Zaanse Schans

This mill grinds stone into pigment and still produces powder sold to painters. Step inside and the smell of colour beats the smell of timber.

Heavy stone wheels crush seed to press the oil out of it. The lower floor shakes hard enough that a hand on the boards picks up the tremor.

A log goes into the machine and one clog comes out in five minutes. Fresh from the cutter it is still wet, and weeks of drying pass before it can be worn.

Through a wide window you watch curd being pressed into moulds. Several tasting plates stand out on the counter and nothing is charged for them.

Tools from the milling and paper trades of this district are gathered under one roof. A separate section covers the chocolate works, with one room that recreates the smell.

Cross to the opposite dyke and all eight mills fall into one line. Few people walk it, so other visitors rarely end up in the frame.

Molten pewter is poured into moulds for cups and figures while you stand in front of it. Setting takes only minutes, so the whole process finishes in one go.

The first shop of the country's largest supermarket chain has been restored to how it looked then. Scales and paper bags are kept in use, and prices are written out by hand.

A small boat is hauled across the narrow water by rope in the old manner. With no ferryman about, you pull the boat over from the far side yourself.

A board explains the rules by which the angle of a stopped sail once carried news. Joy and grief are marked by setting the blades opposite ways.

A small museum of Dutch-made tower clocks, wall clocks and longcase clocks in order of date. There are clocks built on the pendulum design Huygens first fitted to a clock. On the hour the room's clocks strike one after another.

This museum is an old bakery moved here whole, with free entry. The oven, dough troughs and tins sit as they were. The counter sells duivekater, the local festival loaf, baked on site.

A sawmill whose saws were driven by wind to cut logs into planks. It is a paltrok type, the whole body turning into the wind, so its base spreads like a skirt. On days with the right wind the saws really cut timber.

A mill grinding mustard seed and spices; the village's mustard comes from here. The shop downstairs lets you taste freshly ground mustard and buy it by the jar. Open the door and the sharp smell hits first.

A small timber house in Zaandam where Russia's Peter the Great stayed in 1697 to learn shipbuilding. A brick building was put up over the whole house to protect it. It is one train stop from Zaanse Schans.

A hotel by Zaandam station whose facade looks like dozens of the local green timber houses piled up. Tucked among them is one blue house, after a painting by Monet. Passengers walking out of the station face it head-on, and many stop for a photo.