Day 8: Alkmaar Cheese Market and Zuiderzee Museum

Day 8: Vrijday! (Friday)

.

Goed Morgen! Woke up real bright and early this morning to catch Bus 11 to Utrecht Central Station and take a train to Alkmaar. The 3 of us had Cruseli (again!) and yoghurt for breakfast, and tried out the Vla that Yixin bought from AH – our soon-to-be favourite hangout in Holland! I love it! It’s thick and tastes something like melted icecream – chocolatey with a subtle taste of banana. Rob bought a new Cruseli flavour – Apple, Cranberry and Kiwi for us to try, seeing that Jingwen and I LOVE Cruseli – we have been having it every day for breakfast and sometimes lunch to munch on! And we all agreed that it was more yummilicious than the multi-flavoured and Winter type that we had previously.

And the typical us decided to have Cruseli take-away to munch on during our 1 hour plus train trip to alkmaar, so we hunted out plastic bags and scooped a bunch in. So I guess now the Cruseli is almost gone haha! We’re the “Cereal Killers”! Packed this raisin cinnamon cake we got from AH some time back to munch on the way too!

.

Jwen and her cinnamoncake-killer pose

.

So, off we went to catch our bus – and ran to the bus (again, we seem to be running for our buses/ trains all the time) and we used our Eurail pass for the trip to Alkmaar, which on retrospect wasn’t at all necessary cos’ Joris sent us back, and the trip there was only about 7 Euros, which means that it was a waste of a day We ended up missing the train we wanted to take, but the frequency of the train was high, i.e. 1 every 15 – 30min (now I can’t remember which it was), so we hopped on to another train to Alkmaar.

Decided to attempt to get away without writing the date of travel on our Eurailpass (validated just yesterday) just for the fun of it, and if we didn’t get caught we would have the day free! But the journey wasn’t at all pleasant cos’ we had to keep a lookout for the conductors and there were a few stops in between Utrecht and Amsterdam, which made us quite uneasy. In the end, the conductors – yes 2 of them – came up the train at Amsterdam so Jwen and I hurriedly scribbled the date into the pass and it was checked by the conductor from behind (we only saw the conductor coming up from the front). And I guess the checks at Amsterdam is quite common, so it’s not wise to push your luck – well you can try acting like the blur tourist, and if – IF is the key word – you are lucky, the conductor may let you off with a warning but you might end up with a 40euro fine, payable on the spot. Gamble wisely!

So off the train we went – a first on this type of train for Jwen and I, and we just had to have a glance at the toilets on the train! Pretty comfortable ride to Alkmaar, and just as we got off the train, Joris called to say that he has reached and will be meeting us right outside Alkmaar train station!

When we stepped out of the station, there was a guide at the lamppost who was handing out maps of Alkmaar and pointing out the general direction of the Cheese Market to tourists like us, which was pretty handy, cos’ it seems like most of the people are going to the Cheese Market, which starts at 10am and ends at 12.30pm on Fridays. Say Cheese, Say Alkmaar! J

.

And Joris came! Was great meeting up with him after ONE whole year; it’s been quite some time. Cheese Market, here we come! J

.

A stroll through the streets and following the signposts led us right to the Market Square where the cheese auctions were held. It was sure lively and crowded there.

strolling down the streets

.

modern version of clogs – the (ugly) CROCS

.

Rows of vendors selling their wares which are mostly cheese and souvenirs alongside the canal next to the Market Square, and the Market Square was surrounded by people trying to catch a glimpse of the auction process, and of course the huge, round cheese.

cheese vendors!

.

pretty stained glass panels

.

Got a spot at the back and we could finally see what was going on, cos we couldn’t really see past the rows of heads. And there! An almost clear view of teams (differentiated by the different colours on their hats) loading cheese from the rows of cheese in the centre of the Square to their wagons, then back into the trucks outside of the Square. Some girls were dressed up in traditional Dutch costumes as well, and we got to try some cheese samples.

.

.

The Town Hall, which interior was used for storing and weighing cheese as well as conducting cheese auctions in the past. Now it houses the Cheese Museum.

.

The front of the Town Hall is the Market Square, the only live cheese auction in the NL takes place every Friday morning from 10am to 12pm. The cheese for auction are displayed in rows and rows of bright, cheery yellow and auctioned off publicly, though albeit more for tourists to have a look.

.

.

.

There are 4 parties, each distinguished by their hats of different colours such as green, red, yellow and blue. They first put down the carrier, load the cheese into the traditional carriers with curved bows, and carry them off with the harnessed attached to their neck and shoulders. It’s not as simple as it seems – the 2 carriers will have to work and walk in unison else the carrier will sway violently from side to side and dislodge the cheese from the thin planks across the curved bows.

.

The cute Dutch boy offering cheese samples to the curious spectators to try. Interested parties can purchase cheese directly from them.

.

Decided to pop into the Cheese Museum for a look. It was an interesting visit! The museum is rather small, but charming with its slanted roofs and floors, and we took our time browsing through the exhibits and of course, not forgetting to take pictures!

.

view of the Cheese Auction from the comfort of the market

.

old form of transportation for the cheese

.

old records of cheese auctioned in the past years

.

traditional Dutch costumes from various counties

.

weights used to compact the cheese into their round, solid forms

.

.

.

olden form of shredder we suppose?

.

Dutch ladies from different counties, distinguishable by their headgear and dresses

.

.

After which, we signed off in the guestbook and left for Zuiderzee Museum in Enkuizen!

.

Stopped along one of the stalls that were selling cheese and we tried this milky cheese with herbs. YUMMY!!!!! Joris had a car, so the four of us could go together. I love how the Tom-Toms (something like a GPS navigator system and route planner all in one) work! The trip took us about 45 minutes, and we passed by this large strip of road which had rows and rows of flowers in bright colours, I guess it’s some kind of nursery where they plant flowers for sale. Joris stopped at a petrol station so the girls could go take a look and take pictures! Attempted jumping shots on the sidewalk and Joris refused to jump HAHA. But the shots were not exactly successful, but good try! Munched on the raisin cinnamon cake we got from AH in the car too.

.

.

After which, it was on to the museum! J Reached the museum but couldn’t figure out where the entrance was though we could see part of the outdoor museum but it was separated from the main road to the museum by a short wall. Joris had to park his car somewhere else and it turned out that the entrance to the museum was on the other end of the street, we bought our tickets from there and headed into the museum.

.

.

Joris and his cashew sugee cookies from Bengawan Solo!

.

The weather was perfect – sunny with a slight breeze! The lake that stretches out to just about forever is actually ‘man-made’, cos’ part of NL is actually below sea-level, and if the sea is allowed to flow into the land, there is a danger of submerging most of Holland. Hence the dykes were built to contain the water and created a freshwater lake. There’s even a man-made island within the lake – Isomere.

.

.

.

attempts at doing the laundry in the strong wind

.

old fishing boats on the harbour

.

Strolled around to explore the different houses and learnt a little about how the people used to live, and the different occupations; there were demonstrations such as rope making from the stems of marijuana plants at various places scattered around the village.

.

.

their houses are really small!

.

Delft Blue tiled house

.

There was a candy shop in the village!!! Joris got some butter-milk like sweets for us to try J I still don’t quite like liquorice though the Dutch chew on them like candy.

.

Lunch was at this restaurant-café like place, and we were in the shade under the sun – best of both worlds! Jwen, Joris and I had this salmon sandwich thing, and Yixin had just a soup. I had my first dose of caffeine in the form of a cappuccino, which wasn’t too bad though I usually don’t drink cappuccinos. Jwen had this Rose wine-beer alcoholic drink which tasted more like fruit juice haha. But it tasted better than the beer I tried the day before, which was bitter :S

.

Popped by the post office in the town to mail our postcards! The stamps that was given to us were from the post-Euro times, so the denominations were different from the present Euro. Each postcard required $0.95 worth of postage, and the stamps came in two 70c and one 65c denominations. The postal man stamped a special Zuiderzee museum, Enkuizen postmark on the postcards, and they were ready to be mailed!

.

The postage stamps were rather unique, so Jwen, Yixin and I bought some back for remembrance and for further mailing purposes, though I’m not sure if they will be accepted. And Joris was just looking on in amusement cos’ we took pictures of just about everything – even the postcards we were sending cos’ we were afraid they wouldn’t reach, so we will just have the pictures for memory’s sake. Which was what I did for postcards I mailed from Korea, and sadly only 2 out of 3 reached their destinations.

.

.

We passed by an ancient Apotheek, and of course, being pharmacy students, we just had to have a look in there! There’s a symbol/ statue that indicates that the place is an Apotheek. It’s a figurehead of a man with his mouth wide open so that you can see the tonsils at the back of the throat. Apparently, the larger the figurehead, the more it will cost. We have yet to spot it at other Apotheeks (the modern ones), and we will try to spot if Lee’s pharmacy has it. The pharmacy that Joris is working in has one!

.

.

.

Went behind the counter to take a peek at the bottles of medications and weighing scales, tablet and pill makers and the likes. Interesting visit! And we took a picture with the friendly pharmacist ‘on duty’ – he’s a real, licensed pharmacist who has been working as one for the past 50plus years, and is currently working for 2 days in Zuiderzee museum’s pharmacy as a guide, and works another 2 days in a small pharmacy outside of the town. Pretty cool huh!

.

.

little girl playing with one of the traditional Dutch games, ironically named Chinese Checkers (or something like that)

.

old schoolroom

.

Joris and grilled herring! Herring is a very Dutch dish by the way; they usually eat it raw (and cleaned) with fresh onions. It’s a little salty and crisp with the fresh onions, and I like it very much!

.

.

And there concludes our visit to the outdoor museum!

.

Headed to the indoor museum which was dedicated to the whaling industry in Old Holland, which is now non-existent. Here, they have models of whaling boats, exhibits on whales and whale-spearing weapons. Didn’t find this as interesting as the outdoor museum though.

.

.

.

It was still rather early after the visit to the museum – about 5pm, but there is nowhere else that we wanted to go see, or either that most places will be closed by then or too far away. So we decided to head back home to Utrecht, and invited Joris along for dinner with us after asking Rob cos Rob’s cooking Mexican food today and we didn’t want to miss that! J

modern windmills on the highway

.

Joris drove on the road through the dyke, and across the reclaimed land, so we could see seawater on one side of the dyke, and freshwater on the other. The car stopped for the road-bridge to be lowered cos’ a ship was passing through, and it was the first time we’ve seen such a thing HAHA!

.