The Dutch love cheese. From the train you can see massive fields with lush green grass. They have lots of cows. The result is cheese – buckets of cheese of every type and flavour. Every town we have been to has cheese shops – note the plural. These first photos were taken on a freezing cold day in Amsterdam. [Click on any pic to see full size.]
- Sarah outside a cheese shop on a very chilly day
- A peek inside a cheese store
- A wall of some thirty different types of cheeses
- What colour cheese would you like?
- Boer Jap – ever heard of it? – tastes delish
Alkmaar is about 40 minutes by train from Haarlem where we are staying. The train was a Sprinter which means it stops at pretty much every place along the way. Alkmaar is full of courtyards, canals, dozens of terraces and, of course, the world famous cheese market. Visiting a cheese market was second on our bucket list of things to do on our trip.
- The famous cheese market in Alkmaar
- You can carry over 200 pounds of cheese on one of these sleds
- Taking a break from moving the cheese
- Cheese rounds being unloaded
- Alkmaar market store