Holiday apartment in Alkmaar: culture, cheese market and Eilandspolder

Alkmaar combines urban history, museums and the polder landscape that characterises North Holland. Historic buildings, eventful stories, creative city routes and protected natural areas come together to create a diverse picture of the city and its immediate surroundings.

Culture

The permanent exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar includes works by artists of the Bergen School. These include Else Berg, Mommie Schwarz, Leo Gestel, Dirk Filarski, Gerrit Willem van Blaaderen, Arnout Colnot, and Piet and Matthieu Wiegman. Grote Kerk Alkmaar preserves two historic organs that are still playable, the ceiling painting “The Last Judgement” and Fiona Tan’s artwork “Het Grote Raam”.

The “De Grote Zerk” app offers a unique perspective on the church building, with information about the 1,755 gravestones on the floor of Grote Kerk. The church also offers the free interactive VerhalenVangers tour. Visitors use a tablet to solve tasks and discover stories about the building and its treasures.

In De Rijp, Museum In ’t Houten Huis is housed in an 18th-century wooden building. It conveys the history of whaling on Schermereiland and the history of its seafarers, covers herring fishing, whaling and shipping, and displays nautical charts, ship’s logs and prints. In Schermerhorn stands the Museummolen, the middle one of three mills. It is open to visitors from 1 April to 1 November. There, visitors can see how a water mill works and how the Schermerpolder was created 400 years ago by draining the Schermeer. The visitor centre and the mill yard are wheelchair accessible, but the mill itself is not.

Historical traces are also firmly embedded in the cityscape: the city centre, De Rijp and the Westerhoutkwartier are officially protected townscapes. The Nieuwburg site in the Oudorperpolder has the status of a national archaeological monument.

Traditions

The Dutch Cheese Museum is located in the Waaggebouw, overlooking Waagplein. The cheese market takes place there every Friday from April to October. The museum focuses on the history of cheese production and Dutch rural life; historical artefacts and paintings bring these subjects to life. A viewer using augmented reality technology also makes it possible to experience the cheese market at the museum all year round.

Alkmaars Ontzet is celebrated annually on 8 October and is one of Alkmaar’s oldest traditions. The Leeghwaterdagen take place from April to September on the first Sunday of the month.

Routes

Several established routes explore the old city centre and its themes on foot. The 3.5-kilometre Stadswandeling Alkmaar explores the old city centre of Alkmaar. The 4.5-kilometre Monumentenwandeling passes Alkmaar’s most important monuments. “Kunst op Straat” is six kilometres long and passes special art objects, poems and other creative forms of expression in public spaces. The 3.2-kilometre “Vrouwen van Alkmaar” route presents stories about women who shaped the city of Alkmaar.

The Elfendeurtjesroute includes 26 elf doors at special locations and in shop windows in Alkmaar’s city centre. “De Alkmaar Code” is a puzzle walk through the city centre lasting approximately 1.5 hours, during which participants solve questions. The five-kilometre Stoeptegel walking routes by Alkmaar Sport consist of red, blue and yellow routes in and around the centre of Alkmaar, as well as an orange route in De Rijp.

The 5.6-kilometre “Bosrijk Alkmaar” route leads through Oosterhout Park, across the Bolwerk of the historic city centre, to Westhout and through the Alkmaarder Hout. For longer distances, the 20-kilometre Alkmaar–Noordeinde walk is available. It leads from Alkmaar via a ferry connection to De Schermer and into the Eilandspolder. The 14-kilometre “Haring en Hennep” route runs through the Eilandspolder and past villages such as Grootschermer, Noordeinde and De Rijp.

Nature

The seven-kilometre “Door de Eilandspolder” walking route starts in De Rijp and follows well-accessible paths through the Eilandspolder nature area. The Eilandspolder is a protected Natura 2000 nature area. A maximum speed of six kilometres per hour applies on its waterways.

For further exploration of the local landscape, the supplementary local pages lead to Koedijk, Alkmaar, Oudorp, Schermerhorn, Stompetoren and Driehuizen. Other local pages in the same higher-level area are Velsen and Enkhuizen.

To the higher-level travel overview: North Holland.