Buying Dutch Souvenirs in Volendam, Holland

Since we still have two hours to spend, my mom and I continued our wandering in fisherman town of Volendam. The town is not big I started to wonder if I should have called it a village instead. But, tourism seems to be going on very well in the town because there are so many shops in the main street of Volendam. In fact, this is where we can buy Dutch souvenirs in Holland.

For a start, there are cow bells. I am not sure if anyone's going to like a bell because as far as I know, none of my friends are bell-collector. Let's moving on to the object. 

The next item is only appealing to you if you have green fingers. They are the seeds for tulips. Nobody in our tour group bought it because there is no way a tulip can blossom in a tropical country. The tropical weather is too hot for the tulips. A pity, but I guess we have to say bye-bye to tulips. If you want to see a lot of tulips in Holland, you should go during spring (mid-March to mid-May) and you will be able to see a patch of colorful tulips everywhere in Holland. 

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For those of you who live in tropical countries, I guess you can buy the alternative to the real tulips. The tulips are made from wood. Wooden tulips, they are. 

My mom is a fridge-magnet collector so she is more interested in checking out the next souvenir that we saw. A row of magnets of historical buildings in Holland. 

There are traditional costumes that you can rent and take picture with to show that you have visited Holland. So, if you have a lot of time to kill, you should check it out after buying a lot of souvenirs. 

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Lunch at De Koe Restaurant, Volendam

After wandering around Volendam city centre for a good 30 minutes, our tour guide called us over to De Koe Restaurant to eat lunch. Just a perfect timing because the seafood platter which I shared with my mum was not filling enough for both of us, big-eaters. The restaurant has been around for a long time since 1922.

The lunch menu provided to us consist of appetiser, main and dessert. For the appetiser, we have the yellowish vegetable soup. Light soup nice enough to warm ourselves after a cold day outside. Taste wise...to be honest, we are quite used to heavy seasoning applied to all our food in Asia. As a result, soups offered at De Koe Restaurant feels kinda bland to my palate.

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For the main, De Koe Restaurant served us Chicken Fillet with beans and carrots at the side. The main does not look like it's a lot but De Koe Restaurant sells the set of soup + main at EUR 17.00. So I suppose, it's cheaper than buying the soup and the main separately. 

The owner of the restaurant threw us a surprise by giving us complimentary vanilla ice cream. Simple and yet, sweet gesture. From the ice cream, we can feel that the European cows produce different milk from what we used to drink in Asia counterparts. It taste pretty good! 

The owner told us that the restaurant is used to cater for tourist group and he likes to chat with tourists from so many other countries. The waitresses at De Koe will dress up in traditional Volendam costume (which you can also try on and take photograph with at the nearby costume/ photography store). De Koe Restaurant opens seven days a week from 10AM so you can visit them any day of the year. 

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A Day Trip to Volendam

Volendam is really a quiet beautiful seaside town. The houses at Volendam are all pretty to look at and the owner of the houses really decorate the inside of their house. Tourists can actually take a peek inside their house because the owners do not really pull down the window's curtains. 

If you are looking for souvenirs to bring home from Holland, you can buy them in Volendam. There are a number of souvenir stores in the town centre. 

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Windmill stick, anyone? 

There is a three storeys cafe called The Haven Cat which seems to be pretty popular with the tourists. Too bad we did not have enough time for a cuppa of coffee at The Haven Cat. 

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A Wonderful Town Called Volendam

Twenty kilometres north from Amsterdam, you will arrive at Volendam, which is sometimes called "the pearl of the Zuiderzee". Volendam is a highly popular tourist destination. You'll find many traditional costumes, wooden shoes, and Holland souvenirs here.

The houses in Volendam is indeed a pretty sight for us, tourists. I noticed that the owner of the house did not even bother to close the curtain because they have decorated the inside of the house beautifully. I think they purposely set up the inside like that for the tourists' eyes too. 

We walked from the car park to the main area of Volendam, where all the shops and restaurants are located side by side. As you can see, it's a typical town centre with all the old houses. 

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If you like to try out local delicacies, you can get some food to try in Volendam too. Our eyes were immediately fixed on the signboard whenever food is involved. 

Since Volendam is located near to the sea, a lot of seafood items are displayed on the food stall. We tried out a the mini seafood platter. 

The seafood is not bad but I wish they can be warmer. I wonder if the locals like to eat their fried seafood cold. Hmm. 

This is only the appetiser of our day in Volendam. Can't wait to explore the little town more. 

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