I was watching a travel show with Rudy Maxa. He mentioned a town 15 minutes from Amsterdam. I do not know how to spell it. It sounded like Zanticshan. It is where they make wooden shoes, cheese factory and windmills. Does anyone know of this city?

Its Zanse Schans. Very touristy. Haarlem is charming and authentic and only 15 minutes by train from A'dam.

Zanse Schans is touristy but it's still fun, esp. if you have kids. A better place to go for 'folk' atmostphere is the outdoor museum "Zuiderzee" at Enkhuizen. Take the train to Enkhuizen, go into the tourist office just beyond the train station to buy the museum tickets, board the ferry that takes you to the museum entrance and start exploring. Easily done in a short day.
http://www.zuiderzeemuseum.nl/english.aspx

There is no better place in the world to visit windmills than Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About 60 miles south of Amsterdam, if using trains just train/ subway to Rotterdam Zuidplein, bus to Kinderdijk. The site is free, with tour of windmills, and boat rides along the beautiful canals lined with 17th Century windmills.

When I can peel away time from Amsterdam I am going to the national park with a museum in the midst.

Vhttp://www.hogeveluwe.nl/default.asp?language=2

This information is being added to my October trip file.

Thank you.

Byrd

Zanse Schans, Vollendam, etc in my humble opinion are tourist traps. Once you're there you'll notice that they feel artificial and the only Dutch people that are there are the vendors. That said many tourists enjoy seeing the show on how the wooden shoes are made or have their pictures taken with traditional Dutch costumes. Most self respecting Dutch don't go there at all. IMHO your time would be better spent in Haarlem, Delft, Gouda, Utrecht, and other real towns. If you must see windmills, Kinderdijk is the best place with the best setting. There is one windmill in Delft but the surrounding is urbanized.

We went to Harlaam for a day trip. Only about a 20 minute trip by train out of Amsterdam. My main reason for going was to visit the Corrie Tin Boon House which there is only 1 tour a day in the morning. There is an old church in the center of town that is very interesting. The Franz Hal Museum is there which we did not visit. For lunch we went to a department store which has a buffet type lunch that is good. From the top of this store you get a look over the whole town.
I enjoyed this trip very much.
We had thought about the Zanse Schans for a trip,but from the description I think Harlaam is a real Dutch experience. We found the people there very friendly and helpful.

I have copied and pasted this thread for my Spring trip to Amsterdam.

<b>maryanne1</b>
Can you remember the name of that department store?

Thanks!

Not sure of the name of that department store. A lady working at the church(near McDonalds) entrance suggested this to us. It is several blocks beyond the church. Such a variety of food to choose from.
Just wish we had had time to do more day trips. Having never been to Amsterdam which is a delight, we wanted to see everything there we could see and did Haarlem on our last day.

bookmarking

I day tripped to Hoge Veluwe recently from Amsterdam - a wonderful day trip if you love outdoor statue parks and Van Gogh and his ilk.

Train to Ede (? exact name) and then take buses from the station into the Hoge Veluwe National Park to the famous Van Gogh dominated museum, which apparently may have the world's most Van Gogh paintings and drawings (or 2nd to Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum) - lush park with trails going by many great statues, including some majorly famous ones. I then took bus from there to Arnhem to return to Amsterdam a different route.

Only disappointment was my National Museum pass was not good at Hoge Veluwe Museum.

Also in the park, at the entrance you can ride free bikes into the park and to the museum and back. Park is remnants of sand dunes with lots of trees, etc - for Holland a very unique wild look.

Thanks!

I've eaten in that Haarlem department store - it's right on the main pedestrian shopping street - guess at name De Biljenkort (?) - large Dutch chain whose name i should know how to spell a bit better - same as the one in Amsterdam on Dam Square's northeast side. Each of these department stores in various cities seems to have a nice high up cafe, including another Amsterdam one near Spui.

Bookmarking

It's called Bijenkorf which means beehive.

<b>Voil&agrave;</b> \/

Many thanks!

The Zaanse Schans is not a city. It is an outdoor museum of relocated Dutch artifacts. ZS includes a wooden shoe factory, several windmills, and other items. You can climb around in at least one of the windmills year round. For those looking down their stuffed snout at this as a &quot;tourist trap&quot; sorry for your high uppins. It is a very interesting place. I have been there several times.

The Bijenkorf is in Amsterdam. It is a fantastic department store but I prefer the BHV in Paris. The department store in Haarlem with the cafeteria on the top floor is the V+D. V+D is a chain in Holland. This is more or less the Sears + Pennys of Holland. The V+D also has a bookstore on the top level. Their Amsterdam store is on the Kalverstraat near the Mint Tower.

Rudy Maxa makes great videos. He is a happy guy. I have not seen him on TV in a long time. Where did you see this episode?

Another place where I like to have lunch in Haarlem is the Caf&eacute; Restaurant Brinkman on the Grote Markt. It has good food, prices, and location but suffers from the typical lousy Dutch &quot;service.&quot;

I saw Rudy Maxa about a month ago on PBS.

I grew up hearing great travel stories about Zaanse Schans, Vollendam,&amp; Monikendam but none of my relatives who live in Holland would ever take me there. I was surprised that most locals don't know much about these famous/infamous places. Out of curiousity, we chose to rent a car to see those touristy havens and were thoroughly disappointed. So perhaps my perception was colored &amp; Hopscotch may be right about how wonderful these places can be to unsuspecting tourists with no previous expectations.

One city that's fun to visit is Utrecht. It is a lively student town with a very narrow canal where students gather to have fun. Both sides of the canal are filled with restaurants &amp; bars. The entire place becomes lively as small boats float by you over &amp; over carrying happy students singing, drinking or just having plain fun. It's like watching people on floating stages.

Hopscotch is right, there is no Bijenkorf in Haarlem even though they have one in every major cities. Here's a collection of Haarlem pictures I found including some taken from the top of V&amp;D: http://ourworld.cs.com/MulderenMulde.../personal.html. Hopefully it'll give you a realistic expectation.