Saturday, October 7, 2023: Amsterdam

Our arrival in Amsterdam marked the end of our Baltic Sea cruise and the beginning of our English Channel/Trans-Atlantic cruise. Passengers on the Rotterdam would be disembarking in the early morning hours and new passengers would board well into the afternoon. We joined a tour taking us outside of Amsterdam to the Zaanse Schans Village, an open air museum with several windmills and homes dating back to the 1600s. On the way to the village we were treated to views of flat, green fields, dams and multiple canals.

While on the bus, we noted that a large canal was above us and rectangular swaths of fields and canals were below! One area of interest was a village that had been built at the bottom of a drained lake. Over 42 windmills were used to drain this lake in 1612, creating a retreat for the wealthy of Amsterdam, allowing them to build large country homes to escape the “filthy” city. Surprisingly, up until 2009, Amsterdam was dumping sewage into the river! Unfortunately for the wealthy land owners, the bottom of the lake was not fertile enough for crops so most land was developed into small trading villages and grazing land for cows and sheep. It was fascinating to see the dramatic change from villages at the lake bottom to canals flowing above fields!

Zaanse Schans was a charming village, purpose developed as an open air museum as a peek into the 17th and 18th centuries. We were treated to a wooden shoe making demonstration and walked through the village with our guide, Anna.

The smell of chocolate filled the air as the JS Chocolate factory was just across the highway, in the 21st century. We learned about the importance of willow trees and why many of the trees were severely pruned.

The willow branches are used to reinforce the dam walls along with other materials with layer upon layer for stability. Cows are not allowed to graze on the dams, only sheep, as the weight of cows would damage the dam.

Walking past the houses along the canals, we noticed many had reinforced foundations. These homes are actually on wooden pillars that are submerged so as not to rot.

The brick walkways in the small village area were installed using 2 different colors; the yellow color signifies the village streets and the red is used for private property. This was done so the citizens wouldn’t “steal” bricks from the village for their own use.

There were several windmills in the Zaanse Schans, most original and a couple that had been reconstructed using salvaged parts.

In the Netherlands, there were 10,000 windmills at one time, with about 4,000 used for industry (spice grinding, flour, etc.) and 6,000 to maintain the water level. Today, there are about 1,000 windmills throughout the Netherlands as electric pumps and 10,000 employees regulate the water levels, a seriously important job! There is a separate water tax in the Netherlands just for this purpose.

The last stop in Zaanse Schans was the cheese museum where we learned more about the pre-industrial age in cheese production and sampled delicious cheese. Mary Margaret purchased a small wheel of Baby Edam and a tiny cheese plane for semi-soft and semi-hard cheeses. 

We left Zaanse Schans and headed to the charming village of Edam, best known for its delicious cheese. The cheese industry came about quite by accident. In 1592, the town council proposed building a lock as they wanted to increase trade. The citizens were against this as they were worried by damming up the harbor that it would cause silt to build up. The town council won but the citizens were right—the harbor was silted in causing any water traffic to halt. The citizenry turned to their livestock to improve their financial situation, developing the cheese industry that has become so famous.

Edam cheese became famous and quite valuable as a source of income. Farmers would transport the cheese into Edam where it would be weighed and purchased. Anna stopped our group in a square where the oldest cheese-purchasing business is still functioning and where we were entertained by movers using a lift to transport furnishings from the truck through a window on a second floor. Amazing!

The village is quite small with unique buildings and narrow cobblestone streets. There were plenty of shops selling the famous “Edam Cheese”, including one that told the cheese-making legend here.

We came to a bridge in the town square that had been built over the failed lock. The bridge is very steeply rounded and a little tough to walk over. It was built this way to “protect” the lock so the angry citizens wouldn’t tear it apart. Well, the lock is gone and the bridge remains.

We walked past an enormous church, built when Edam was a busy harbor city and the city fathers envisioned a massive growth in population. That never happened and, unfortunately, the church was not open for touring today.

Anna led us through Old Edam, pointing out interesting buildings and giving us background information on each. One such building was an old orphanage; another was a wooden home that is quite unusual as most were constructed with brick. Various homes had decorated doorways and stepped roofs.

What really impressed us was seeing this area of the Netherlands, less than a half hour’s ride outside of Amsterdam, making it abundantly clear that controlling the water level is crucial to a country with 30% of its land below sea level. 

We returned to the Rotterdam in time for all aboard, preparing ourselves for the last leg of our adventure, heading away from the most southern part of the North Sea, into Dover Strait, through the English Channel and, eventually, out into the Atlantic.