Alkmaar is famous for the football team AZ and for its love of cheese.

The Cheese Market has been open since 1365. It is one of the oldest in the Netherlands and is open from the last Friday of March to the last Friday of September from 10 am to 1 pm.

The Cheese Market takes place on Waagplein and is one of the city’s biggest attractions for six months running.

It is a rite of passage for the organizers. It starts very early in the morning (7.00am) with the trucks unloading the cheeses and the “setters” arranging them. That’s about 2,500 cheeses!

Then the cheesemakers come and at 10.00am the Cheese Bell rings to open the cheese market to visitors.

The negotiation of cheese prices begins and when a lot is sold, it is then weighed to charge the correct weight to the buyer.

It is a very nice sight to see the Cheese Carriers walking at a certain tempo and half an hour before the market closes the last cheeses are loaded onto carts and taken to the buyers’ trucks.

PHOTO CREDITS: Youtube Channel – Nelly Pinay Dutch