The ZannseSchans is a huge open air museum very popular with the asian tourists in the netherlands. it features six windmills, the first Albert Heijn (the huge supermarket chain here) a traditional clog maker, a Pancake house, a traditional cheese farm and bakery and much more. There is also an indoor museum next door that was the old Verkades Factory (they are the makers of biscuts and chocolates found in every dutch home).
It was lovely to begin in the chocolate and biscut exhibit, we watched how the chocolate is melted and shaped etc etc. goodness it looked so tempting to just stick a little finger into taste haha. lucky for the girls they got to colour in their own packaging and got a free chocolate bar to go with it. Yum Yum. they were stoked and we hadnt even got outside yet. At the gates to the ZannseSchanes we had our photo taken. it was such a horrible one haha. all the kids were pouting and barbers hair was covering her whole face. but it was a pretty accurate portrait of how a day with the kids ends up haha. Our first stop was the pancake house. im still not a fan of eating ham and cheese on a pancake. crepe yes. but dutch pancakes are too heavy to eat like that. so i spoilt myself and had a decadent chocolate and whipped cream pancake. talk about jealous stares from the rest of the resturaunt haha.
After lunch we headed over to the clog house. where i became the proud owner of these babies :) i love them so much.
Annemijn bought herself cutesy blue clogs and Wende bought pink clog slippers. Annemijn couldnt wait to wear her clogs and so for the rest of the day people were lining up to get photos with the blond dutch girl in blue clogs haha.
clip clopping our way out of their we headed to the cheese farm. if there is one thing the dutch know. its cheese :) i amused myself by going back two or three times to the sample table and sipping the free wine. my favourite sample was by far the pesto cheese. such a crazy combination that it was ridiculously delicious haha.
finally we moved onto the windmill. only one was open today but that was ok. it was the windmill that grinded chalk for paint and for the lines on sports fields. i managed to climb to the top of the windmill perching perilously on tiny and very steep ladders all the way. but the view from the top was amazing!
By this time we had been battered about by the wind long enough and we decided to hit the souvenir shops and then hit the road. it was such a great day out that i really want to go back and do it again in the summer.
