Cheese and Fish?

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Today we went to find some of the iconic Dutch windmills but the GPS told us "Destination in permit area"... hmmm. Instead we continued north to Volendam which is a small-ish fishing town on a large bay (that they call a lake) off the North Sea. It also happens to be the name of the cruise ship we went on last year. We found the local tourist office and dashed in through the steady drizzle. Finding a few cheese-makers around, we thought that might be a good use of the day instead so we picked one and set off. There was a small clog making workshop which was very quiet - I think they only demonstrate for the tour buses - and a cheese shop. We tried about 15 cheeses and ended up buying one - a green one with pesto in it. Em wasn't too thrilled with the aged cheeses as they were a bit sharp but she liked the young goat cheese. Then we went back to Volendam for lunch.

The parking on the GPS was through a maze of one way streets which just happened to be right along the waterfront and filled with tourists. The restaurants also put their tables in the road just to make it more interesting... we weren't sure that we were meant to be driving through but just crawled along until we came out the other end! We went back and parked elsewhere before returning to the waterfront on foot instead. The drizzle was still hanging around but we found another cheese shop and bought a smoked cheese too before deciding to find some lunch. Em wanted "caramarli" (calamari) so we ducked into a pub and had fish and chips overlooking the harbour. As it turns out, this is not just a normal road but it RUNS 2 WAYS!! The big tour buses come right through too so good luck coming the other way...

All of a sudden the rain cleared and the afternoon sun came out making it a beautiful afternoon for wandering around this lovely town.

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