July 7:

Our theme for this visit by Janie and Dan has been to take them to places they haven't been before and, hopefully, new places for us too. Today we decided to take a look at Zaanse Schans  and actually go into the complex. Linda and I drove to it last week but because of the rain, didn't enter.

This is a reconstructed village that shows life in the mid-1800's. It reminds us of a place like Williamsburg, Virginia. Much of the buildings are original and they have been moved to this site. We started at the museum and were told of the industrial heritage of this region of the Netherlands. As you might expect, windmills were used for grinding, pumping, pressing things into oil, sawing wood, etc. This is where many Dutch household products were first produced.

The area is called the Zaan and kept people employed. I always thought of the Dutch as great traders, which, of course, is true, but they made a lot of stuff during the 18th and 19th centuries. And, this was the part of the country that did it.














This machine made special boxes for sprinkles. The idea was to catch the eye of the consumer.





This diagram gives a sense of the scope of the place.












As we entered the main complex, we stopped for lunch. Potato salad was about all the snack bar offered and that's what we bought. Janie had a pancake which she really liked. We would eat better later.












Walking down the main path past several tourist gift shops we got a good view of the windmills and staged a silly, wooden shoe picture.














Not every manufacturing activity was aided by the mills. We were given a tour of a home where the family manufactured sail cloth from hemp. The guide told us how they would have worked long hours to produce 30 meters of cloth for something like 17 cents.

And, later, we visited a clock making and repair facility where they had displayed the very large and the very small.

This one was a whaling clock. The closeup shows moving ships, waves, and a whale. 





This clock was specifically designed for the weight pulls to fit around a door frame. I guess when you don't have much space you get creative.

Besides these museums, there were pretty views outside. There were people living in some of these places and they kept them in beautiful condition.

Then it was time to stop for coffee and Janie and Dan had to try the Dutch applekak (sp?).













A slow walk back to the car past some more windmills and exhibits.













We tried to enter several of these windmills, but it was close to 5:00 and everything was closing. That put an end to this visit.

We did come upon an artist displaying his work on the ground. The pieces looked familiar and in talking to him, we discovered we had purchased one of his paintings at Kinderdijk two years ago. We told him we thought this was a better place for him to work and sell his work.

Originally, our plan for dinner was to eat at the steak house in Laren that we had discovered in May. However, when we arrived, the main street was closed for some type of fair and that was just where we wanted to go for dinner. We decided to head back toward Soest and when we arrived, the consensus was to try the El Argentino restaurant on our main street. Linda and I had never tried this place before and all of us were in an adventurous mood. We were ready for meat.

Success - we sat outside, Janie and Dan shared a mixed grill, Linda had a nice steak, and I had ribs. 

Turned out to be a great dinner. Salad, fries and rice for me turned up and the wine flowed. This is a good place to go. If you're in Soest, go. We were loud and had a great time.






Back at the house, we waddled in and watched some tellie.

That was the end of a fun day.