Day 15

Mayra, our tour guide, originally from Ecuador, can speak 5 different languages, but mainly used English. We also met Sam, our driver, who, I think, comes from Turkey.  We started our tour going to the clogs and cheese factory, just out of Amsterdam, where we got to see how clogs and cheese are made.  The man demonstrated how clogs are made, which only took about 5 minutes, for the general shape, and then another guy showed us how they make cheese,  the traditional way, which can take around 5 days.  We were then able to sample different cheeses, including a Heineken one, which tasted very sweet and weird.  We were tempted to buy a Garlic and Herb one, but it would have meant carrying it in our bags for the next few weeks.

We were then taken to a restaurant called 'Dutch Pancake Masters' for lunch, which served dessert first before the main meal.  Dessert was  ice cream in a small cone with a chocolate pastry, and the main was large bacon pancake (not crepe) with salad 🤢and an egg. The pancake was so filling I couldn't finish it.

After lunch we were taken on a canal cruise around Amsterdam for an hour.  We learned lots of interesting things and saw some cool building, including Anne Frank's house.

We had booked the optional tour, which went to the windmills at Zaanse Schans, some of which have been there since at least 1672.

We were then taken to Volendam, a quaint (mum's word) little fishing village, where we got to spend a little free time looking around before catching a ferry to Marken.

We had to preorder our dinner, from a limited menu.  We had Tomato soup, made with real tomatoes, chicken and chips and a salad, followed by a small Chocolate Sundae.  I had two as Sotiri, a Greek/American guy who has latched on to us, didn't want his.

After dinner we had a little more free time to explore this little fishing village before catching the bus home.  Marken used to be an island but they have built a causeway to it now.  We stopped in the main centre of Amsterdam, at around 9pm, to pick up the ones who didn't go on the optional tour and headed back to our hotel for the night.