Cheese and Windmills
Alkmaar is a small town about 35 km from Volendam and is famous for its cheese market — the largest in the world! Each Friday from April to September the central square is covered with wheels of cheese made by local producers. Buyers sample and select what they want, then costumed runners hustle off to the weigh house carrying sled-like contraptions holding eight rounds of cheese. Around the circumference of the square are vendors of all stripes selling cheese, handicrafts and food.
Here’s my first video, showing the action on the plaza and a near disaster in the adjacent canal…
Zaanse Schans, not far from Alkmaar, is a picturesque open-air museum famous for its working windmills and is a popular tourist stop. It’s actually a recreation of a 17th-century village created in the 1960s by local folks striving to preserve historic buildings from the ravages of industrialization. If you pay attention you may find a quiet corner…
