Things to do in Alkmaar
Alkmaar has weighed its cheese since 1365 and had a guild of cheese carriers since 1593, and the Friday market still runs the old way. It is forty minutes from Amsterdam, and the town round the square is worth the rest of the morning.
- About forty minutes from Amsterdam
Why Alkmaar has a cheese market
In 1365 Alkmaar was given the right to weigh cheese, which made its square the place where the cheese of the surrounding countryside was graded, priced and sold. By 1612 the weigh house had four scales, and at its busiest, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the market ran four times a week and into the night.
The guild of cheese carriers was founded in 1593 and still has four teams, red, yellow, green and blue, led by a cheese father in an orange hat. The carriers work in pairs and move at a fixed trot, the kaasdragersdribbel, which keeps a loaded barrow from swinging. The market is more show than trade these days, but a faithful one, and the bargaining has never been improved on: buyer and seller slap each other’s hands until they agree a price.
The siege that gave the town its slogan
In 1573 a Spanish army besieged Alkmaar for seven weeks. On 23 September William of Orange ordered the dikes cut, the flooded fields forced the Spanish to withdraw on 8 October, and Alkmaar became the first Dutch city to beat off a Spanish army. The saying that the victory begins at Alkmaar dates from then, and the town still marks the anniversary every year as Alkmaar Ontzet.
Getting your bearings
The market takes over the Waagplein and everything else is within a few minutes of it: the beer museum and the Huis met de Kogel are two minutes away, the Grote Kerk seven, the Stedelijk Museum eight and the Beatles Museum about ten. Alkmaar also has half a dozen hidden courtyards of its own, the Hof van Sonoy among them. Only the railway station, a quarter of an hour to the north-west, is further.
Making a morning of it
A craft market sets up around the square on market mornings, and the cheese market itself is over by one o’clock. That leaves the afternoon for the rest of the town, or for the coast: the beaches at Bergen and Egmond are a short drive west, and Zaanse Schans and the old fishing villages on the IJsselmeer are not far to the south and east. We are based in Amsterdam and run day trips and fixed-price transfers, and we are glad to plan a morning around the Friday market. Message us on WhatsApp and we will tell you the price before you commit.
What to see
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The cheese market
On Friday mornings in season some 30,000 kilos of Gouda and Edam are laid out in rows on the Waagplein. At ten the bell rings, the cheeses are tested with a borer, and buyer and seller strike the deal by clapping hands. Then the cheese carriers' guild, in white with straw hats, trots the cheeses across the square on wooden barrows to be weighed in the Waag.
Driver’s tip: Be on the Waagplein by half past nine. The cheeses are already laid out, the carriers gather at the Waag in front of you, and you can get a place near the front before the bell at ten. If Friday morning does not suit you, the market is also held on Tuesday evenings in July and August.
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The Waag
The weigh house on the square began as a fourteenth-century chapel and was converted for weighing in the 1580s, and its tower was added around 1600. When the hour strikes, knights on horseback joust in the tower while a wooden trumpeter blows. The Dutch Cheese Museum is upstairs, and the tourist office is in the same building.
Driver’s tip: Be in the square when the hour strikes for the knights, then go up to the cheese museum, whose touch screens and films explain what the market outside is actually doing.
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The Grote Kerk
The great church of St Laurence, begun in 1470, has two famous organs: a choir organ of 1511, described as the oldest playable organ in the Netherlands, and a great organ of 1645 whose case was designed by Jacob van Campen, the architect of Amsterdam's town hall, now the Royal Palace.
Driver’s tip: Opening is seasonal and the church also hosts events, so check before you walk over, especially outside summer. Alkmaar has a second, Catholic St Laurence church from the 1860s, so ask for the Grote Kerk. It is seven minutes from the Waagplein.
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The canals and the Huis met de Kogel
The old centre is cut by canals, and in season boats leave from the Mient for a tour. A few steps from the Waagplein, on the Appelsteeg, the Huis met de Kogel is one of the last two medieval wooden houses in Alkmaar, with a cannonball set into the wall to recall the Spanish shot that hit it in the siege of 1573.
Driver’s tip: Look up, just below the roofline, for the cannonball. It is two minutes from the Waagplein and easy to walk straight past.
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The Beatles Museum
A museum that calls itself the largest Beatles museum in the world, in a building on the Pettemerstraat that also holds a museum of pirate radio ships and one of old audio and video equipment.
Driver’s tip: It is a fan's museum and keeps its own opening days; it is closed at the start of the week, so check before you walk the ten minutes north from the Waagplein. If your group is not already fond of the Beatles, it is the one entry here to skip.
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The National Beer Museum
A former brewery beside the Waagplein, parts of it seventeenth-century, opened as a museum in 1987, with two centuries of brewing equipment, delivery carts, posters and bottles, and a tasting room upstairs.
Driver’s tip: The cheese market ends at one, and this is two minutes from the Waag with a tasting room attached, which makes it the natural next stop.
Where is it?
Frequently asked questions
When is the Alkmaar cheese market?
Every Friday from the last Friday of March to the last Friday of September, from 10:00 to 13:00, on the Waagplein. In July and August there is also an evening market on Tuesdays, from 19:00 to 21:00. Times can change, so check the market's own website before you plan a day around it.
Is the cheese market real or a show?
A bit of both. The guild, the hand-clapping bargaining and the weighing follow the old procedure, but these days the market is mostly there for visitors rather than being how the Netherlands buys its cheese. It is none the worse for that.
How long do I need in Alkmaar?
A morning for the market and the Waag, then an hour or two for the Grote Kerk, the canals and one of the museums. Everything on this page is within about ten minutes on foot of the Waagplein; only the railway station is further.
Can you drive us to Alkmaar?
Yes. We are based in Amsterdam and drive anywhere in the Netherlands, and Alkmaar is about forty minutes away. Message us on WhatsApp with what you have in mind, the Friday market especially, and we will tell you the price before you commit to anything.