Today Dave, Steve and I decided that we were going to head out to the windmills. I am so excited.

I should have done some planning before we embarked on our crusade to find windmills. But hey, we were up for an adventure.

“Now look your grace,” said Sancho, “what you see over there aren’t giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone.” “Obviously,” replied Don Quixote, “you don’t know much about adventures.”

I had an idea where they were and so we paid EUR6.20 each for a ticket from Amsterdam to Zaandam. It turns out that Zaandam is a really lovely town. But what it doesn’t have is – you guessed it – windmills. Having said that I really liked Zaandam, so maybe not checking was actually a bonus.

Zaandam is a 14 minute train trip from Amsterdam on a sprinter. There are two types of trains the sprinters and the intercities. The sprinters are you guessed it for shorter trips and the intercities for longer ones.

Zaandam was once called Saenredam and is on the Zaan river. There are about 76,800 people living here. The artist Claude Monet lived here in 1871 and during that time completed 25 paintings,

Unfortunately the weather isn’t on our side today. There is a bit of drizzly rain while we are in Zaandam. I can imagine it is a really picturesque place, and really importantly the tourist information team are excellent!

Another train and we are on our way from Zaandam to Zaanse Schans for EUR5.20 – for a lover of windmills still an exceptional price. Of course, it would have been cheaper if we’d paid for a fare from Amsterdam. But we are on holidays and we are going to see windmills, so it doesn’t matter.

Zaanse Schans is a windmill village on the Zaan River. Unfortunately, as the train pulled into the station, it started to rain heavily. The amount of water coming from the skies felt a little over the top. It seemed as though it was about the same as the amount flowing in the Zaan. Yes, I am exaggerating a bit. This didn’t deter us. We had windmills to see and there was wind. Glorious wind.

This is windmill country, and they are beautiful. I completely understood why Don Quixote referred to them as giants. More than 1200 mills have stood in the Zaan region over time. The number peaked at 600 mills around the year 1700. One of the current windmills dates back to 1786.

Even though the weather was miserable – it was a big tick off the bucket list. This is a place that would be fantastic to walk around. As you can see in the photo above, there are a number lined up that you can explore. There are also craft stores and museums and cafes to visit. I was a little surprised by the cost to get into some of the windmills and museums. We didn’t go into any of them so I can’t comment on the value. Perhaps you can purchase family tickets, or of course they are wonderful when you go inside.

We decided to have a late lunch before heading back to Amsterdam. We stopped in at an exceptional bakery in Zaanse Schans called Wija. It was so delicious. Check these out, so so yummy with great service! This place is a real winner.

Our windmill adventure was so very special, and I am so pleased we decided to do this. Yet another highlight of the trip, even though the weather wasn’t on our side.

Off to our next adventure a date with Vincent Van Gogh.