Jul 21, 2026
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Zaanse Schans Without the Crowds
Discover working windmills, hidden craft workshops, and insider tips for visiting this iconic Dutch heritage site in 2026.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
Amsterdam in April has a particular kind of quiet. The tulips are out in the park. The café terraces are full by ten. Somewhere in the Jordaan a church bell is telling the hour, and a barge is gliding past, and a child is learning to cycle without training wheels. This is the version of the Netherlands you came for.
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Photo: Shutterstock
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In today’s email:
- Zaanse Schans: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026)
- At The Café — Café Olivier — The Church That Became Utrecht’s Favourite Bar
- Around The Web — Breda, Netherlands: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026), Tracing Your Family in Gelderland: A Heritage Travel Plan, Tracing Your Family in North Holland: A Heritage Travel Plan + more
- From Love Netherlands — Tracing Your Family in North Brabant: A Heritage Travel Plan
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Pannenkoeken — The Dutch Pancake That Eats Like a Meal
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Zaanse Schans: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026)
👉 Read the full story
Zaanse Schans sits fifteen minutes from Amsterdam by train, yet it feels worlds apart — a living Dutch village where working windmills turn against open skies, green wooden houses line quiet canals, and craftspeople still make cheese, clogs, and pewter by hand. If you want to understand what the Netherlands looked like three centuries ago, this is where you come. Love the Netherlands? Join our free newsletter for hidden Dutch gems → inlovewithnetherlands.com/subscribe This guide covers everything you need to plan a great visit — how to get there, what to see, when to go, how much it costs, and the tips that make the difference between a rushed selfie stop and a genuinely memorable morning. What Is Zaanse Schans? Zaanse Schans is an open-air museum village on the banks of the river Zaan, in the municipality of Zaanstad, North Holland. The name translates roughly as “the Zaan fortress,” a…
👉 Read the full story
Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.
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At The Café
Café Olivier — The Church That Became Utrecht’s Favourite Bar
Café Olivier in Utrecht is a working Belgian bar inside a deconsecrated 19th-century church. The pulpit is still there. The stained glass is still there. The pews have been replaced with long wooden tables where students, workers, and retired professors all somehow end up sharing a Trappist beer. It’s the kind of place that makes you understand why the Dutch are so comfortable with the quiet strangeness of their country — nothing here is trying to impress you, but everything is worth looking at twice.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
Your grandfather talked about the village back home. He said the family name came from somewhere in the south — a place called Brabant. He described clay soil, church bells, and long rows of farmland stretching to a flat horizon. North Brabant is the Catholic heart of the Netherlands. It sits in the south of the country, bordering Belgium. For centuries, it was different from the Protestant north. The people were farmers, weavers, and craftsmen.…
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Pannenkoeken — The Dutch Pancake That Eats Like a Meal
A Dutch pannenkoek is the size of a dinner plate, thinner than an American pancake but thicker than a French crêpe, and it’s served as a full meal — savoury or sweet, never both. The classic order is a pannenkoek met spek (with bacon) drizzled in stroop. Children get them with apple and cinnamon. The pannenkoekenhuis tradition runs in old farmhouses and converted mills across the countryside, where you can sit at long tables and order a pancake the size of your face for the price of a sandwich. It’s the Sunday family lunch you’ll wish your grandmother had known about.
👉 Read the full story
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