Alkmaar

Alkmaar is a Dutch town in Holland and a great option for a short trip after visiting Amsterdam, especially if you like cheese, as this small town of about 94,000 inhabitants is famous for its traditional cheese market, which mainly specializes in local varieties and is held on Friday morning (from the first Friday in April until the first of September). In the center of the square called Plein Waag they have cheese stalls, yellow being for domestic consumption and red for export. Cheese carriers dressed in traditional costumes carry and load the cheese trucks after it's weighed on the scale (Waag).