The Netherlands with Kids: Zaanse Schans

Our previous day in the Netherlands with our kids had been a success! Both our girls had slept pretty well and we were ready for our next adventure.

Zaanse Schans is a living history open air museum located just 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam. In 1961, historic windmills and houses were moved to this area and today Zaanse Schans is a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands.

The different machines at the chocolate museum

Along with windmills, there is also a chocolate factory that one can tour, a museum that showcases the history of the area, and several small buildings where one can learn about cheese, clogs, and more.

We went through the museum first which then led right into the chocolate factory. The factory had all the different old-fashioned machines and we got to watch as chocolate and little biscuits were made. At the end, an employee gave each of us a biscuit that had been made there. 

We had lunch at the pancake restaurant and then went to check out one of the windmills that grinds spices. It was pretty neat seeing how the windmill worked and being able to smell the spices.

Then we checked out the cheese farm where we got to sample somewhere around 15 different cheeses. My favorite was a young goat cheese and we ended buying some to bring back home with us.

We bought a Zaanse Schans card which covered many of our activities. It was nice to have and we definitely got good use out of it.

One of our favorite things that we did was visit one of the oil windmills, De Bonte Hen. It was built in 1693 and has been the victim of fire and lightning strikes on several occasions. With each fire, it was put out in time and any damage was repaired. 

This mill continues to produce oil on a regular basis today.

Inside and at the top of a windmill

The volunteer went through and showed us the process to make the oil. It was definitely not kid-proof at all (I kept our baby in the stroller the whole time while Aaron held our toddler), but it was a really neat experience. There was also a ladder that we were able to climb to the top of the windmill!

The view from the top of the oil windmill

We also visited the weaving workshop where we learned about sail making and how people lived back then. The ladies there were so nice! They were able to get our toddler to smile (she was a little sad at the moment) and helped us get our double stroller inside.

The weaving workshop - learning how sails were made.

London sitting on a tiny Dutch bed

The clog workshop was fun to visit as well. There was a little museum with clogs of all occasions when we first walked in. Apparently, before a man proposed, he carved some very intricate designs onto some clogs and then gave them to the woman when he asked to marry her. There were also painted clogs, ice clogs, and even a pair of bejeweled clogs. We also got to watch a guy make a pair of clogs. He had a little machine that carved out the shoe and then he has to let the clogs dry for some time before they can be painted.

Clogs! The top right are engagement clogs, in the middle below is a machine making clogs, and the bottom right is a pair of sparkly clogs.

Once we finished up at Zaanse Schans, we drove to Volendam to get dinner at the port. We meant to go to the historic port, but ended up at the more modern day port. This ended up being a great thing though, because we had one of the best dinners ever at Smitbokkum. 

It was a beautiful restaurant with a beautiful view of the port. The food was amazing and everyone there was so nice to our girls. They even gave London a little chocolate and a magnet at the end of our visit!

We all got to try salted herring for the first time and we all really liked it. We also tried smoked salmon mousse (so, so good), Dutch shrimp, smoked sea bass, and regular smoked salmon. It was all fantastic. Our toddler ate a little of everything and liked it, our baby ate mostly bread and beets. :)

It was an outstanding end to our day and to our trip in general. We had a great time in the Netherlands with our kids!

Our view while we ate.

The Netherlands with Kids: Tulips and Ocean

Back in April, we traveled to the Netherlands with our kids. It was a short trip, just 2 days of exploring. We decided to drive, even though it ended up taking around 6 hours (we're from California though where just about anywhere out of state takes that long or longer). Also, the countryside in Europe is just beautiful (again, we're from Southern California- which is also beautiful, but nowhere near as green as Europe). We loved passing through Northern France and then Belgium and then into the Netherlands.

Our first full day in the Netherlands with our kids involved us going to Keukenhof Tulip Festival and then over to the ocean. We stayed in a tiny little house right next to the beach and about a 20 minute drive from the Tulip Festival. It had a fantastic playground that both our girls loved playing on right outside our house and also a little grocery store. It was exceptionally small though (Adeline had to sleep in the living room because neither of the bedrooms could fit a portable crib) and staying more than a few nights would have been a bit too claustrophobic for me.

I loved these trees!

Tulips
Keukenhof is one of the most famous tulip gardens in the Netherlands. They had more than 7 million bulbs in bloom this year! Keukenhof Castle was built in 1641. In 1949, it was decided that the gardens would be used to showcase spring flowers and by 1950, it had opened its gates to the public.

We had a great time wandering through the garden seeing all the flowers. Our girls loved looking and smelling all of them. None of us had ever seen so many different kinds of flowers before!

There were many family-friendly activities as well. Keukenhof had a petting zoo and a huge playground. Our girls enjoyed seeing the different animals and loved running around a bit on the playground.

There were small boat tours (with stroller parking nearby) that took people around the tulip fields. It was about 45 minutes long and came with an optional audio tour. We opted out of the audio tour, but I wish at least one of us would have done it. It would have been interesting to learn more about the festival and the flowers in general.

The fields were very pretty! While not all of the flowers were in bloom just yet, there still was plenty of colorful flowers to admire.

One thing we enjoyed while in the Netherlands with our kids was all the local food. We started by trying a couple new things in Keukenhof: warme beenham and stroopwafel. Warme beanham is basically a warm ham sandwich with really good mustard and a stroopwafel is a crunchy waffle with a caramel like syrup in the middle. Both were delicious!

Overall, the garden was a beautiful place to visit! Our girls took a nice long nap in the stroller in the afternoon and we enjoyed walking around the grounds.

One thing to keep in mind if you decide to visit the Netherlands with your kids is that Keukenhof is only open from mid March until about mid May. Make sure to check out their website for all the details.

When the children woke up from their naps, we headed back to our tiny house and made dutch pancakes for dinner (I love when we stay somewhere with a kitchen!). After dinner, we walked down to the local beach to see the ocean.

She was so happy to see the ocean too!

Ocean
I love the ocean! I grew up in Southern California, went to university in Hawaii, and after a couple of very cold years in Utah, ended up back in Southern California before we moved here to France. The ocean has always been my favorite place and it always makes me so happy to see it.

When planning our trip to the Netherlands with our kids, I realized that the place where we would be staying was walking distance to the beach! Our first day had such nice weather and so we ended our day with a walk down to the seashore.

It was so pretty and there were seashells everywhere! London was beyond excited and had a blast picking up shells and walking through the sand. Our baby girl loved it too. She was just starting to walk at the time and loved holding our hands while running around.

Our first day had been a success! Everyone had a great time seeing the tulips and the ocean and we were excited for our next day exploring windmills.

We found a fun sand castle while walking along the beach. Our toddler loved checking it out!