Edam
We were let off a bit outside of town. The walk in was pretty, and took us past the Bell Tower.
We passed our first cheese shop. Edam is, of course, known for its cheese--in particular Edam!
We ate breakfast of apple pie and tea (in my case, cappuccino for Katherine) on Edam's Dam Square,
before heading to see the Edam museum, in the home of a rich merchant dating from 1540. Very medieval.
We walked straight into the room that would have been the shop.
The family's bedrooms were up the stairway to the left.
The doors to the beds could be closed and these two rooms would then be able to be used for other purposes.
Back down and we walked towards the back of the house, first passing the kitchen in the middle of the house down a short set of stairs.
There was even a floating cellar just off the kitchen for storage that was on water and would move!
The back room was set up like an office.
Back up the hallway
to the stairs to the attic
Next across back to Dam Square and into the city hall, included in the entrance ticket.
(that is some beard)
We wandered around town pretty slowly, even for us, up to the Grote Kerk on the edge of town.
There is a cheese market in Edam every week on Wed., but we missed it because we were afraid of Wed.'s forecast, but we still wandered down to where the kaasmarkt (cheese market) would be.
Although there was no market, there was still a cheese shop to visit!
The shop sold cheeses from their local dairy, and had samples out for visitors to try.
The church wasn't open yet, but we wandered a bit through the graveyard.
We even met a friendly orange kitty who followed us around.
There is a cheese market in Edam every week on Wed., but we missed it because we were afraid of Wed.'s forecast, but we still wandered down to where the kaasmarkt (cheese market) would be.
Although there was no market, there was still a cheese shop to visit!
The shop sold cheeses from their local dairy, and had samples out for visitors to try.
After the samples, we went to a little bar for lunch.
I had the local dutch cheese sampler with bread and a cider.
Next we backtracked to see the church before continuing our walk through town and back to the bus station.
(we sat at the bench to the right)
I had the local dutch cheese sampler with bread and a cider.
(so much cheese!)
Next we backtracked to see the church before continuing our walk through town and back to the bus station.
Next back to the bus along a different road.
(and bridge).
Volendam
The bus let us off a little ways away from the waterfront of this fishing village.
When we reached the water, the town felt more like a boardwalk/resort.
The dock along the harbor was filled with little shops, restaurants, and fish stands.
(A statue of a woman waiting for her fisherman husband in traditional clothes)
The dock along the harbor was filled with little shops, restaurants, and fish stands.
If I hadn't already been stuffed with cheese, I would have tried something.
We were at the dock just a half hour or so for a couple of pictures. It was actually pretty full of tourists and we were excited to get to our next stop. So down we went to catch the ferry to Marken
with its 30 minute crossing.
with its 30 minute crossing.
Marken
Marken was an island and a traditional fishing village, but when the Zuiderzee was diked off in 1932 into a lake, it forced these salt water fisherman to basically adapt or find a new profession. Marken is now a penninsula, which brought tourists to the town and is why the town now is preserved.
The houses, painted green on the outside, were very colorful inside, with yellow and blue walls and covered in pottery and other decorations. We stopped first at a house right on the harbor that was still set up the traditional way,
complete with box beds (one on top for the parents, and a cupboard underneath for the kids (4 of then in one bed).
These beds had doors that could be closed to make the room more multi functional.
We shared a snack of poffertjes (small dutch pancakes) with strawberries found at a little stand nearby.
After our snack, we walked up from the Havenbuurt (Harbor neighborhood)
The cool thing about this fishing village is that the town traditions, including clothing and homes, have been preserved (although now the clothing is just for special occasions). The town museum showed the traditional clothes as well as a recreation of a living room.
After a jaunt through town to the church,
we made our way to the bus stop just outside to catch a 45 minute bus back to Amsterdam outskirts. A quick metro ride to Centraal station then to the Waterlooplein station near our hotel, we were back in the room to rest for an hour. Soon we were sitting down for a Thai dinner
(front room)
These beds had doors that could be closed to make the room more multi functional.
(Beautiful delft tiles above the fireplace)
(the tiny kitchen!)
We shared a snack of poffertjes (small dutch pancakes) with strawberries found at a little stand nearby.
After our snack, we walked up from the Havenbuurt (Harbor neighborhood)
to the Kerkbuurt (Church neighborhood).
The cool thing about this fishing village is that the town traditions, including clothing and homes, have been preserved (although now the clothing is just for special occasions). The town museum showed the traditional clothes as well as a recreation of a living room.
After a jaunt through town to the church,
we made our way to the bus stop just outside to catch a 45 minute bus back to Amsterdam outskirts. A quick metro ride to Centraal station then to the Waterlooplein station near our hotel, we were back in the room to rest for an hour. Soon we were sitting down for a Thai dinner
before a quick jaunt through Nieumarkt on our way back to the hotel.
This was probably the day I was most excited about because I thought it would be most similar to our Alsace triple-town self-guided adventure. I really liked Edam and Marken-- not so much Volendam. Which, now that I think about it, is kind of similar to how the Routes des Vins day went... I loved Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé, but Hunawihr was kind of "meh" except for that goat cheese salad, which I will talk about until the end of time, apparently (oh and I guess maybe the church wasn't bad). Volendam had no redeeming salad, so.... Anyway, comments:
ReplyDelete• Okay, literally every photo in this post is gorgeous, but OMG No. 3! *heart eyes emoji*
• OMG WAIT, NO. 11!! You have to frame that! And put it on Instagram!! I almost got hit by a car taking a vastly inferior photo of this cute bike and now I'm very annoyed at myself. I was probably distracted by the cheese shop across the street.
• The Dam Square photos are also really pretty. My comments on this post are getting redundant, sorry.
• Getting breakfast at that place-- which I think was actually a little hotel-- was actually stupidly difficult, remember? First, we sat outside at a table forever and no one bothered to stop by. Then, when we went inside and asked if they served breakfast, and the lady at first said "no" (thinking, I think, that we wanted a full English/American breakfast-type meal). Then when we clarified that we basically just wanted cake and coffee/tea, she mentioned the apple pie and we were like "OOH YAY!" But then it took forever to be served. :-P. It was worth the wait though! And in your photo, you can se both of our tables, haha. :-P.
• Your photo of breakfast also has the museum as a backdrop. Multi-purpose documentation!
• I actually really enjoyed the museum and thought it was fascinating. I was super-afraid that the creaky old stairs to the upper floors would collapse beneath my weight, though, as they were clearly constructed for mini-people who were only four feet tall.
• That kitty <3 <3 <3. This was a hard day for me because of Marley and so I still think that sweet kitty was a sign. <3.
• I thoroughly enjoyed sampling that cheese and felt guilty for not buying any. But it would have been so hard to lug around a giant wheel of cheese for 10 days (or, worse yet, I could have stress-eaten it in a moment of weakness).
• OMG OUR LUNCHHHHHHHH. I had the grilled edam sandwich and what appeared to be the dust-covered crumbs from the bottom of a bag of Doritos and it was basically the best food-related moment of my entire life.
• As mentioned above, was not a fan of Volendam. It reminded me of Myrtle Beach or something. Too touristy.
• The ferry ride to Marken was actually not as terrible as I was expecting. We chose our seats pretty well to minimize my boat-related issues.
• And Marken was definitely worth it becasue it was so cute!!
• I'd forgotten about those little pancakes! Nom nom nom. This is also the second picture in which I have assisted with modeling our food (the first was our first thing of fries back in Amsterdam). I definitely don't have a flair for hand modeling, LOL.
• Do you remember when that random guy complained about all the little flags, which I guess he thought were tacky? I loved them!
• Mmmm Thai food. We pretty much abandoned Dutch food, at least for dinner. Worth it though, my food was delish.