VolendamSunday, we decided to visit some tourist-trap towns. The first one was called Zaanse Schans. When we arrived, it was raining out. Both the girls were sleeping and I decided it wasn't worth the effort to interrupt their naps to visit the town. There were a lot of tiny buildings in which there were cheesemakers, clogmakers, etc.
Our next stop was the town of Volendam. Volendam was once a small fishing village. A water-engineering feat in the 1950s ended the fishing livelihood, so the town turned to tourism. Volendam is picturesque. Since all the buildings were along the sea, there was also fresh breeze. Every third shop was a place to get your picture taken in traditional Dutch clothing. Every other third shop sold poffertjes and coffee. And every other third shop sold souvenirs. You know, despite all the tourist-trappedness, I really liked it!
We stopped by a cheese factory on our way out of town. Besides cheese, this place also produced clogs. The guide explained the traditional way of cutting clogs. He then demonstrated how clogs are now mechanically made. I took some short videos, in case you ever wondered. The guide warned us of the noise, but not of the flying wood debris. And to give you an idea of the mark-ups, an 89-(euro)cent jar of mustard sold at this place for 5 euros!
Here are the videos:
This morning, as we were getting ready, I noticed someone outside my window. It was not the gutter-scraper who was here last month, but the window cleaner.
