Amsterdam: Windmills and Countryside..

I reached Amsterdam on a Saturday morning.. I got out of the train and entered the tide of people flowing out of the station. Plan was to roam around a little and then find my hostel. As in most European cities, it was easy to get a guide map of the city. It showed I was in the Centrum, the city center. I started walking around. The map showed the Nationaal Monument nearby. On the way i crossed a big market.. Then i reached the monument made in memory of the war heroes especially those killed in World War II. Opposite to the monument was the Royal Palace.. I walked around the monument and into the labyrinth of small streets behind it. Soon i realized that i had entered De Wallen, the Right Light District. It was lined with large window one room apartments which are filled with girls at night.. In the middle of De Wallen was De Oude Kerk, a 13th century church. All around the Centrum are canal going under small bridges which had the occasional boat passing by. Along the canal was a mixture of beautifully architect-ed buildings and kinky bars.. Walking along the canal further I reached the Begijnhof. This was a medieval courtyard that was once home to a devout Catholic sisterhood, and a 17th century chapel. The entrance had nice sculptures.. Another courtyard.. As i came back to the main road, some colorful walls.. It was almost sun down and I walked towards my hostel and checked in. Having walked the whole day, I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed..

Next morning i had booked a tour to the Dutch countryside. This was called the Windmills & Countryside tour. We travelled by a double decker bus. As i walked towards the bus, I got this feeling that something was not right. I was missing something. As soon as I boarded the bus it dawned on me. I had forgotten to charge the camera batteries!! I was going for a full day of sightseeing without a camera!! How much I cursed myself. Thankfully I was carrying the charger with me. There was some time for the bus to leave, so I requested the person at the tour guide's office to put it on charging. It charged for 20minutes and then we were on our way. Atleast I had some charge in the battery now.. The first destination was Marken, a traditional fishing village which had been preserved this way as a tourist attraction. It had lovely old wooden houses.. And canals in between these.. Posing on the bridges.. The camera started flashing "low battery". Next on the tour was a clog making factory. Others were looking at clogs, me for a charging point. The lady behind the counter helped. They were demonstrating how clogs were made from a big piece of wood but my eyes were mostly on the light of the charger. As the tour moved on I took my camera back and quickly clicked some photos.. The Dutch wooden clogs.. Seemed really uncomfortable.. Let me try them on.. The greenery and the canals.. Next we went to this fishing town called Volendam. Here stopped for lunch. I wasn't very hungry so I took a walk along the harbour.. Solitude.. The sky had been clouded the whole day. It started getting really dark. Soon it started raining and I ran into a cafe. It was also the time to charge the camera. I got half an hour of charging and this gave me enough battery to last the rest of the trip. Soon the rain stopped and we back on the bus and left for our next destination.
Next we went to Zaanse Schans to see the famous windmills of Holland. It also had barns, shops, houses and museums built in the traditional Dutch architecture with canals flowing in between. By the time we reached, the sky had cleared and sun was out.. cafe.. The whole country of Holland is at sea level. So a little rise in sea level can cause severe floods. You realize how big a danger this can be when you are driving on a road next to the sea and you see that the only thing separating the water and you is a big bank of sand. Infact at some places, the level of water on the other side was higher than the land. The need to pump out the water to make the land habitable, led the Dutch to invent wind mills. Later these were also used in agriculture and industries. According to the guide, the discovery of windmills was a major reason for the Dutch superiority in early times.
The windmills at Zaanse Scans.. Next we went to a cheese factory where a lady in traditional Dutch attire and thick accent explained how cheese is made. This place is just 20minutes drive from Edam, the home of the famous cheese by the same name. This factory also made Edam cheese. It was packed in bright yellow packets of wax. There was also a shop adjoining the factory where one could buy the cheese and other Dutch products.. The ubiquitous windmill souvenirs.. more windmills.. Excuse me sir.. The beautiful countryside.. Other sights around.. After roaming around a little more, we returned to the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam. But there were still 4-5 hours left for my train. As part of my tour ticket, I got a free Amsterdam City Tour. I decided to try that. I hopped on to the City Tour bus. This runs on a fixed route. For most of the monuments they just point out from the bus. Basilica of St. Nicholas.. closer view of the sculptures.. The station.. No idea why this is for.. Fancy architecture.. It was quite boring roaming around the city in the bus. Then we entered a factory. I wondered what this was. The guide announced that this was a diamond factory and we would be seeing how diamonds were cut. This sounded interesting.
The diamond cutting demo.. The stages of cutting a diamond.. Got to see some really big stones.. But then the intention of the factory visit was clear. After a half an hour tour, we were told we would be getting refreshment at the cafeteria which was actually a jewellery shop with a coffee machine. And we had to sit almost an hour there where the person kept asking us to look at the collections. Then we left from the factory, roamed around a bit. It was almost time for my train, so I got off near the station. and boarded the train..