replenished with fresh patrons.

Several varieties from de Pindakaaswinkel (Peanut Butter Store) occupied a section of the chocolate shop.

On the right: more pepernoten, but with the fantastic addition of being coated in white and milk chocolate

This bird was easily distracted with the false-promise of pepernoten for long enough to snap several photos.

So. Much. Cheese. They had several counters with free samples throughout the store. All were good. Some were especially delicious. Pesto cheese *almost* came home.

Albert Heijn is the largest grocery chain in the Netherlands with over 1000 locations and 100,000 employees. This humble store was the original location and now serves as a museum.

A view of the bridge over the Zaan from an Italian restaurant

The restaurant sold water in sustainably-produced bottles from Made Blue. The message printed on the bottle reads, “This is 700 liters of clean drinking water in developing countries,” reflecting the company’s mission to provide water where it is most needed in the world.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

After visiting Zaanse Schans on the last afternoon of a month-long journey, there wasn’t much to do before departing early in the morning for the airport. The previous post about Amsterdam already covered the remaining hours, so there’s nothing left to tell. Aside from gathering links to the full collection in a follow-up post, this is it. Thanks for reading!