old holland in one day: volendam, zaanse schans, and zaandam


Delft The Hague / Volendam, Zaanse Schans, Zaandam / Haarlem


I’ve been to the Netherlands just a couple of times but I don’t really go out of Amsterdam that much because I only have a day to three at a time. It was my first time to visit the Old Holland as they call it, last July, and I think I did a marathon!

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Check out the video!

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Transportation
I got the Amsterdam and Region Travel Ticket from the I amsterdam Visitor Center in front of Amsterdam Centraal station. It costs EUR 18.50 for a one-day ticket.

The Itinerary

When I researched for day trips from Amsterdam, Old Holland, particularly North Holland, seemed to be very convenient. And it was! You just have to get the day ticket and pick places you want to go to for the day. In this case, I opted to go to Volendam, Zaanse Schans, and Zaandam.

I started at around 10AM when I bought the ticket in the visitor center. The guy at the counter was very kind and proceeded to tell me the best route to follow. I went straight inside Centraal to get to the bus that will take me to Volendam.

Volendam is Holland’s best-known fishing village. You will see old fishing boats and the famous traditional clothing of women with the high, pointy bonnets. There’s even a store where you can wear the costume up and take photos.

Funny thing is, I had this memory of when I was 6 on a school program (I think it was about the United Nations celebrations month), where I got to be on stage in this very costume with my own pointy bonnet. So when I got here, that memory struck me so clear, and I was like, was it a precognition? Maybe or it was just pure coincidence, we’ll never be too sure.

After walking around for about 2 hours (and it flew by fast by the way), I went back to the bus station where I alighted and went for a bus to the famous Zaanse Schans.

Zaanse Schans is famous for windmills. I didn’t know what windmills are for until I got here! My basic idea is of course, the windmills that harness wind energy that in turn produces electricity and distributed to homes. But apparently the original and simple windmills harness wind energy to make lots of stuff too including pumping water, milling grains, making cheeses etc.

It was a delight to see them in person! Zaanse Schans is quite a walk to roam around, and I did brisk-walked again for 3 hours. I think it was about 4:30PM when I had to tell myself, Hey girl, stop. Have lunch. So I did and bought 6 pieces of bitterballen. It was so good.

I skipped Edam because of time, and went to the train station to get to Zaandam center.

Zaandam is actually the city where Zaanse Schans is located. The city center is quite literally getting attention because of the Inntel Hotel building that was (or is still) trending on Instagram. I did walk a bit around its sleepy town for about an hour until I went home to Amsterdam.

Really, really tired with all the walking, but fulfilled and finally got to visit the Netherlands' roots!

With Zoey my love 💛
School's out! It's summer!
Find Shawn!
Thanks to the orange juice man for this! My EUR 5 bottle of orange juice was worth it!
Sleepy small town of Zaandam
The famous Instagram Zaandam hotel


1 comment:

  1. Beautiful pics! if you had time for just one of these stops, which would you choose?

    ReplyDelete

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