Today was a great day for sightseeing! We started the day by taking a train to Zaanse Schans to visit the cheesemaking company of Henry Willig. This site was also located in such a beautiful rural place with lots of windmills and grazing land for sheep, goats, and cows. We first learned how the cheese was made and got to try some for ourselves. I didn’t realize how many steps there are for cheese making, like heating the curds for a certain amount of time and straining the whey. Of course, I had to buy some to bring home for my family, and the cheese can last up to 1 month unrefrigerated so travel will be easy.  I also didn’t know that there could be flavors like coconut and lavender which were not as bad as I thought they would be. After securing the cheeses, we had some time to walk around before our next visit. We got to see the windmills up close, lots and lots of ducks and ducklings, and overall great sights of the countryside.

We then headed to the Zuiderzeemuseum where we took a ferry over and got to experience the Zuiderzee village and Dutch culture of the late 1800s and early 1900s. This village was separated from the sea, which later turned into a freshwater bay, by a dike. It was fascinating to see the types of houses and how crammed most of them were, sometime with 8 people in a small square house. The Dutch were very clever finding ways to make a self-sustainable living for themselves. They collected rainwater using their roofs, made their own ropes and fish nets, and the clogs they had were great for any season to heat or cool their feet. We then went to another part of the museum where we saw traditional dress for the Dutch and common household items. It was a very informative day with lots of great sights of a more rural side of The Netherlands!