Alkmaar- Say Cheese!

Alkmaar is a town in the province of Noord Holland and is home to one of the few remaining traditional Dutch cheese markets. Open only on Fridays, it is one of the top tourist spots in the Netherlands and an important historical town.

As it was a Friday, our dad was unable to accompany us. Alkmaar is 170 kilometres from Eindhoven, but with direct trains every 1hour, it poses no problem with regards to getting there. In fact, travelling anywhere in Europe is easy as all the countries offer amazing connectivity with national as well as international destinations., be it bus, metro or train. So, we were off on our own to this faraway town with its cheeses. 

We met an couple from Delhi in the Alkmaar train station and we joined them as they too were headed for the cheese market. They were also on a tour of Europe, touring the Netherlands and other European countries from their hotel in Amsterdam. We were together for the better part of the next few hours.

The cheese market dates back to the 16th century A.D, once an important part of the city's income, it is today only for show, the upkeep of Dutch cheese tradition. The market is held in a square in front of the Alkmaar Kaas museum. Fat round blocks of sumptuous Gouda cheese are laid in neat rows in the square, a barrage of yellow to the eyes. The ringing of the bell signals the start of the market at 10 am. The samplers and traders then test the cheeses by using a special cheese scoop. They taste the cheese and they let us taste the cheese too, so good that everybody just want's to get some more. The buyer and the seller clap  their hands and shout out prices, the last clap clinches the deal. 

The cheese carriers set to work, carrying their  cheeses in a barrow hanging from their shoulders, totally weighing, we were told, 130 kilos to the weighing station and to load the truck. The stalls nearby sell all kinds of cheeses, mustard, an Indian masal variety, classic gouda and many more. We sampled few of the fresh cheeses and bought a few pillows of it. I was in seventh heaven, a cheese lover in a cheese paradise. We waved goodbye to our friends and promised to meet them at Keukenhof the next Sunday. 

The Netherlands is a country which has 25% off its land area below sea level and 50% land area only a metre above it. So the country regularly faced problems with flooding and large tracts of land submerged under lakes. The water from the lakes were drained by means of sluices and later windmills. Due to a lot of innovations such as the Archimedean screw and the perseverance of the Dutch water engineers, large areas known as polders were reclaimed from the sea. In fact, the Netherlands is made up of thousands of polders. The Netherlands has computerised pumping stations to drain lakes and maintain water levels, and the windmills are a thing of wonder and awe. 

Schermerhorn is a small village a few kilometres east of Alkmaar and is well connected by frequent buses. It is famous for its windmills, the three which had survived the long years of disuse, of the original seventeen in the area. It is one of the most photographed locations in the world and is surrounded by beautiful Tulip gardens. One windmill is now a museum, with the living quarters of the mill worker and the inner mechanisms of the windmill fully preserved and functional. The strong wind still drives the sails which in turn drives the water screw which still drives the water from the small canal under the mill, like a ghost of past days. The area was quiet, except for the creaking of the sails, and the whoosh of the wind, a calm and serene spot for a nice relaxing time. 

As for our trip to this village, we got a bus right in front of the Alkmaar train station and got off at a deserted stretch of the highway with only the windmills in sight and monster freight liners hurtling down the road. The return bus stand was just opposite, and we were assured of a 30 minute frequency bus service. We returned to Alkmaar after an hour with the windmills and got on a train to Eindhoven, bursting to tell my father about our first trip alone in Europe, a hundred kilometres away!