Arrived in the Netherlands

We arrived in The Netherlands on 1 May.  Since our arrival we have been busy visiting Andrew's numerous relatives but also seeing some great sights and visiting interesting places.  The highlight was the cheese market in Alkmaar which is the biggest cheese market in the world.  But more of it lower down this page.  First a view of the wonderful multi-coloured fields of hyacinths.

This is a country of flowers  - and not only of tulips.  There are fields of flowers everywhere - so very Dutch.

Streets in Alkmaar, a municipality in Noord Holland. with a population of some 95,000 people.







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Below are photos of the cheese market in Alkmaar.   It is the biggest cheese market in the world and it has been operating for 400 years.  It is held every Friday these days and tourists come in hordes.  We were told that 7,000 people were there the day we attended.  The town is most famous for this cheese market.   If you don't believe this blog, check it out on Wikipedia :-)

This is the 600 year old weighing building.  It is of course older than the public market that is always held in front.

The full view of the tower.

The cheese carriers.  Each round of cheese weighs 12 1/2 kgs.  These guys are volunteers but some have been doing it for 30 years.

Through friends and influence, we were invited into the market enclosure and shown around by Hip who is a retired regional director of several agricultural colleges and is now the honorary quality controller at the cheese market.  To our shock and surprise we were briefly interviewed by the announcer at the market and told the assembled thousands that we were visiting from Australia.  We felt a little like Prince William and Princess Kate :-).

And this last shot is of Andrew closing negotiations on buying a 100 kg of cheese!!!!!!!!!  It was a fun morning.