The Netherlands – Alkmaar

The next morning Gery took me to Alkmaar, the town in the north where my mom was born. The town was famous for its cheese market, and although the outdoor cheese market has long been out-moded, on Friday mornings they still re-enact the whole process so show tourists how it was done. Witness the cheese carriers hauling rounds of Gouda around the square…

Gery took me on a walk through town to show me the house where my mom and her 7 brothers and sisters lived until they came to Canada. Here’s me in front of the house:

I also went to the City museum in Alkmaar, which would have been more interesting had I been able to read Dutch. I did, however, get to see the painting on my great (great?) grandfather, a cheese carrier.

An Alkmaar street scene:

My cousin Ella met us in Alkmaar on Friday afternoon, and she and I took a boat tour through the canals. We had to duck to go under most of the bridges; the top of our boat floated only a couple of inches below the bottom of one of the bridges.

Before taking the bus home, we stopped for a quick croquette “from the wall.” Apparently it’s quite common to buy little snack from what is essentially a vending machine for deep-fried treats. It's amazing how slim the Dutch are with fast food like that...