August 31, 2006
Amsterdam Day 2
Our hostel had a fridge full of food to cook for yourself, so we had a great breakfast and also made lunch for later. Today we were off on a tour of the surrounding area of Amsterdam. The tour guide was amazing, she spoke Dutch, English, Spanish and Italian. First stop was the windmill area called Zaanse Schans. There were heaps of the typical Dutch windmills here, some still being used to pump water as they were originally. I found it really interesting that Holland was mainly under water so when they needed more land they used the windmills to pump dry the lakes so they could use the land. We saw a clog making display where we saw the traditional and modern method. The modern way had a clog ready in 5 minutes. There was a clog museum that showcased a lot of different clogs from normal ones to ones worn to church (painted like black leather choes), ice skating ones and wedding ones. The wedding clogs were amazing as they were carved by the groom and were given to the bride as her wedding gift to be worn on the day. They had amazingly delicate carved patterns all over. Our next stop on the tour was Edam for a cheese making and tasting visit. We were shown how the farm makes their cheese and were then treated to a tasting of all the cheeses made on the farm. Our favourtie was the smoked cheese. Back on the bus to a fishing town called Vollendam. We took a walk through the streets and saw the immaculate houses. The people in this town like to have bigger and better things then their neighcours and so their houses and yards are always perfect. We ate our lunch here by the sea and treated ourselves to some profertjes (small pancakes) which were lovely in the cold rainy weather. The next step of the tour took us on the Markem Express ferry to the town of Markem.The weather was not so good in Markem and so we all walked quickly through the village and boarded the bus again. The village seemed similar to Vollendam but its industry is based around fishing. On the way back to Amsterdam we passed many farms that have cattle on little islands surrounded by water. This is how the farmer controls the grass regrowth, when the island starts to be over eaten the farmer moves the catle to another island. We arrived back in Amsterdam and headed to the house of Anne Frank. The house was very moving and eye opening, to think that people had to hide in a room to avoid persucution over their religion. The house contained a lot of information about the time and gave a real feeling of the hardships that the family must have lived with. Tonight we decided to give ourselves a tour of the red light district to see how much differnt it was at night. The street looked really cool with their red light windows. There were a lot of tourists walking the streets as well - a strange kind of tourist attraction.
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