Visit to Alkmaar

We visited the pretty town of Alkmaar again today.  We were last here on our visit to The Netherlands five years ago and we then went to the famous Alkmaar Cheese Market held each Saturday.  It is a great tourist attraction and as Sieska was friends with the organisers, on that occasion we received the royal treatment, were invited into the cordoned off centre of the market and interviewed by someone as visitors from Australia.  After that experience, anything was going to be an anti-climax so we did not go again this time.  We just wandered around the streets and the shops being tourists.

Alkmaar (pop 107,000) is about 3kms from Heiloo.  It is a an attractive town with fancy shops and lovely streets and houses.  There are no ugly towns in this country in my opinion.  And the people too are all attractive and nicely dressed.

The everpresent canal in the town.

Canals are everywhere in Holland.

The Grote Kerk.  The official name is Sint-Laurenskerk. It is celebrating its 500-year anniversary.

Here we three are having a nice cup of coffee in the afternoon sun.

A lovely Dutch house in the outskirts of Alkmaar.

This neighbourhood is around Heiloo and it shows, once again, the greenery that is everywhere in The Netherlands. 

Another tree-lined street.  There is a general feeling of spaciousness in the towns and being surrounded by nature and verdancy.