I remember feeling super excited that day, knowing that I would visit Broek in Waterland Town, City of Hoorn and Enkhuizen City. The previous day, I had fun exploring Amsterdam city by foot, and had my travel bucket list checked when visiting Keukenhof Garden two days before.
For the third day, my focus would be the area on North Holland. Broek in Waterland, Hoorn, and Enkhuizen are all wonderful cities in North Holland province, and happen to be a harbour city as well. The later makes the place so close to water, or exist on top of waterland.
Broek in Waterland
Dubbed as the cleanest village in Netherland, Broek in Waterland is comparable to Giethoorn. However, I found Broek in Waterland more enchanting and straight out of storybook. It was once popular residence for merchants and seafarers from Amsterdam.
Broek in Waterland became known as the richest village of Holland, famous for the obsessive cleanliness of the housewives. In the eigheenth and nineteenth century it attracted many travellers and celebrities. Like Emperor Napoleon, who visited Broek in Waterland in 1811. He was very polite and even took off his shoes before walking into a house. At one house he was stopped by the maid from entering, because she just started mopping the hallway. The mighty Emperor had to wait for the floor to dry. (quoted from: experiencewaterland)
The charm of Broek in Waterland is the quiet waterland, dotted with traditional Dutch houses painted in colourful tones. I arrived around 7 in the morning when there’s nobody around. I took the stroll around the neighbourhood and admiring the pretty houses, but I didn’t take any boat ride.
To get here, I took bus number 316 from Amsterdam Centraal and it stopped at Broek in Waterland Bus Stop (picture below) after 20 minutes bus ride. Then I walked the main road parallelweg-Dropstraat-Havenrak and continued to Keerngouw. It would be nice to walk around the small lake, but I decided to take a look at its small canal before heading to Hoorn. Another buses service passing Broek in Waterland are bus number 312, 314, 315 and 316.
Hoorn
Located in Northwest of Netherland, Hoorn used to be a prosperous port city and a Dutch East India Company center. During 18th century, it lost a competition to its neighbouring Amsterdam and only served smaller villages in west Friesland. Cape Horn and Hoorn Islands were named after this city (source: Wikipedia).
Hoorn is located by Ijsselmeer Lake, the largest lake in Netherland. The beauty of this city lays on its tidy little town by the lake. Hundreds of boats docked on its harbour, a great companion to beautiful houses stand along the street of Veermanskade. I wander around the historical area of the city, from Veermanskade, Nieuwendam, before getting back to Hoorn Station and heading to the next destination. Some interesting spots that I found includes The Veermannskade waterfront, as well as Hoorn Grote Kerk.
Use Bus number Number 314 from Amsterdam Centrall (1 hour ride), or by Intercity Train to Enkhuizen (30 minutes).
Enkhuizen (Zuiderzee Museum)
I visited Enkhuizen to see Zuiderzee Museum and Drommedaris. Similar to Hoorn, Enkhuizen was also one of the harbour-city of the VOC, where the trade with east indies took place.
Zuiderzee Museum was probably my first Windmill Farm (and open museum) experience in Netherland. I went to the open museum only though, and it was the best experience that I had so far then. The “village museum” was preserved so as to resemble the actual former Zuidersee. Most of the buildings were authentic, and some were replicas. The important part of the late civiliation was also on display, such as the wind mills, steam laundry, drug store, pharmacy, basket maker, cheese warehouse and many other. Visitor can also ride a boat around Ijsselmeer Lake. To get the best experience, try to enter every post/activities/demonstration on display to immerse in the 18th century life in Zuidersee.
If you have ample time in Enkhuizen, take a detour to Drommedaris, an 16th-century town wall built as a defence tower. It is now a cultural center and cultural performance venue.
That day was one of the most memorable day in Netherland. If you are planning a trip to Netherland, try to explore other cities than amsterdam, and find your wonderful village just outside the capital city.
