Finley Gets A Sunburn, May 1

 Today was a hot one. We all lathered up in sunscreen as it was 11 am and already hot. Unusual for the Netherlands. We headed down to Zaanse Schans near Zaandam. Very touristy but we chose not to pay the entrance fee but just walk and look at the windmills.

  

But first we took another route and found more tulips,               

farmers fields and canals. We are staying in a little village/town in Northern Holland as it was very expensive close to Amsterdam. Now if we were Dutch we would consider it a long drive but 30-40 minutes to drive to a place is considered very close for us Canadians. Thus we stayed further north and drove back down towards the touristy places.

First view of Zaanse Schans. In 1594 a crankshaft was invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoom van Uitgeest (some name eh) that converted the horizontal wind direction of the sails into a vertical sawing motion. This led to a great catalyst for shipbuilding in the 17th century. Due to Zaans close location to the sea and Amsterdam, this area had 26 shipyards and could produce 100-150 ships per year. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this area of Holland was an industrial powerhouse. There were around 600 windmills active at this time producing sawn wood, paper, dried spices, oil for food and paint, dyes, fibres and flour. 

Zaanse Schans today. After the second world war the loss of historic houses and windmills became a real threat so an idea was conceived to preserve some of these buildings. All of the buildings have been brought here to represent how a Zaan residential and working area would have looked like. There is a cheese shop. Did you know it takes 10 litres of cows milk or 7 litres of goat milk or 6 litres of sheep milk to make one kilo of cheese. Griffin says goat cheese is delicious.

Green is the colour of the buildings. Why you ask? Well it turns out that historically  green pigments were more available, often derived from copper. It had protective qualities as it was made from linseed oil and copper that helped protect  the wood against the harsh wind and damp climate , was harmonious with nature and it created a uniformity to the town. And we know how important uniformity is to the Dutch. Just check out how neat their yards and gardens are. I definitely am not Dutch. I am  a proud haphazard English garden type.

A small windmill used in the ditches.

In the Netherlands and I saw this in Spain too, they do something called pollarding pruning to their trees. It involves young trees being kept to a certain height. A knuckle is formed and water sprouts grow out of these knuckles every spring. In the past these thin branches were used for things like food, making brooms,  and even dams and dykes. It was usually willow and poplar but in the old days oak and ash were also done. We thought this one was cool and the tree trunk had no centre but still produced branches.

This cute little house has these stairs to climb into the house and then a really short door to enter the house.

Spice mill. It smelled like speculaus cookies.

Across the Zaan river is the city of Zaadam. Some pretty fancy houses and boats on the waterway.

There is a wooden shoe shop.

The display had three types of shoes. Everyday, working and dressy.

The ride home required gramma bribing Fin with Bueno bar.