Alkmaar Cheese Market!

Friday was special because we were all free to spend the day together. We had never been to the Alkmaar cheese market, which is held on Friday mornings in the summer and Claire loves cheese, so we decided to check it out. Pete secured the ISA van again and we made the 45 minute drive North. We watched the fanfare for a bit, seeing the men running with the cheese on what I would call "cheese stretchers." It was taken off boats, into the weigh house, into the square and then away to delivery vans.

We bought some cheese from a stand and found a bakery to snack away. One of Pete's coworkers lives in Alkmaar and I had gotten some recommendations from her earlier in the week. We ran into her and another ISA member outside the bakery!

The story goes that Alkmaar made itself known in its defense against the Spanish and to reward their efforts, they were given weighing rights for cheese. Hence the cheese market here. And no, there's no such thing as "Alkmaar" cheese, unlike the other two big Dutch cheese markets in Edam and Gouda (which are cheese types, of course). 

Beautiful weigh house

Pete spotted a playground and played with the kids while M, C and I toured the church, surprisingly large and beautiful with brick walls and wood ceilings. So large in fact, that were was a cafe in one of the wings! I was really happy to see that all of the stained glass was like the one that I made at my workshop back in April. The small organ is the oldest in the Netherlands dating to the 1500s and is still operational. The organ (not sure large or small) was being played while we wandered around. Gezellig! 

Alkmaar had a lot of charm and was busy given the market day.

Of course there was a calliope and the kids couldn't get enough.

Please tell me it is a 4 year old boy thing to repeatedly say things like, "My butt, in your face. My butt, in your face." 😂

Side view of the weigh house 

Say "kaas!"

Lunch time