Sep 05 (Friday) – Alkmaar and the Cheese Market

This morning, we headed out early in a taxi to the car rental place where we picked up our car for the driving portion of our stay here in The Netherlands.  Fortunately, the car has a very good GPS system and we had no problem finding our way out of Amsterdam…except for the fact that a big chunk of the proposed route was closed. 

Traffic was pretty bad getting out of Amsterdam...a lot of bikes.  

We eventually got out of Amsterdam and headed into the Waterland area of The Netherlands with our first stop being Alkmaar.  The primary goal here in Alkmaar was to visit the weekly Cheese Market that is held here every Friday from spring to fall.  Found a large parking structure with a few empty stalls.  Fortunately, it was only a couple of blocks from the market square.

We got there very shortly after the market opened but the square was a mass of humanity. 

The square was cordoned off with barriers to keep the crowds back.  Ladies in native dress walked up and down the line selling big chunks of cheese and larger amounts of cheese in cooler bags. 

A large part of the square was covered in rows and rows of round orange wheels of cheese.  The way the system has operated since the 1300’s is that the cheese makers bring in their cheese where it is laid out in the square. 

The cheese is tested and tasted (saw some official looking guys in white lab coats that looked like they were doing this.)

A price is agreed upon, based on the quality of the cheese, and the cheese is loaded on to “berries”, eight to a load.  Berries are wooden cradle-like cheese carriers.  

The berries are then picked up by two carriers and taken into the huge (and beautiful) weighing building, weighed...

and then taken back out where they are loaded into carts...

and taken to the buyer’s waiting trucks, and sometime to the little boats on the adjacent canal. 

The carriers have quite a job.  Each cheese wheel weighs 25 to 30 pounds and with eight to a berry the load is well over 200 pounds. 

The operation was very enjoyable to watch. Fortunately, there was a small viewing stand set up on the square and Mary was able to find a seat near the top so she had good views.  We both spent nearly an hour watching what amounted to a ballet.

Eventually we decided to see more of the town.  But before we got out of the square we checked out the pop-up vendors that lined the canal beside the square.  

And we found an operation making Poffertjes, little mini-Dutch pancakes.   We watched them make them for a while and then bought a plate, with powdered sugar, chocolate sauce and strawberry jam.  What a tasty treat.

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Video of making poffertjes
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We got a better glimpse into the weigh building as we started our walk. 

Just down from the square was a boat giving canal tours, so we bought tickets and had a leisurely boat ride around the town.  Most of the tour was along canals in the newer sections of town. 

The boat traveled under a number of veeeerrrry low bridges.  We all had to duck down.

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Video of low bridge
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At one point we saw a huge bicycle race go by.  

The bikers were followed by cars with large numbers of bikes on the top. 

We cruised past this old icehouse that was used to store winter ice for use during the summer.

And we saw this statue of a polar bear peeing into a canal.  Don’t know the back story on a polar bear in The Netherlands but it made for an interesting sight. 

After the boat ride we headed out to do a bit of exploring in the old section of town.  Canals to walk along... 

pretty, narrow streets...

lots of people enjoying lunch or a coffee in the sunny weather... 

and some interesting shops and sidewalk entertainers. 

At one point we saw a store sign with the name Sweets and Antiques.

Thee was a lady out front making Belgian waffles.  She told us to check out the old store (the building was 400 years old) and take pictures.  The store was an enchanting hole-in-the-wall crammed with candies and sweets and very old decorations. 

And the building just looked and felt old and charming.

While wandering we saw the “menu”…a tray stuffed with the desserts of the day... 

and we were lost.  It was almost time for lunch and why not just have sweets for lunch.  The only place to eat was a very large table available up some narrow, steep stairs.

We were joined by a couple of ladies traveling in The Netherlands.  One was Dutch and the other German. 

Paul had the apple and cherry pie with whipped cream and a hot chocolate and Mary had a Belgian waffle with custard and cherries.  What a decadent lunch.

After eating we found the bathroom, as charming as the rest of the building... 

and spent some time photographing the decedant products for sale in the shop.

The it was off for some more walking...trying to burn off some of the sweets.  We saw a wedding couple...

on the steps of this beautiful building…

we think this car was waiting for the wedding couple. 

A pretty, old church... 

surrounded by another market and some interesting shops.

We eventually headed out mid-afternoon for our next location, the town of Hoorn.  We actually had visited Hoorn on our private tour but this is a good base for visiting the other sights we want to see in the area.

The countryside is lovely here with lots of windmills and tree lined roads.

Turns out, our hotel is right on the main square that we visited on our tour.  It is a hopping square with several restaurants with dozens of tables and chairs set up for drinking and dining,  And it was very busy.  Our hotel room overlooked the square.

Saw this note under our bed.  How funny.