Last weekend we had a guest from abroad, so we thought we'd do a little sightseeing, so we could show our guest a bit of our beautiful country. And the fun thing about showing tourists around in your own country is that you often visit places you haven't visited yourself before 😀

As it was quite hot last Sunday, we decided to go and rent some bicycles somewhere. Our destination was the towns along the 'Ijsselmeer'; Edam, Volendam and Monnickendam.
Edam, Volendam, and Monnickendam are three historic towns in Northhern part of the Netherlands, not far from Amsterdam. They are very close to eachother, so quite similar, but they all have their own character. They have traditions in cheese, fishing, trading.

We started our journey in Edam, which you might know of the famous cheese that is produced there. The cheese is exported all over the world and you might even find it in your local supermarket too.
Edam has a nice historic center with narrow streets, canals and old buidlings.
The canals have some old tow bridges as well. We parked just outside the center and walked to the bicycle shop to get our bicycles.

Edam has profited from its location near the sea, which made it a perfect place for trading. And the popularity of the cheese made it a real rich town. You can tell the rich history by the many elegant houses that are richly decorated. Just like this one below.

In Edam you can find a couple of cheese shops where you can buy the original Edammer cheese. They also organize a cheese market in summer on a central square.

A view over one of the canalf through the town.

When cycling towards the inner sea we spotted a coule of traditional boats in the canal. We cycled aling this canal towards the former sea, I say former sea because it used to be an inland sea (Zuiderzee), but the construction of a huge dike; the Afsluitdijk turned it into a lake (Ijsselmeer). They did this to protect the land from the sea. The Zuiderzee caused floods and danger for people living nearby.
The Afsluitdijk was built between 1927 and 1932. So, it took about 5 years to finish. The dike is about 32 kilometers long. A giant project for those times.

We left Edam and set course to Volendam. Volendam is known for its traditional wooden fishermans houses. You can still find a lot of them in the town.

Volendam is also known for the harbour. You can always find a lot of tourists there. As you can see on the photo it was already pretty crowded when we arrived there. The harbor has been active since the 14th century, so it is very old.
After the aforementioned afsluitdijk was finished, the water of the Ijsselmeer turned from salt water into fresh water, which made the fisherman change their way of fishing. Not everyone was happy with that.

When we walked over the boulevard, we spotted some people in traditional costumes walking by. I unnoticeably tried to make a photo. I always feel a bit uncomfortable to take pictures of people, but a lot of tourists did it, so this time I did it as well.

After leaving Volendam, we headed towards Monnickendam. We were planning to have lunch there and then head back to our starting point. When cycling through the polder we enjoyed the wide view and... especially for our visitor; a typical Dutch windmill!

When we arrived in Monnickendam we went straight to the harbor to find a nice place to go for lunch. We found a nice restaurant that had a terrace on a boat that was in the harbor.
The boat moved a little down and up every time a waitress or new guests got on, which was kind of special. But after a while we didn't notice it anymore.

After a well deserved lunch we headed back to our starting point in Edam to return the bicycles. Our guest really liked the little tour we made, but we also enjoyed it ourselves. I had been to Volendam in the past, but never to the other two towns.
The three towns are really characteristic and you can see there is a lot of history in them.

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Friendlymoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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