Amsterdam 2024, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Day 3...

Our guide picked us up at the hotel and we drove north from Amsterdam to Zaandam. We parked and started our walk about to see the colorful wooden houses known as the Zaan Houses. We walked along a canal to the Inntel Hotel…the facade consists of seventy Zaan houses in different shades of Zaans green and one of the houses is blue as a reference to Monet’s famous paintings (Monet lived in Zaandam for a while).  The city has a very unique character from an architectural perspective. Our next stop was Zaanse Schans…We parked and walked over the bridge over the Zaan River…a good location to view and photograph the windmills of the historic Zaanse Schans village on the water. The collection of windmills and wooden houses were relocated here from other areas north of Amsterdam. We wandered through this open-air museum seeing the buildings and windmills in their typical historic Dutch style. Leaving Zaandam, we headed to Volendam…First we visited the Doolhof area, the oldest part of the Volendam Centrum…Doolhof translated means maze and it is a true maze of small streets with great photo opportunities. Next, we walked along the Dyke and stopped for lunch at De Lunch Cafe for Kibbeling (Battered white fish) and chips…really delicious. This stretch of Volendam offers a scenic view of the harbor…lined with colorful houses and shops. On our return to Amsterdam, we stopped at Landsmeer to see a traditional Dutch village…we were very close to Amsterdam without the hustle and bustle. With beautiful weather, we had another enjoyable day exploring the Netherlands.