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Today, approximately 27 percent of the Netherlands is actually below sea level. This area is home to over 60 percent of the country's population of 15.8 million people. My mom read me a book when I was a little girl called "The Little Dutch Twins", and ever since then, I have wanted to see a windmill work, and see how the dykes keep the water out of the land. So, one of the places we visited was a village called Zaanse Schans, where we could see both things. 
We learned that to make a "polder" (area of reclaimed land), a canal is dug around the portion of land, and that large canal is called the "ring canal". The dyke is between this canal, and the polder region. Then there are smaller canals built all through the polder, and the water that keeps seeping up and into the polder drains into (or is pumped into) the smaller canals. The water in the small canals is then pumped up and out of the polder into the ring canal. Here I am, standing on top of the ring canal dyke at Zaanse Schans.
On the picture below, if you look closely, I think you will be able to see that the water on the left is much higher than the water and land in the polder on the right side of the dyke: 
The picture below shows a portion of the polder which is not getting drained as it should. There were pools of water forming all over. Hey! Where's that little dutch kid? We need his finger in the dyke!
While we were at Zaanse Schans, we were able to go inside one of the 4 working windmills. 
This one was grinding chalk to be used in paint pigment. I was a chicken and wouldn't go up the very, very high, very, very steep :-) ladder to the top part of the mill, but Mike did, and took some pictures of the inner workings. "You go ahead up that ladder honey, I'll look at the pictures when you get down!" The ladder was about 3 times as high as you can see here.
They have a wooden shoe maker in Zaanse Schans, and they advertised demonstrations to show how the shoes are carved. When I asked when the next demo would be, he said they have to have a "group". I told him that 2 was a group, but he didn't think so. Oh well, maybe next time. 
Look at this wall of shoes! I fear that these were not actually made at this shop, however. We saw these same shoes in every tourist shop in Holland. Do I smell a tourist trap??
I'll end this chapter with one of my favorite picture of Zaanse Schans. Sorry about all the windmill pictures, but I was LOVING the windmills!!! We actually had a tiny bit of blue sky for just a minute while Mike took this!
Next stop, Keukenhof Gardens!
This one was grinding chalk to be used in paint pigment. I was a chicken and wouldn't go up the very, very high, very, very steep :-) ladder to the top part of the mill, but Mike did, and took some pictures of the inner workings. "You go ahead up that ladder honey, I'll look at the pictures when you get down!" The ladder was about 3 times as high as you can see here.They have a wooden shoe maker in Zaanse Schans, and they advertised demonstrations to show how the shoes are carved. When I asked when the next demo would be, he said they have to have a "group". I told him that 2 was a group, but he didn't think so. Oh well, maybe next time. Look at this wall of shoes! I fear that these were not actually made at this shop, however. We saw these same shoes in every tourist shop in Holland. Do I smell a tourist trap??I'll end this chapter with one of my favorite picture of Zaanse Schans. Sorry about all the windmill pictures, but I was LOVING the windmills!!! We actually had a tiny bit of blue sky for just a minute while Mike took this!Next stop, Keukenhof Gardens!
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