Once home to artists like Picasso and Renoir, Volendam is a picturesque town on the western bank of the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea in Dutch). The Zuiderzee is roughly 60 miles long and 30 miles wide, but only about 15 feet deep. There is much more fascinating information concerning the history of the project to reclaim land from the sea at: http://www.unmuseum.org/7wonders/zunderzee.htm. Just a sample; the project was started in 1918. By the way, most of those windmills the Dutch are famous for were used to pump water out of the areas that were enclosed by dikes.
Back to Volendam, it is only about 10 miles north of Amsterdam which is near the southern end of the Zuiderzee. It is also near Edam, you know, the cheese town. Volendam has a population of about 22,000 and is a fairly new development. The town is situated at a place that used to be a dam. It is said that you can still see some citizens wearing the wooden shoes and on occasion some of the women still wear the traditional blouses and skirts of yesteryear. Most of our group stayed for a tour of Volendam and then went directly to Amsterdam by bus.