Alkmaar, Netherlands city tour and boat ride

travel videos & photos at: townsofeurope.com/ with text, maps & links.
We are visiting the small and historic Dutch city of Alkmaar. It's in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands about 10 km from the coast and 40 km northwest of Amsterdam. You might not spend the night here, but it makes a lovely daytrip destination with its large number of historic buildings, many shops large and small, lots of Dutch food, lovely canals and one important event.
Alkmaar is most famous for its cheese market that happens every week from March until the end of September and we have a complete separate movie about the cheese market that you can see here: • Alkmaar Cheese Market ...
In this vbideowe’re going to show you that there is a lot more to see in town besides the cheese market, so by all means spend a few more hours when you get here and walk around in the charming little pedestrian zone, and take a boat ride through the scenic canals passing a lot of very old brick bridges and buildings.
The historic center of the old city is relatively small, just about a kilometer across with several main shopping streets for pedestrians so you can easily walk around in a couple of hours and maybe take an hour for a meal and spend at least half a day here, or maybe the full day with the cheese market, then shopping, eating, strolling, and just enjoying the pedestrian atmosphere of this historic old city.
It's especially lively on cheese market day with lots of sidewalk stands set up selling crafts and foods, and clothing, all kinds of souvenirs, some big wooden shoes, and of course you'll have a variety of different types of locally produced cheeses.
The sidewalk stands are carrying on a long historical tradition because up until the 19th century, most food and agricultural products were traded on street markets.
We'll see a lot more of the city coming right up including a canal boat ride. But first a little discussion of how to get here.
Most visitors to Alkmaar are staying in Amsterdam and coming up here as a daytrip.
Perhaps the best way to get here is by train directly from Amsterdam Central Station -- just takes about 35 to 40 minutes to get up here and you will have the services of the excellent Dutch rail system with departures four times an hour on trains that are clean and smooth and not expensive.
Recapping our walk starting at the train station. We have gone through the middle of the old city and now have reached the center of the shopping and cultural area.
And here we've got sidestreets as well that are fascinating for strolling along and doing some more shopping.
These blocks in the city center preserve that 17th-century pattern of canals and narrow streets with many historic buildings we have reached the most beautiful part of Alkmaar.
Here are all of the elements of a traditional Dutch city come together what you would hope to find when you visit Holland old brick buildings along the canal Terrace restaurant with a view of the passing parade of people with shops and benches and flowerpots in the street lamps.
You might consider this the center of town with this impressive bridge in front of the Weigh House and leading across the canal to a lovely little shopping district with more of these pedestrian lanes with little boutiques tucked away. You could wander for hours.
This neighborhood in front of the Weigh House is action central for all the boats going through the town. Here you'll find several different choices for joining up with a boat tour. Some of them are just casual friends getting together, others are organized by various companies in town.

[@Ann-sb5kc]

Thank you for showing my old home town! Dankjewel ( thank you)

[@Eniola0ne]

My beloved City Second home, I lives in Alkmaar for 13 years out of 15 years I lives in Holland. I got married in Historical Town house, with my beautiful Dutch wife, may a soul rest in peace. Alkmaar heel moie bijzonder stad.

[@jackmundo4043]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@kanniammakanni9016]

Beautiful City, excellent video

[@AniMelArt]

Another excellent video!

[@leahrabinsky87]

Loved this Video of Alkmaar my beloved birth city , you are doing a great and lovely job Mr Callan , your enthausiasm makes people wanna go there instantly not only with this video but the other Netherlands videos as well and especially the dutch train system comment that was so nice . Thank you so much 🧀

[@brucekliewe7297]

Always enjoy your informative and well photographed presentations, Dennis. I had to smile at the young lady at 5:36 pedaling her way to school. I smiled but she certainly didn't look too happy to be school bound.

[@freudsigmund72]

5:13 fun fact: this location is about the wordt cycling infrastructure in Alkmaar.

[@santiagopalacio1200]

Soy de Argentina, conocí Alkmaar en 2015 y quedé encantado, ojalá pueda volver pronto. Es hermoso.

[@muhammadsheraz4487]

Wao, incredibly looking Great. Love to watch your travel videos , much love and respect from Pakistan. 🌷🌷🌷

[@AvtarSingh-sc4lv]

Nice small town, Thanks Dennis

[@lattelegend]

Beautiful city, very informative. I'll have to add this to my wish list for future travels.

[@ANTHONYBOOTH]

if you are riding to the beach from Amsterdam then don't bother with the train...- the bike ride to Alkmaar is GREAT also...

[@MaartenvanderVeeke]

3:15 thats Heiloo my home village🤩

[@denniscallan]

I'm glad I caught that for you!

[@arandomki]

A very nice city.

[@madanrudra3055]

Alkmaar is so fascinating. Thanks for ur this lovely video and ur information.

[@veena10rg]

Nice tour....

[@Zoza15]

I live there, At least in Heerhugowaard next to Alkmaar, yeah Alkmaar is ok pretty normal here..

[@surajnegi6326]

Very nice...

[@rpgr1095]

Very nice video! Lived in The Old City of Alkmaar for 30 years. Best regards!

[@sadharandas8737]

great video. thanks

[@alasanasanneh6943]

Great video 😍

[@alchemymelany4804]

Amazing channel! thank you

[@piepo5002]

Nice video, good information, clips, and speaking voice! We are planning to move from the big city in a small village next to Alkmaar. I have visited twice, but for a short time, so it was fun to have a tour for our future lives.

[@alasanasanneh6943]

I love NL ❤️

[@alinemontoro]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@rinryn_]

I am from alkmaar, and i saw my own house there

[@denniscallan]

That is nice to know. I hope my depiction of your city was correct and satisfactory for you. There is much more to Alkmaar than the cheese market, as you well know.

[@rinryn_]

Yes, it was a nice description and vid

[@denniscallan]

@@rinryn_ that is reassuring, thanks

[@HedgingBoy]

As always, an amazing video! I visited Amsterdam, The Hague and Zaanse Schans in Feb this year and your videos make me feel to visit the rest of the Netherlands as well. It's stunningly beautiful :)

[@abanana8956]

Hey do you know if alkmaar is good for fishing? Awesome video btw!

[@leopardtiger1022]

Lovely Alkmaar, I was in Alkmaar in 1971 with my girl friend.. Romantic trip Holland is always clean beautiful friendly Civilised country in Europe. The Dutch people are super and Dutch food products are pure clean delicious.

[@isabellarigby2372]

if you ever go to alkmaar don´t use the kraak use the grachten rondvaart alkmaar it is mutch better

[@denniscallan]

thanks for the tip.

[@MrMezmerized]

I am offended you said "small" city. We have 93,000 inhabitants! ;-)'

[@denniscallan]

Thank you for that update. I hope the rest of it is ok with you, and don't forget my cheese market movie, kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZbHfniad8ysbaM

[@MrMezmerized]

​@@denniscallan Yeah the rest is good. I also forgive the pronunciation. "Kerk" for instance is like "mEss" or "Escape". If you're still making travel videos, you can ask locals if you are not sure. I may watch the Cheese Market video later. I've lived 150m from the Waagplein for 14 years. And unlike most Alkmaarders (people tend to avoid their own big tourist hotspots), I've been there a few times. Once to film for my series "Tourist in eigen stad", meaning "Tourist in (your) own city". I feel people travel all over.... but often don't know much about great stuff nearby. I also filmed inside the Waag, including the cheese bearers' room which is normally off-limits, and I interviewed the Cheese Father (head of the guild). It was great fun. I never made any footage for the series into a video though.

[@denniscallan]

@@MrMezmerized Thanks for that info. I love your country and had no problem communicating since it seems everyone speaks excellent English, but the pronunciation remains a big challenge! When you finish watching the cheese market video try some of my other 23 movies about your country: kzbin.info/aero/PLke86NFI6R8yHA2T5e7P38pniCONuuN_3

[@nescio3698]

Please; try to say ‘Kerk’ with an E as in ‘Egg’. Now it sounds like its from space.

[@movo721]

Haha ‘Captain Kirk’ 😁

[@alasanasanneh6943]

I love NL ❤️