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Hello and welcome back to Oosterdam Day 3! 

Today we headed to Zaanse Schans to get a closer look at the wind giants of the East—the beautiful windmills responsible for the economic boom that propelled the Netherlands towards great prosperity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The forecast for today was incredibly rainy, and indeed, our frail American bodies were racked with wind and rain the entire day. Surprisingly, it was perfect for the location we’d be visiting, as we got to see the windmills in action. The rivers were surging, the sky filled with clouds. Every paper bag fell to ruin within minutes. But today was by far my favorite day spent here.

After losing half our group at the tram stop and making a mad dash for our train (the next train wasn’t for another half hour), we finally found ourselves situated on the train to Zaandam. Antoinette and I had an interesting conversation with two business majors—crypto, the stock market, and whatnot—which kept us well entertained until we arrived at our destination. After a fifteen minute walk over bridges and under umbrellas, we arrived at Zaanse Schans. And it is beautiful there. Of course, you have the massive windmills front and center, creaking softly as their blades, or as Olivia would say, their fins, spun steadily in the wind. They lined a concrete path that led off into the distance, and on the horizon, one could spot the smokestacks of nearby facilities, producing smoke columns that curled up into the air. Everything else was either flat meadow or canal. The water level was likely higher that day, as it had been raining since we arrived in Holland.

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The tour guide led us through several establishments, each of which showcased the unique functionality of the windmills in Zaanse Schans. They’re incredibly versatile, actually, which is something I hadn’t taken the time to think about, because the Midwest isn’t very windmill-dense! (Or at least, the part of the US where I live.) The first thing we did was spectate a workshop on clog-making. Clogs (klompen) are incredibly culturally significant in Zaandam; there’s a clog for just about every occasion. Sunday clogs, wedding clogs, marriage clogs? Everything! And while it may have been a lengthy process in the past to make them (two to three hours, if I’m not mistaken), the technology we have in place today shortens that length down to less than five minutes. The machines aren’t even technologically savvy, but they’re brilliantly designed. They use a template clog to make their other clogs; the first arm will travel along the length of the template clog, and the other arm will cut the block of wood into place. The two arms are connected, so they travel together. There is no complex circuitry, no eight thousand lines of code. There is only a blueprint clog and the block of wood that it cuts into shape. A similar machine then hollows the shoe out. I thought it was a simple but subtle concept executed to perfection. My engineering friends certainly enjoyed it as well.

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Next, we went to the cheese store (I was SO excited) to see how the windmills make their cheese. The rotating of the windmill blades churns fresh cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk via a crankshaft, an invention that revolutionized the windmill industry. The crankshaft was able to translate rotational movement into mechanical energy, usually in the form of vertical movement that would churn the milk for cheese or saw the wood necessary for clog-making. After a demonstration on how the cheese was made, we were able to taste it!! I was one of three lucky volunteers who got to taste the cheese, and it was SO good. Later though, everyone got lots of samples in the cheese shop. The walls were lined with hundreds of individual cheese wheels carefully bundled in colorful wraps. In each corner was a Zaanse employee that would cut slices of cheese for eager samplers, of which I paid several visits. And in the middle was a beautiful island stocked with wedges of aged cheese. I ended up buying four little cheese wheels, because I have no self control (they sell them in ADORABLE LITTLE groups of THREE and I could NOT RESIST HOW COULD I RESIST). In all sincerity, though, the cheese was so incredibly good.

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After our little snack break, we went to the windmill loggers to see how the wood there was cut. And what we found was very interesting! A long plank of tree log is laid horizontally along a carriage of sorts that slowly but surely carts the log along as a row of vertical saws cuts along the length of the wood. Usually wood like this is cut by commission, so the saws are spaced out so different widths of log can be cut at the same time. The saws cut around one millimeter of wood in one clean motion, and they come down once every few seconds. How quickly the commission gets done is highly dependent on the weather, but the machine still moves at an impressive speed, and it can run 24/7.

After a wonderful pancake brunch, I went with my friend Jack to the windmill museum (Molenmuseum) for some more perspective on the history of Zaanse Schans. The museums in the Netherlands are unique in that their tours are conducted via a little speaker and scannable “checkpoints” located around the various rooms and exhibits. When approaching a display case, one can tap their portable speaker to a checkpoint and a corresponding audio selection will play. This keeps the visitors quiet—and allows them to enjoy the museum in a greater capacity. This was done in the Anne Frank House, which was nice, but the Molenmuseum executed this very well in my opinion. The exhibit wasn’t incredibly lengthy, but it was packed with interesting tidbits of information, interactives, and antiquities of the past. They also had a Monet exhibit, which I was very excited about, as Monet is my favorite artist. Jack and I were just able to catch the tail end of it before we had to regroup with the others and head back.

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Oh, I’ve exceeded the word count limit by a lot! Oops. Okay, to close out very quickly, we went back to the hotel, got some rest, and went out for dinner and some ice cream. The rainy city was beautiful today, and as we headed back, the sky was embellished with bits of sky peeking out from in between the clouds—as well as a beautiful rainbow. A fitting end to a wonderful day, it seemed. Oh, and word of the day is buitengewone—extraordinary ;).

That’s all for today’s blog. Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow.