TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

And I know there will be a 4th, 5th, 6th and MORE time! The 4th visit is closing in already because an old girl friend is coming to town on a whirlwind European tour at the end of the month. I think I will bring her here. She wants to see some windmills, wooden shoes and lots of cheese. The Zaanse Schans village is open to the public throughout the year. There is no entrance fee, however, some of the attractions may charge an admission fee. Zaanse Schans is one of the best preserved traditional Dutch villages showcasing Dutch history and time-honoured architecture including a large concentration of old windmills. It is an open-air museum village where real people still live. I was here early September this year with my cousin, Dr. Balin who was visiting as well. She was in Italy for work and managed to fly to the Netherlands to spend a long weekend with me. I dined with her in Utrecht , toured Amsterdam , had pancakes in the Dutch countryside , visited the most be...

I’m not yet done working on my Las Vegas fotos and I still have 3 entries to post—Mount Charleston, Las Vegas Hotels on the Strip and my American observations. However, since spring is coming—I hear birds chirping early in the morning already, I am in a way rushed to post my last month’s Dutch adventure in Zaanse Schans. The fotos are in winterish mode so I don’t really want to blog this in spring because there are better stories to talk about like my upcoming trip to Bella Italia this Easter (oh, exciting!). So last February my visiting friends gave me a task. They want to see Amsterdam, obviously, and some windmills and a castle. Easy! Muiderslot Castle is less than half an hour drive from Amsterdam and so is Zaanse Schans, the best place to sight windmills when visiting the capital. There is another popular place for sighting windmills: Kinderdijk near Rotterdam, a UNESCO world heritage site but it’s a far drive down to South Holland. Zaanse Schans is probably the most visited villa...