Dutch Icons

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Determined to see some of these windmills up close, we looked up the best spot to go and found Zaanse Schans which is a tourist place on the Zaan River. There were about as many tour buses there as cars but they only stop for a short time so before long the crowds cleared. The whole area has been restored and maintained for tourism and there is a small village together with a few of the old windmills dotted along the river. We spent the morning wandering past the mills which are turned and controlled manually. There is a spice grinder, dye maker, sawmill and a couple of others all still operating in the mills and although I think it might just be for demonstration these days, the dye maker is still a real business making old style dyes for the textile industry. After lunch we let Em run around the village, through the hedges and over the little canal bridges before heading back to the city.

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