Zaanse Schans _ A traditional Dutch Beauty

• Zaanse Schans - A Dutch beauty

If it is said that Spain is the country of the bull fighting and Lively Flamenco dance  ,I would say Netherlands is famous for the windmills.
I have to say the truth is that although I have been in Spain for almost 10 months, I still have not genuinely received or experienced the Flamenco dance  and visiting any bullfighting..

• Stereotype thoughts of culture around the world

The truth is that the things that are famous in the world, for example, If you want to experience Spanish guitar, flamenco and bullfighting, you must go to Seville, the capital of southern Spain, the life of the Flamenco dance and bullfighting to enjoy the symbolic culture of bullfighting country.

That is exactly what in the experiences of cultural travel experience I realized that sometimes the way we imagine or the stereotypical stereotype that exists most commonly is in culture.

• Paris is not romantic as we think

For example, mention Paris you think of flashy, formal or romantic. Yet it was the French friends who told me that France has more wonderful beauty than country of love. They also said that Paris itself is not really romantic and luxurious as people think.

• Vietnam is no longer war, death and poor country

Thoughtful thinking exists as an example of how foreigners look at our Vietnam: they mean a war-country, a country of hunger and backwardness.

Things change, social change is always changing. That is why one thing may have been true but changed or changed since time.

• Things always change as well as culture 

Of course, good values, interesting traditions that hold the potential of cultural and tourist preservation should be preserved for the next generation to have a look, define it, and let the next generation spread. Experiment and inherit the good, the core values.

Opened a bit long, I had the opportunity to experience the beauty of the Dutch culture, the country once thousands of windmills. That is why I visit the village of Zaanse Schans - a symbol of traditional Dutch cultural values.

• General information of Zaanse Schans

The Zaanse Schans village is an open museum of ancient wooden houses and ancient windmills, all preserved and preserved in a traditional way that the people of the Zaan River . This is 300 to 400 years ago.

It is said that in the 1960s, the people of the Zaan River struggled with the authorities to preserve ancient ruins that were going to be destroyed before the city's plans to build the city. As a result, dozens of old houses in the Zaan River were moved to the Zaanse Schans village for conservation.

Following this, a museum was built where in the 16th century local residents and soldiers built a moat to stop the enemy.

In particular, the museum is an open-air museum featuring old-fashioned houses and windmills, all painted in green, in addition to traditional activities to preserve them. And show visitors the historical sites of the Zaan River with exhibits related to the life, activities and industrialization of the Netherlands.

From the very beginning when planning to visit the Netherlands, I learned and wished to visit the windmills so I knew Zaanse Schans point, which is quite near Amsterdam for the convenience of transportation. I wrote a post about how to move to Zaanse Schans, you can read.

• The first place I visited in Holland was the village of Zaanse Schans.

On that day, after hastily making a bowl of shrimp noodles with German sausage I walked to the bus station 300 meters away from the Airbnb. From distance I saw the bus and ran the playground and waved to get on the bus.

(This is still happening, because I use google map directions, so it always shows the nearest public transport options, close to the clock and calculate the full time travel. The average on the road, but not counted for example when climbing, or waiting for the red lights to cross the road, so I often have to run very close.)

• From the bus I looked at the life and homes of the Dutch.

As a country below sea level, the Dutch had to build many canal and drainage canals, and they built houses, tiny houses along the canals.
Walking from the bus stop to the Zaan area, I was overwhelmed by the serene beauty of the high windmills. That's what I'm still imagining about the Netherlands.

The landscape of immense fields with a dense network of canals in the Netherlands is quite similar to the lowland areas of Vietnam, however magnificent windmills look far from the beauty of them. .

Walking more than 100 meters, my eyes opened the Zaans Schans village, entertaining countless tourists, but that did not matter as much as everything from traditional boutiques to souvenir shops. The waiters are dressed in traditional style. Cultural activities of Dutch culture are reproduced here.
Oh, that's great !!!

Just entering the village gate, I met two Dutch girls (a Dutch girl is a well-known brand name in Vietnam) wearing traditional costumes, wooden shoes, long black dress and hat. Rim Later, they learned that volunteers came here to volunteer to restore traditional culture in Zaans Schans. (She's right on the Americans and left younger than the Dutch)

Then I went on and off to a traditional cheese making factory.

Each stage of traditional cheese is reproduced so that visitors can admire and experience.

• The job of the cheese maker is to convert the milk into cheese. Milk can be obtained from a cow, goat, sheep or buffalo, although throughout the world, cow's milk is most commonly used. Chefs perform manual manipulations and practical skills to produce a product with specific characteristics and sensory requirements (coagulation, aroma, flavor, texture of food such as consistency. , Comparability ...) fit.
• Manually processing cheeses, cheese makers are individuals who tend to operate on a much smaller scale and sell "hand-made" products, each batch may vary, the quality of the goods Different products, the previous batch may differ from the following batch but their customers expect the same as with wine and teas and most natural products.
• To make the cheese, the cheesemakers bring fresh milk (sterilized or not) into the cheese container and keep the temperature necessary to promote the growth of lactose-eating bacteria and thereby ferment lactose. Lactic acid These bacteria in the milk can be natural, then freeze or freeze. After the cheese curd is ready, the cheese milk must be consumed.

Chefs also need to be highly skilled in evaluating, grading cheese ratings to assess quality, hidden defects and relevance for release from mature stores for sale.

Even they kept a milk cart from the old days here !!!
Take another piece out of the cheese workshop as I approach the embankment.
Ah, Dutch soil is lower than sea water, so the Dutch soon built many dams and dikes to get land for production. Windmills built along the river bank, located on the dyke always, to facilitate the movement of goods. 

• De Huisman (the home owner) – a windmill used to grind mustard seeds
• De Gekroonde Poelenburg (Crowned Poelen Castle) – a windmill used to saw wood
• De Kat (the cat) – a windmill used to grind the elements used in manufacturing paint.
• De Zoeker (the seeker) – a windmill used to press oil out of seeds.
• De Bonte Hen (the speckled hen) – another oil windmill, and
• Het Jonge Schaap (the young sheep) – another wood-sawing windmill.

• De Ket Windmill 

Admission to each individual windmill is around €4.50. Each windmill at Zaanse Schans set its own opening hours and opening days.

I visited a windmill, windmill De Kat (The Cat) is the only windmill left in the Netherlands to paint, ie windmill uses wind energy to crush chalk instead of To grind flour or cereals, chalk after grinding will be used to create traditional paint colors. Things that are still used to paint beautiful ceilings in large churches in Europe

It was rather surprising for me to think that the windmill was only used for water and wheat flour, who thought the windmills in the Netherlands were industrial windmills, the new industrial for painting, making oil and  wood sawing

The Dutch windmill crane, the wind is quite strong, but the windmill is made of wood so vibrate, vibrate and shake. V
  

• Enjoying the natural beauty

Then I went along the river specializing in the beauty of the windmill, even taking the time to take pictures of beautiful nature.
For example, I spent nearly 15 minutes to take pictures of ducks, the ducks live innocently innocent not afraid of people at all.

You see the windmill without the other, building a windmill took a lot of effort, it iss also a large investment with farmers at that time. Each average windmill takes two to three years to build. The windmill does not have the other end, however, but the windmill is unfortunate to have built the final phase of the windmill industry. When people have invented machines, steam engines, they just leave and do not complete the windmill anymore. A decline of the wind-based industry began at that time.
Then I boarded the ship and headed for the other side of the river to explore the village of Zaanse Schans, whose people live there.

• Old Dutch houses, small boat-shaped buildings, facing the river.

During my walk along the Lagedijk, a street boasting quite a few listed buildings, various architecturial details will be pointed out. Below I would like to show you some destinations to visit in Zaandijk.

• Number 214, Anno 1626. The oldest wooden cottage of Zaandijk. A former bakery and now it is used as a studio, I have found out about the history of the property there.
• Number 146, built in 1832, It is constructed with an imposing flight of steps  and doors with so-called diamond head panels. Here begins a part of Zaandijk called Gortershoek ( Hulling or Pearrling Mill Corner), after a hulling or pearlingmill that was situated here in the 17th century.
• Number 134, a former cocoa and chocolate factory, now it is longer a factory, but in the past, this chocolate factory is very famous in this reason.
• Number 132, a large house which is painted in green color, built a long time ago and one of the first wooden houses boasting a second floor.
• Number 122, dating back to the first half of 18th century. I can see on the top of the façade in the shape of a vase in French style. It is from me very remarkable too, is the portico with two ironic pillars, embellished with scrolls and flowers.
• Number 114, this building is fearing a richly decorated flower vase ornament. By the way, the construction and decoration of Holland people here are very impressive
• Number 104, this is one of the most important building in this village, Zaandijk’s former town hall, with a richly decorated council chamber. I really wanted to go inside but that day, it is not open to visitors.
• However, the outside surrounding the building is worth more than a glance, too. It is evidenced  for instance by the doors with their Ionic pilasters. 
• I have a question:  Can you guess what they are made of and feel the texture.

If you think it is sandstone, you are wrong.

I have red there, when painting the wood, people here have added silver sand or argentiferous sand. In the transom windows, there are creatures symbolizing watchfulness and vigilance.

Across the street are the Beeldentuin ( Statue Garden ),  I have see  a lot of sculptures there.

• I love Holland ways of life

The interesting thing is that the sculptures there represented Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night also and the Weefhuis ( Weavers’ house)

What I like most about the Dutch people is that they love to grow flowers, there are tiny blooms of flowers in their small garden. They also have small tables and chairs, so many people like to sit outside the garden and enjoy the small space in front of the house. =)))

Someone even has a dwarf demon here. : V: v

Say I go into a windmill and find out the real truth, there were 10 000 windmills of all kinds at Zaanse Schans, for making wheat, for oil, for painting and many other things. Like sawn timber and so on.
This area of Zaanse Schans has made a fortune for the wealthy because of the work of windmills, to the new industrial age, the era of steam-powered machinery, and the need for more people. Energy from nature too.

• The fall of windmill industry

And since then the windmill industry has been slowly dying out, and people are gradually shedding away, as well as having no money to repair and maintain the mills anymore.

It was not until the local government had a project to destroy the last of these windmills, local people with a passion for the traditional windmill industry, as well as a desire to conserve value. Traditional Dutch people, they have stood up asking for a solution.

And the Zaanse Schans windmill village was born as a symbol of the Dutch traditional culture, thanks to the big amount of tourists visiting the Zaanse Shans that preserved traditional crafts and cultural activities for the Dutch people.

- Zaanse Schans - A Dutch beauty.

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