Classic Dutch sights

The things that make Holland "Holland"

★ Windmills: Zaanse Schans & Kinderdijk: As the countryside north of Amsterdam became industrialized over the first half of the 20th century, people realized that a way of life and mode of architecture was disappearing rapidly. In the late 1950s, dozens of local farms, houses, and windmills dating from that ever-popular 17th century were broken down, carted off, and reassembled into a kind of archetypal "traditional" village called Zaanse Schans...

★ Tulips: Keukenhof, Aalsmeer, & Bloembollenstreek: Between Haarlem and Leiden stretches a 19-mile strip of land known as the Bloembollenstreek, Amsterdam's bulb belt, home of the tulip. These lowlands along the North Sea are carpeted with mile upon mile of fields of gladioli, hyacinths, lilies, narcissi, daffodils, crocuses, irises, dahlias, and the mighty tulip...

Cheese: Gouda, Edam, & Alkmeer