De zaanse schans Travel Guide

Your traditional daytrip from Amsterdam. Just 30 minutes away, you find windmills, old shops, cobbly streets etc. Perfect to take your kids, but if you like to do the untouristy thing, you can give it a miss.

Highlights include the Albert Hein shop (Dutch 7-11, now one of the biggest retailers in the world, owns shops in Sweden, US, Portugal etc.) and the shop where they make wooden shoes.

The area was named 'De Zaanse Schans' after an entrenchment which was erected in 1574 to hold back Spanish troops at the beginning of the Eighty Years War between the Netherlands and Spain. People work and live in the Zaanse Schans: they feel at home in the area and keep alive the glory which this industrial district saw in the golden age. Visiting the Zaanse Schans, you will see a situation characteristic of the landscape of that district until late in the nineteenth century. The dikes were probably built as early as the thirteenth century, the first villages were built along these at a later date. Until late in the last century these were typical 'dike-villages'. 

Highly recommend visiting this place, its only 8 miles from Amsterdam and perfect for biking.  There is an "outdoor" muesum displaying a typical working farm along with windmills and barn animals, definetly worth the time spent.