Page 187 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - The Netherlands

NOR TH HOLLAND  185

breweries now use. There is
also a reconstruction of an old
café interior. Under the same
roof is a lovely waterside café
and “tasting house” where 86
different beers, many of them
Dutch, can be sampled.
South of the kaasmarkt, on
the corner where Mient meets
Verdronkenoord, is the vismarkt
or fish market, which dates
back to the 1500s and was
still in use until 1998. The low,
colonnaded stalls are covered
to protect traders and their
wares from the elements,
and contain brick and stone
benches where catches of fish
Porters carrying cheese on sledges at Alkmaar’s traditional cheese market were displayed to customers.
The current buildings date
t Alkmaar of the cheese market is the back to the mid-18th century.
Nationaal Bier museum De Further along Verdronkenoord
Road map B3. * 94,000. @ Boom. Housed in an impressive is the Sint Laurenskerk or
£ n Waagplein 2 (072-5114284). 17th-century building, formerly Grote Kerk. This 15th-century
( Weekly market Sat; cheese the biggest brewery in the town, church has one of the most
market Fri morning, Apr–Sep.
∑ vvvhartvannoordholland.nl the museum explores a important organs in Europe,
millennium of beer drinking in built in 1639–46, and is
This old town has at least 400 the Netherlands. The museum noteworthy for its painting
monuments, and the street illustrates, for example, how in on the ceiling depicting
layout has barely changed over the Middle Ages Alkmaar the Last Judgment
the centuries. Along the canals, lacked a supply of safe by Jacob Cornelisz.
old merchants’ houses and small drinking water, so van Oostzanen.
courtyards can still be seen. The brewers would The scene was
Stedelijk Museum depicts the ship barrels of painted on nine
history of the town through clean water from wooden panels
paintings, videos and models. It the surrounding in 1518–1519.
also has a collection of paintings dunes and The Renaissance façade of the In 1885, due to
from the Bergen School of the streams, and then weigh house water damage,
1920s and 1930s. make it into beer. The the panels were
Alkmaar is famous for its collection of equipment shows taken to the Rijksmuseum,
traditional kaasmarkt (cheese the beer-making process over only to return during the
market), which is held every the last 100 years, from copper German occupation.
Friday morning from early April to vats, kettles, barrels and bottles
early September. The large yellow to examples of the modern E Stedelijk Museum
wheels of cheese arrive by barge. laboratory technology that Canadaplein 1. Tel 072-5489789.
They are tossed from the barges Open 10am–5pm Tue–Sun
by four groups of seven porters (to 7pm on Fri). Closed 1 Jan,
from the 400-year-old cheese 27 Apr, 25 Dec. & 7
∑ stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl
porters’ guild. The porters are
dressed in white and divided into E Waaggebouw and
guild groups by the colour of Kaasmuseum
their hats. The cheese is loaded Waagplein 2. Tel 072-5114284.
onto sledges, which the porters Open Mar & Oct: Mon–Sat, Apr–
run with to the waag gebouw Sep: daily; Nov–Feb: Sat. & 7
(public weigh house), where the E Nationaal Biermuseum
cheese is weighed. Once tasting De Boom
has taken place, the cheese is Houttil 1. Tel 072-5113801.
auctioned off by a system called Open Mon–Sat. Closed public hols.
handjeklap, with sellers clapping 7 ∑ biermuseum.nl
each other on the hands. The R Grote Kerk
Kaasmuseum (cheese museum) Koorstraat 2. Tel 072-5140707.
at the waaggebouw shows both Open Apr–May: 10am–4pm Thu–Sat;
modern and traditional methods The Biermuseum, where a variety of beers Jun–Sep: 10am–4pm Tue–Sun; during
of dairy farming. A little north can be sampled exhibitions. ∑ grotekerk-alkmaar.nl
For hotels and restaurants in this region see p397 and pp409–10

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