The Netherlands is so compact, that basing yourself in Amsterdam provides for a host of spectacular day trips only a short distance away: Zaanse Schans should definitely be on top of this list!
Only a short twenty-ish train trip away from Central Station (arriving at Koog-Zaandijk, with a fifteen minute walk to Zaanse Schans itself), you'll soon find yourself transported to a host of traditional Dutch windmills, never-ending fields filled with livestock, and the quaintest houses which are seriously cut-and-pasted out of some picture book.
For more information visit the official Zaanse Schans site here.
For more information visit the official Zaanse Schans site here.