Alkmaar cheese market

Image from Kaasmarkt Alkmaar

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Much more than simply an outdoor cheese shop, the Alkmaar Cheese Market is a morning out in itself. The largest of its kind anywhere in the world, this cheese market turns a square in central Alkmaar into a hive of activity, as the cheese carriers dart about, slaloming between thousands of Gouda cheese wheels lined up on the ground.

Hand clap

You see how cheese used to be traded, weighed and carried. Every week the cheese market is opened at 10 a.m. with the ringing of a bell by a special guest. There is also a traditional market around the cheese market.

At the cheese market, traders and farmers negotiate the cheese using the hand clapping method. You can see how the cheese is extensively tested. Then the cheeses are brought on a berrie by De Kaasdragers running to huge centuries-old scales in the Waagtoren. Here the cheese is weighed. After 11 a.m. you can also take a look at the enormous scales in the Waagtoren and let yourself be weighed on the ancient scales.