What to do when you’re working forty hours per week, and you have an insatiable craving to travel? You book a short weekend trip with friends. However, our desire to wander wasn’t the only reason for this trip; it was also the goodbye weekend of a friend who was going on her second journey around the world. Alkmaar would be our way to explore the Netherlands and to show her what she’d be missing the upcoming year(s).

Accomodation

There is no shortage of hotels in the Netherlands, but in smaller cities they tend to be a bit overpriced. We decided that our exploration of the country would be the best time to book an apartment through Airbnb for the first time. After only a few minutes of research we found the Cosy Apartment in Alkmaar which is rented out by Noortje & Karlijn.

This post is not really meant for telling you my experiences with Airbnb, but I’ll take a moment to tell you how surprisingly easy it was to use. This might help the ones who, like me, hesitate to use a site like this because the arrangements of apartments seems daunting. The moment I signed up and clicked on the property I was interested in a notification was sent to my email that I was allowed to book the property. I contacted the landlords to ask where it would be best to park my car and they answered straight away.

I booked the property due to the way it looked, due to the central location and the fact that there was free parking on the other side of the canal, which also had the added benefit that we could take a free ferry back across. This ferry doesn’t run on Sunday, so you have to be prepared to walk a little bit further – but at least parking is free! If you’re thinking of going to Alkmaar I can really recommend Noortje & Karlijn’s apartment.

We didn’t spend much time indoors of course, because this weekend was meant for exploring.

Old Town

A little bit of a history lesson for all of those who, like me, don’t know Alkmaar. The city is known as a cheese city. It’s only 40 km away from Amsterdam, which makes it a perfect day trip location when you’re visiting the capital. The city centre has maintained the 17th century cobblestone streets and canal networks. The first thing I noticed when walking around were all the old merchant shops; butchers, goldsmiths and other old crafts. Nowadays, they’re home to new stores but the signage remains intact. It’s like walking through a completely different Holland and seeing a side of my country which has not been preserved in the bigger cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague).

House with the Cannonball

I was happily taking pictures of the merchant shops when a passer-by told me to look up at the cannonball. At first I thought I misunderstood, until I saw the actual cannonball sticking from the house. This house is aptly named ‘house with the cannonball’ and it obviously gets its name from the fact that it was struck by a Spanish cannonball, during the Siege of Alkmaar in 1573. The occupants, the Calvinist preacher Jan Arendsz and his family, were unharmed. What an amazing sight, right? Have you ever seen a cannonball sticking from a house before?

De Waag

The famous cheese market is held on Waagplein from April to September. I’ll make my way there one day, but on this particularly trip in January the square was eerily quiet.

If you’re still thinking about the house with the cannonball, you might assume these men are selling cannonballs. At least, that’s what I thought at first. However, we’re in Alkmaar so they’re obviously balls of cheese.

Cheese Museum

Everyday throughout the year (even in winter), the magic happens inside de Waag building. There you’ll find VVV (tourist office) and the Cheese Museum. The Dutch Cheese Museum is dedicated to all things cheese, which is a really important part of Dutch history and culture. The museum shows the history of cheese-making, dairy farming and cheese trade. There are some interactive elements as well which would be fun for children (and which we enjoyed as well). Entrance to the museum is 4 euro.

National Beer Museum

If someone can explain to me why the National Beer Museum is located in Alkmaar, I’d be very happy to find out. The museum is housed in a former brewery, but Alkmaar does not produce its own beer anymore.

We have so many famous national beers (Heineken, Grolsch, Brand, Amstel), yet the National Beer Museum is located in a city which produces none. Regardless, the museum is lovely; it shows the different tools, equipment and machines that played a key role in the production of the “golden brew” in the past centuries.

I’ve been to the old Guiness factory before, what I like about the National Beer Museum is that it doesn’t focus on just one beer. It looks at all national beers.

There’s even a replica of a bar of a Dutch Student Association from Leiden, which is covered in sand. The reason for this (according to our tour guide) is that you never see rats and mice running around on the beach. Call me gullible, but I like to believe this funny analogy.

After seeing so many beers, we were craving to try one. Luckily, when you buy your ticket to the museum you get a ticket to enjoy one free beer at De Boom Tasting Cellar below the museum.

I tried the Wittekerke Rose beer which I liked….

… and a Grimbergen which was OK. In hindsight I realise that neither of these beers was Dutch, both are Belgian.

Wine and Dine

Beer wasn’t the only “meal” we had during our stay in Alkmaar. I have to start by saying we didn’t try out any of the restaurants and cafes on Waagplein, even though some of them came highly recommended by other friends.

‘t Friethuys
Instead we stumbled upon ‘t Friethuys in one of the side alleys of Waagplein. One of the national newspapers has given this chippie (fries shop) a 9.5 out of 10 for its fries, so obviously we had to try them. You can wake me up for a portion of fries with saté sauce and mayonnaise. These were delicious!

TOP Eten & Drinken
We visited TOP Eten & Drinken of the church square for a nice pie and some coffee.

Portofino
In the evening, we opted for some Italian food at Portofino. It was incredibly busy on Saturday, but the waiters managed to arrange a table for us. I like it when the staff seems to be going out of their way to accommodate walk-ins.

1480 Foodbar

Our choice for breakfast venue was beautiful, mainly because of the industrial style and the spacious seating arrangements. Not to mention the fact that it was one of the only restaurants open on a Sunday morning. We weren’t spoilt for choice, but we were happy with the restaurant nevertheless.

Conclusion

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Alkmaar is a great city to visit on a day trip from Amsterdam. Actually, since the Netherlands is a small country, it would do perfectly fine as a day trip location from anywhere. I would advise you to go to Alkmaar in the summer and spring months to see the Cheese Market. It’s quite a happening and I don’t think you’d want to miss it if you have the opportunity to visit once. This is the first city I have visited in the province Noord-Holland and it didn’t disappoint!

Have you visited Noord-Holland? What was your favourite town or small city?