Howells in a Castle

Friday 16^th September 2016

Weather today was a much more pleasant and cooler 22°. Sky was overcast and we got a few light showers early in the morning.

Up early for breakfast at 7:00am.As we had to be at the tour office by 8:15am for the start of our countryside & windmills experience.

First stop was at De Zoeker where we saw numerous windmills that are still in operation. We went inside one of the mills that was milling linseed. It was very interesting particularly as I was able to go up to the top and see the sails and the gears. All the mills in the area perform different tasks and there are still two that are fully operational sawing timber. All the mills in the area are painted green & black and the guide explained that as the people in the area were poor they made their own paint by mixing grass with oil to form green and tar with oil to make black.

Next stop was Volendam to visit a cheese factory. Following a brief explanation of the cheese making process we sampled some of the local products, which were very tasty. Bought some small sample cheese to have this afternoon with a cuppa.

Volendam in a lovely little Dutch village and we had time to do some sight seeing. Also a delicious lunch on freshly cooked calamari followed by Dutch pancakes with cream and caramel sauce.

Next was boat ride across the large fresh water lake (that actually opens out into the North sea) to Marken to visit a clog making factory. It was very interesting seeing clogs made. Main reason clogs were invented was because they were cheap to make compared with leather shoes and they are also much more protective of the feet is cows stand on you feet.

Arrived back in Amsterdam at 2:00pm and walked to the railway station to confirm where we have to go tomorrow morning to board the train for Paris. As we were feeling a bit tired we went and had a drink in a nice pub at the railway station before making our way back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. On the way back we walked through the Red Light District. An interesting place to say the least and not somewhere we would like to be after dark.

We had dinner at an excellent restaurant, Humphrey’s next to our hotel. The food was fantastic. I had grilled lemon sole. Lynne had oriental pork tender loin and strawberries romanov.

We had a short walk round the block to assist digestion and then back to the hotel to finish packing ready for an 8:00am departure tomorrow morning.