And is the perfect side trip if you are visiting Amsterdam for longer than 2-3 days.
This is my second time in Marken actually. I was here 11 years ago when I visited the Dutchman in the Netherlands (I was not yet living here) and I insisted that we have to visit the pretty Zaandam villages: Edam, Volendam, Marken and Zaanse Schans. They are a stone’s throw away from Amsterdam.
Dutchman was a bit perplexed, ‘Huh? Why on earth would you want to visit these (strange) villages?’
And I’m like—‘DUH, you are Dutch so these villages won’t be of interest to you!’
Anyway, last month I was here with my cousin, Dr. Balin. I want to show her a quaint Dutch traditional village and Marken conforms to that idea. Naturally Dr. Balin was excited. She wants to see the country and not just the big cities like Amsterdam and Utrecht.
This former island, now a peninsula and part of the Waterland municipality is connected by a causeway to mainland Netherlands. It was a lovely drive to see a highway strip with water on both sides. This reminds me of my recent trip to Cuba when Blondine and I went to Cayo Coco and we drove on a similar causeway. Anyway, I will tell more about this later.
The pictures are below and if you want to know more about this pretty traditional Dutch village, read it here: Marken
There you have it!
Travel Period: September 2012
Destination: Marken (Waterland – North Holland), The Netherlands
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