Countryside of Holland
April 17th 2003 Our first stop is Zaanse Schans. The area was named 'De Zaanse Schans' after a trench was built in 1574 to hold back Spanish troops during the eighty year war between the Netherlands and Spain.
Zaanse Schans was built up on dikes. The dikes were probably built as early as the thirteenth century, the first villages were built along these at a later date. Until late in the last century these wer
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