The Zuiderzee was quite similar in concept to Historic Williamsburg in that you can explore the buildings, watch museum staff (in period dress) going about their tasks, and talk to them about daily life. Aunt Noreen, Uncle Tim and I wanted to go on the free walking tour, and amazingly enough, since we were the only English-speakers interested, we got a private tour of the place. Our guide spent over an hour and a half telling us stories, sharing facts, and answering Uncle Tim's perpetual stream of questions.
We stopped in to see practically every type of building, store or house of the era; some of the highlights included the sail maker, the laundromat, the cheese shop, a fish smokehouse, and a widow's house where she spent the afternoon cooking soup.For dinner that night (once we returned to the present day) we drove into the town of Hoorn which happened to be a very popular place for dinner. After a walk through downtown, we decided on Greek for dinner, only to be told they were full up. We encountered the same problem at three or four other places before landing in an Italian restaurant. It was a delicious meal; I had a personal pizza that would have been at least a medium pie in the US. However Uncle Tim took home the prize for best meal - fettuccine alfredo - because the server lit a half-round of alfredo on fire to melt the cheese before scraping it out and mixing it with the pasta.
