Day 3: Day Trip Part 2: Marken and Wooden Shoe Making

We got on a boat to the town of Marken, population 2000. Only about 60 families live there. We came here to see wooden shoe making. The town itself has a certain charm to it like Volendam. Some pics:

Clog Maker House

We then went to the clog maker house to see how wooden shoes were made. They gave us a demo and showed us the machines that make them. For whatever reason I just thought they would still be hand made, but I guess not. It is a dying craft, afterall who wants to wear wooden shoes now? Our tour guide said that wooden shoes are actually still wore by older people or sometimes people that work outside.

This machine cuts the outside of the clog.

This machine cuts the inside of the clog. There are more machines that follow up this process refining the inside of the wooden shoe.

These shoes were used for marriages.

Progression of the wooden shoe, from wood to clog, bottom to top.

Here's a video of the presentation on how wooden shoes are made:


After this I had to pee. Most bathrooms are not free in Holland, you gotta pay to pee. I paid 0.50 euros and took care of business. Then I tried on some wooden shoes. They are not comfortable, I don't know how people still wear it today. Oh well.

Me wearing some wooden shoes, they were not comfortable.

Other random things:
The Dutch people seem really proud of their cows, some even boasted about them to me and then said that Americans are not creative with our cows. I don't know, I don't think I could ever be proud of livestock but that's just me.

Modern windmills.

As we headed back to Amsterdam from Marken the tour guide pointed out these homes as 1 million euro homes for rich people.