April 11, 2025

 By now I’m feeling like I’ve been in Europe for two months instead of just the 10 days that we’ve been here. We’ve seen so much.

Our first stop will be in Alkmaar where we hope to see the famous cheese market. I put the place into the GPS and it takes us right to the Alkmaar cheese market, but instead of finding a parking spot, it tries to take us in where all the vendors go. We’re quickly turned around and are able to find a really good parking spot right on one of the main streets.

The market only runs on Fridays and opens at 10 o’clock, but there are hundreds and hundreds of people  already waiting. There must be 200to 300 cheese rounds laid out amongst the tulips in the centre of St. Jan’s Square where the market is held. We wander around on the inner square until we are shooed away to find a spot behind the outer barriers. Good luck with that.


The cheese is loaded onto sling carriers, and moved by two men to be weighed  then sold and transported on carts to trucks. The crowd is shoulder to shoulder watching. Now we walk along the row of retail vendors where Richard stops and samples a variety and ends up buying three different types of cheese. It’s delicious and it’s going to make some good eating along the road.










Now it’s onto Volendam, an old fishing village on Markermeer Lake, known for its colourful wooden houses and old fishing boats. We walk along the narrow streets and sample some Dutch pancakes, of course and have a beer. What a beautiful day it is  









Our reservations are at Vander Valk in Almere so we make our way there. It is a beautiful chain of hotels in the Netherlands. 

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