Earlier this month we went to Holland and we saw windmills and drank coffee and beer and ate pancakes and life was great. I cannot express how much I enjoyed our little four day excursion up to Amsterdam. This lively city had really been highly recommended from several friends over the past year and with a spare weekend of zero plans, no photoshoots and no work for Tony we jumped on the chance to escape for a bit of travel. We spent two day inside the city of Amsterdam, but my favorite part of all was this morning day trip to Zaanse Schans. It’s kind of a little tourist trap city… built around fun and traditional Dutch things for you to look at and then buy: windmills, wooden shoes, tulips, pancakes and Stroopwaffles. If you can get past the fact that they just want you there to spend money, you can totally embrace it and enjoy it for what it is. Tony and I opted to skip doing a guided tour and ventured out there on our own one morning. We took an early train from Amsterdam Central station out to Zaanse Schans for the cost of about $7 each. Once you step off of the train you’re hit with this insane chocolate smell. The small city is home to a chocolate factory which causes the whole city to smell of chocolate… not a bad thing! From the train station it’s about a 15 minute walk to get to the windmills and shops. We arrived before the sun was up (as we do) to take sunrise images, but even in the dark the walk was super simple and easy to do!
I would LOVE one of these little houses that looks over the water and windmills!
Once the sun was up we headed over to the shops for some breakfast! We had the most amazing freshly made pancakes, watched a wooden shoe making demonstration and took some terribly cheesy tourist photos. Lovely.
And some Instagram moments:
