Waterland, North Holland

At the beginning of February I went to Amsterdam for 3 days. During my first day there, I visited three small towns in a region called Waterland, just north of Amsterdam. I bought a 10€ daypass for the buses, and traveled around all day. I loved how easy and stress-free it was. What a wonderful way to see the countryside in a car-free way! There were even bike trails that far out, so if you visit during warm weather you can bike from Amsterdam to Waterland. Now for the first town…

Broek

I loved how it looked like a mini-Amsterdam, filled with canals lined with single-family homes. I saw a few sleeping ducks, and some flower-buds attempting to come up.

Monnickendam

This neat little port town was pretty cold and windy while I was there, but beautiful. The ducks splashing around to bathe themselves was especially adorable.

Marken

This town is isolated at the end of an extremely long spit of land. It’s tiny, and all the houses are extremely close together and painted white and dark green. Definitely worth it to come here!