Zaanse Schans, Windmolen, the Netherlands

I am back in The Netherlands again, and after a couple day in Amsterdam, this place is where I have visited! I know, I know... it might be too commercially done for you guys, but I just love Zaanse Schans! After all the place is in the neighbourhood of Zaandam, near Zaandijk, where my fave aunty has been living in for years and years since she moved to the Netherlands in 1966.

Zaanse Schans  has a collection of well-preserved historic windmills and houses, I couldn't help myself not to take overly amount of pictures, but I did!

Zaanse Schans

Zaanse Schans is a small village on the banks of the Zaan river, complete with tidy green houses, real working windmills, and small topical museums such as the Clock Museum and the first Albert Heijn store.

In the 17th and 18th century there were thousands of windmills along the dykes; sawmills, dye mills, oil mills etc that powered the Dutch economy. The Zaanse Schans village gives you a picture of what it must have been like. Not all the windmills and buildings started out in Zaanse Schans, many of them were moved here from the region as they came under threat from urban development across North Holland.