Today we took a coach tour to Edam, Volendam and Zaanse Schans.  Our tour guide had verbal diarrhoea!  We were sitting the front row of the bus and if he wasn’t talking through the microphone, he was talking to the driver, who judging by the look on the driver’s face (through the mirror) was saying PLEASE BELT UP!

Our first stop was Edam – the town that is known for Edam Cheese.  We walked around the town – a typical old style Dutch town.  We then went to a cheese making demonstration and tasting. There were cheeses of all kinds – from sheep’s milk to garlic cheese, from whiskey cheese to pesto cheese – you name it, it was there for tasting.  Some were delicious and some were not!  I think that the worst one was the whiskey cheese – which I would like to add William, the whiskey drinker, also thought was awful!

From there we travelled to Volendam – known for fish.  The town is about 30 m below sea level so a huge dyke surrounds the coastal side of the town.  Houses that were built before the dyke was built have now extended up so that they have a view over the dyke, and others have been built on the dyke.  It was freezing cold again, and there on the pier at Volendam were a bride and groom, having photos taken.  The bride must have been freezing in her strappy dress!  I had some local seafood for lunch – William had Dutch Pancakes – which are like our flapjacks.  The seafood was lovely – crab, fish, squid and shrimps.  SA calamari (squid) is much nicer, in my opinion!  We enjoyed walking along the dyke in our free time looking at the different house structures etc.

Our last stop of our tour was at Zaanse Schans – a windmill town which has been preserved to look like it apparently did 500 years ago.  When our bus parked there were 20 other busses there, and heaps of cars as well, so it was very crowded.  We went to a clog making demonstration which was very interesting.  The guy made a clog while we were watching with machinery which is similar to key cutting machinery – ie it copies the master piece.  Very interesting,  The guy then blew into the clog and water sprayed out – illustrating how much water there was in the wood.  The clog now has to dry before being finished.   Clogs are still worn when working on the land, as they are practical with the land being so wet.  Apparently they are comfortable.  The shop sold clogs of all sorts – very interesting.  William and I walked to the windmills – unfortunately there is only one that you can enter – at a price with a long queue – so seeing as we had been into a windmill yesterday at Keukenhof, we decided to give it a skip.  It was interesting to see this little village but would have been better with fewer people around.  Our coach, with our verbal diarrhoea guide, then brought us back to Amsterdam

I know that I can talk, but this guide exhausted even me!

We are both over this freezing weather – even the locals are complaining about it!

We had some supper and are climbing into bed.

Tomorrow is our last day here – we fly out at 21.30. 

We have had a wonderful trip in Europe – I will probably type the last blog tomorrow night at the airport.