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    Alkmaar

    Netherlands

    Alkmaar

    CityCulture

    Alkmaar is the cheese city of the Netherlands: Cheese has been traded here since 1622, and from April to September, guild cheese carriers carry the yellow wheels across the market square on Friday mornings.

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    7. North Holland
    9. Alkmaar
    Alkmaar is the cheese city of the Netherlands: Cheese has been traded here since 1622, and from April to September, guild cheese carriers carry the yellow wheels across the market square on Friday mornings. The city is located approximately 50 kilometers northwest of Amsterdam between the North Sea and the IJsselmeer.The old town, with its canals, the 14th-century Weigh House, and the Late Gothic Laurenskerk, is compact. Alkmaar is proud of October 8, 1573, when the Spanish besiegers surrendered during the Eighty Years' War – a day still celebrated annually. The city has a population of around 112,000.
    Alkmaar has approximately 112,000 inhabitants and is located in the province of Noord-Holland, about 50 kilometers northwest of Amsterdam, between the North Sea and the IJsselmeer. The city is known for its cheese market, which has existed since 1622 and attracts around 300,000 visitors annually. Other attractions are located around the market square, home to the 14th-century Weigh House: the Laurenskerk, the Stedelijk Museum, and the De Boom Beer Museum, situated in a 17th-century building.

    Sights in Alkmaar

    Discover the most important sights and attractions

    Waag and Dutch Cheese Museum
    Museum

    1Waag and Dutch Cheese Museum

    The Weigh House at the Cheese Market dates from the 14th century. It houses the Dutch Cheese Museum, which tells the story of cheesemaking with historical objects, paintings, and demonstrations.
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    Great St Lawrence Church
    Church

    2Great St Lawrence Church

    The city's main church was built in the 15th and 16th centuries. It features two historic organs: one from 1511 and a large 17th-century organ linked to the name of organ builder Franz Caspar Schnitger.
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    Cheese Market (Kaasmarkt)
    Attraction

    3Cheese Market (Kaasmarkt)

    Since 1622, cheese has been traded in Alkmaar. The market is held Friday mornings from the first Friday in April to the first Friday in September, starting at 10 AM with the bell's ringing. The 1593-established guild's carriers work in four groups, identified by hat colours: red, green, blue, yellow. Around 300,000 people watch every year – come early if you want to stand at the front.
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    Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar
    Museum

    4Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar

    The Museum of Urban History and Art displays paintings by Old Masters from the 16th and 17th centuries, including an interior view of the Laurenskerk by Pieter Saenredam, as well as works related to the Siege of 1573.
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    Restaurants in Alkmaar

    1

    De Koffiemolen

    A café for coffee and breakfast on Ritsevoort Street.
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    2

    Javanese Maidens

    Asian fusion restaurant with cocktail bar on Houttil, right next to the Cheese Market.
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    3

    Sencha Lunchstore

    Café and lunch restaurant on Koorstraat near the Laurenskerk.
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    Cheese Market and Town History

    The Cheese MarketWhen: Friday mornings, from the first Friday of April to the first Friday of September, starting 10 AM with the bell's ringing.The Carriers: The Cheese Carriers' Guild dates from 1593. Four groups of seven carriers, in red, green, blue, and yellow hats, bring the cheese wheels to the Waag, led by the “Käsevater”.Also: The Dutch Cheese Museum in the Waag.Alkmaar 1573During the Eighty Years' War, Spanish troops besieged the city. The defenders held out, flooding surrounding polders; on October 8, 1573, the besiegers surrendered. Since then, the city bears the epithet “Alcmaria victrix” – the Victorious – and celebrates this day annually.

    Arrival

    Alkmaar has a train connection to the line from Amsterdam to Den Helder; a Sprinter also runs via Haarlem towards Hoorn. On Cheese Market Friday, the city centre is very crowded – arrive early then.

    Accommodations in Alkmaar

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    Nearby

    North Holland

    North Holland

    Noord-Holland is the peninsula between the North Sea and the IJsselmeer and, with Amsterdam, the most visited province of the Netherlands. Besides the capital, it features Haarlem, the cheese city Alkmaar, the old port towns Hoorn and Enkhuizen, and the Wadden Island Texel.More than half of the province consists of reclaimed polders. Behind the dunes of Kennemerland stretches flat geestland, north of Amsterdam the watery Waterland, and in the southeast the forests and heathlands of Het Gooi.
    Zaanse Schans

    Zaanse Schans

    The Zaanse Schans is a living open-air museum on the River Zaan north of Amsterdam: green wooden houses, craft workshops, and a series of working windmills show what the oldest industrial area of the Netherlands once looked like. With around 1.9 million visitors annually, it is one of the most visited destinations in the country.Between 1961 and 1974, many historic buildings from the Zaanstreek were moved here and reconstructed. On display are a paint mill, sawmills and oil mills, a clog workshop, a cheese factory, and the Zaans Museum covering the region's industrial history.
    Volendam

    Volendam

    Volendam is a former fishing village on the IJsselmeer north of Amsterdam, known for its harbor with old fishing boats and for the traditional costume with its high, pointed bonnet. Visitors have been coming here for this reason since about 1875.The village originated in 1357 when the citizens of the neighboring town of Edam built a new harbor and dammed up the old one. It belongs to the municipality of Edam-Volendam, has around 22,700 inhabitants, and, unlike its surroundings, remained Catholic during the Reformation. The pop music that originated here is also named after the Dutch word for eel, the "Palingsound."
    Haarlem

    Haarlem

    Haarlem is the capital of the province of Noord-Holland and is located just 19 kilometers west of Amsterdam – a canal city with a Gothic main church on the Grote Markt, picturesque 17th and 18th-century residential courtyards, and the oldest museum in the Netherlands. Many visitors combine it with a day trip from Amsterdam or with the beach, as the North Sea coast is only about seven kilometers away.The city on the Spaarne River has a population of around 169,000. In 1839, the first train in the Netherlands departed from here for Amsterdam; today's station building from 1908 is the country's only Art Nouveau train station.
    Amsterdam

    Amsterdam

    Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and by far its most visited destination: a city of 165 canals and almost 1,300 bridges, whose 17th-century canal ring has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2010. Here, Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" hangs in the Rijksmuseum, along with the world's most famous Van Gogh collection, and here stands the Anne Frank House.The city originated in the 13th century on a dam in the Amstel and is located on the IJ, a former sea inlet. With approximately 936,000 inhabitants, it is the country's largest city; however, the government and parliament are situated in The Hague, about 60 kilometers away.