When in Amsterdam, it becomes your moral imperative to see the windmills. Yes, and very much as a touristy item for your agenda, but the reality is, it's something that you just don't want to miss. If you're going to spend day, this is the place to do it at !
Zaans Gedaan is spread out over numerous acres and overlooks the water. It truly is breathtaking, and as an American, it was nice to have that experience in what feels like it's a little bit country, and it's a little bit rock 'n' roll roll...
There are numerous shops throughout the area, all clustered together like a small little town. Each one specializing in something different than the previous one.
There's ice cream shop, a hot chocolate shop, a cheese shop and so much more.
I will say one of the things that I love about Europe is that the quality of food is amazing. I love that. They use far less sugar in their sweet items. As a girl with a huge sweet tooth, it's a big deal.
We both loved the hot chocolate shop. There's an entire process for making it where you do it yourself and it's rather cool. The hot chocolate shop also sells ice cream so you really can't go wrong. You jump in line for your hot chocolate and there's one size cup And different containers telling you exactly how much of each ingredient to put in your cup. It's essentially a hot cocoa mix and some other fun things and then by the time you get to the end, they will add the hot milk and voilà, you have hot chocolate. it wasn't sweet enough for me, but it definitely was flavorful.
The shop also has an entire line of flavored peanut butter. And if you ask, they absolutely will share samples of each of the flavors. The honey peanut butter was divine. Yes, you know that I bought peanut butter. I can't wait to bring it home and share it.
I found that the people in the shops were all super sweet, and the tourist that ended up chatting with me, it felt like family. We made friends along the way, and we hope to spend time with them in the future.
And if you're wondering... Yes, I also purchased the obligatory clogs because why not?! read more