Today I hopped on a train for Enkhuizen, a small town northeast of Amsterdam. After reading my guidebooks, I decided this would be a good option for getting outside the city as there is a little open air folk museum. It was also an easy 55 minute train ride with no connections and covered by the I amsterdam city card. I was really hoping to get the train that would get me to Enkhuizen before 10:00 when my card expired. Luckily, everything worked out and my ticket to the Zuiderzee Museum was free! If you arrive by train, you can either walk or take a boat to the museum. I chose to take the boat there and walk back and both had great views of the large marina and the quaint town.

The Zuiderzee Museum is a neat place to visit, especially if you have kids . There are authentic Dutch buildings with exhibits on how life was in this area not long ago. There are people manning forges and making nets and smoking herring. I spent my time walking the cobbled pathways, looking at the wooden windmill and checking out the sheep and goats. There are several places to get a bite to eat. I had a hamburger and fries, which were both very good. The town is known for its herring, but I am not willing to try that so I can't comment on it other than it smells like fish. I thnk you could spend a good amount of time in the museum if you went in all the buildings and stopped to watch the people in action. It wasn't very busy (probably not as well known as some of the other folk museums) and made for an enjoyable visit.

The museum also has an indoor portion where there are exhibits on ships and the different villages that make up the area. I found that to be not as interesting as the outdoor portion and really only walked through to find the bathroom and then leave .

I made my way back to the train station and caught the 1:00 train back to Amsterdam. The train ride was just what I was looking for to get a glimpse of life outside the city. The train rides very quietly and I enjoyed looking out the window at the passing countryside. The land was flat and mostly farms for a good portion of the journey. Lots of sheep, cows and horses in pastures that are marked not by fences, but by mini-canals. I guess the animals won't cross the water and will stay in their own yards. There were lots of birds, especially swans. I saw a few wooden windmills, but mostly the large modern ones. The smaller towns were nice to ride through and see the back yard gardens of the houses. Most homes had their yards full of landscaping with very little grass to mow. Nice to have a glimpse into the normal way of life in the Netherlands.

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in Amsterdam. I did walk to see the Old Church, which is right on the border of the Red Light District . The church is closed to the public on Sundays but I walked around the exterior. It's interesting to see how the church exists right next to the very non-churchy Red Light District.

Next I had a delicious gelatto on the steps of the Royal Palace. I wandered the Flower Market some more and then sat by the pond in front of the Rijksmuseum to soak up some sun and watch the kids playing in the water. The water looked disgusting to me but they were having a great time! I also got a brie and tomato sandwich for dinner from one of the little stands in the park. It was a delicious way to end the day.

I'm glad I was able to get out of the city to see the countryside and a cute little town. Even with the train, I still managed to walk almost 6 miles! Tomorrow it's on to Bruges!