Just say cheese !
Trip Start
Aug 19, 2010
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8
10
Trip End
Aug 29, 2010
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Alkmaar, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Friday, August 27, 2010
With that in mind, we ventured cautiously into Alkmaar to witness the world famous cheese market where the cheese carriers can be seen in action on the Waagplein square every Friday between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. during the summer (or so the guidebook says! Our Edam experience had prepared us to be wary about guidebooks.)
Cheese has been weighed in Alkmaar since 1635. The cheese carriers carry thousands of kilos of cheese from the Waagplein square to the weighing house every Friday but the market is for now just for the tourists as the real cheese trading takes place elsewhere.
Getting into Alkmaar was the first challenge - cars everywhere and the rain lashing down on us. I'm thinking a holiday in the Maldives or Sri Lanka might be on the cards for next year! But we managed to find a multi story car park and walked into town.
In common with Haarlam and Edam, the centre of Alkmaar was being set up for a funfair for the weekend. In Southampton, the fair is always tucked away on The Common; in Holland, the fair is right in the centre of town!
We followed the other tourists heading for the cheese market and huddled round the square under our umbrellas as girls in Dutch costumes walked round handing out cheese and the men started setting up the market.
Unfortunately, because of the rain, it wasn't quite as exciting as it could have been! But we saw the cheese carriers moving the cheese around and got the gist of what was going on.
Alkmaar was like a mini Amsterdam - canals and town houses but on a more compact scale.
We also ventured into the Alkmaar cheese museum and learnt all there is to know about the history of cheese and how it is made nowadays! We also learnt that the cheese carriers belong to a cheese guild and are divided into four teams. The colour of the cheese carriers hat denotes which team he belongs to.
In the afternoon, we returned to Schoorl for some more kibbeling and some shopping.
The rain had cleared up so it was very pleasant just wandering round the little shops, and we had coffee looking out over the dunes.
In the evening, we returned to the Honky Tonk restaurant for our final meal Schoorl. Afterwards we walked round to the local ice cream parlour, past the locals enjoying their salsa evening in one of the hotels, for some ice cream. I had two scoops: citroen and smurf!
I would definitely recommend Bergen and Schoorl as a holiday destination but a little more sun would have been nice!
