In this article, I will take you a little northwards. We are heading to Amsterdam, a city in Northern Europe that has not lost its popularity over the years and is being discovered more and more every day. It has completely different towns and villages that many people have traveled to many times.
When we think of Amsterdam, images of canals, bridges with bicycles in the background and windmills come to mind. Lately, alongside city tours accompanied by these objects in Amsterdam travels, routes in towns and villages close to the city are also being added.
I will take you to the towns and villages where you can feel like you are in a fairy tale land with Amsterdam's famous giant windmills. You should definitely add these towns and villages to your Amsterdam itinerary. Of course, these extra destinations will extend your travel time a bit, just so you know.
Allocating at least two days of your Amsterdam trip to these towns and villages will provide you with different pastoral experiences from the city center.
Zaanse Schans, which hosts one of the most magnificent open-air museums in the world, is located just 40 minutes away from Amsterdam's city center.
Before enchanting you with its historic windmills, Zaanse Schans will greet you with a rich and wonderful cocoa aroma. You will enter the city with the fantastic smells coming from the cocoa factory in the town.
As you continue on the road accompanied by this scent, you will come across gigantic windmills. These magnificent windmills are the treasures that make up the open-air museum of Zaanse Schans. The windmills, which were built in the past to protect the town from floods, are now used for different purposes.
Of the 600 windmills that existed in the early 18th century, only 10 remain today. The most famous of these is the De Cat Windmill, where you can climb onto the terrace of the windmill for a fee. De Kat is still active today and is used for paint production. You can also visit windmills such as De Huisman for free.
During your windmill tour, you can see how the windmill works, its structure and what is produced there. The pastel green De Bleeke Dood windmill is the oldest wooden windmill preserved in the Netherlands.
Besides seeing and photographing windmills, walking through the town and its flower-filled gardens, and crossing mini bridges over canals will offer you wonderful views. Finally, as you can understand from the placement of the windmills here, this is a town with quite a windy climate. So, it's advisable to be cautious when visiting.
After the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam's city center, I will tell you about another enchanting town. This is Edam, a town famous for its cheese, located half an hour away from Amsterdam.
In Edam, you will not be able to get enough of tasting the cheeses in the cheese shops. And of course, you can enjoy the wonderful natural landscapes. While immersing yourself in nature in Edam, you can also add the Edam Museum, the Edam Cheese Weigh House cheese museum, Grote Kerk Church and drawbridges like Kwakelburg to your list of places to visit.
Volendam, located approximately half an hour from Amsterdam and 10 minutes from Edam, is the largest town between Edam and the one I will tell you about next, Marken. You may notice that Volendam is busier than Edam. The first place you should see in Volendam is the harbor area. Here you can visit the Cheese Factory Museum.
In Volendam, which was once very important for seafood production, you can also taste seafood in the harbor area. You can also try the famous waffles here. While the houses on the seaside try to convince you to settle in this magnificent fishing town with their decorative embellishments, once you wander off the main street into the side streets, you won't want to leave.
Marken, once one of the most famous fishing villages, has had to deal with many flood problems in the past due to being an island. Marken, which you can reach by boat, will welcome you with fewer crowds compared to other towns. You can wander among the colorful and charming houses with their opening and closing bridges in Marken and capture wonderful photographs.
In Marken, you can also visit a shoe workshop called "Clogs," which is said to still be used in some villages today. These wooden shoes, which allow you to walk easily on soft soil, especially dirt saturated by rain, can be a great gift for your loved ones.
I saved the most famous tourist spot for last. When you do a little research, you will see that Giethoorn ranks high in the category of "fairy-tale-like" places. Giethoorn, which resembles a Hobbit village or the village of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is located about three hours away from Amsterdam city center.
In this village, also known as the Venice of the North, I recommend not leaving without strolling around the canal area and taking a boat tour. With its charming houses connected by 180 bridges, visiting the Giethoorn Museum could be a different option.
Of course, you should allocate plenty of time for taking photos in the village, where you can capture many great photo opportunities.
In summary, on this journey, get ready to crown your travel list in Amsterdam, one of the most important cities in Northern Europe, with completely different experiences.
You'll be impressed by the enchantment of the gigantic windmills in Zaanse Schans and lose yourself among the colorful houses and historic canals while tracing the footsteps of the past in Marken.
Witness a feast of flavors in the cheese shops of Edam where you'll find peace in the tranquility of nature, taste seafood in Volendam's colorful harbor and enjoy getting lost in the side streets.
In Giethoorn, embark on a boat tour among the canals and embrace the fairy-tale world among the charming houses.
