Authentiek Nederland

We walk past the museum harbor into the historic heart of the village of Spakenburg. The shipyard (the oldest Botterwerf in the Netherlands) in the old harbor is still in operation. Dozens of botters are moored there.
All activity is centered around the Village Square, but all shops are closed as it is Easter Monday.

Meanwhile, it has started to rain and the few tourists are looking for a covered terrace.
We visit the Spakenburg museum, where we delve into the history of the village.
We end this visit with a coffee and the local delicacy: a Spakenburg cookie - a kind of dry cookie with lots of butter and finished with icing.

Day 2
After a heavy night with stormy winds, lots of rain and thunder, we start the day with the sun breaking through the clouds.
After cleaning up we drive further and arrive in the Hanseatic town of Elburg. We park on the edge of the town, 450 m from the historic centre. We are located at the large free parking lot De Oude Vos on the Havenkade. There are 15 reserved places for campers in the parking lot.
The centre used to be completely walled and the beautifully preserved city canal still surrounds the city centre.

We enter the city via the Vischpoort, one of the former entrance gates. We literally enter a world full of monuments. One historic building is next to the other. The small houses in the picturesque inner streets shine when you walk past.
Elburg is truly a pearl to visit and discover. The only disadvantage: you have walked around after an hour. The rectangular old core is barely 250 by 350 m in size.
You can extend your walk. Outside the ramparts you walk through beautiful surroundings.

After our visit to this beautiful town we continue our quest and drive into Flevoland to the former island of Urk.
Unfortunately, the Haven camper stopover on the Schipperkade (right in the centre) is full. You can park in the large surrounding parking lot, but staying overnight is prohibited. I have no doubt that several will spend the night anyway, but we decide to take a place further down for the night. And this in Camperpark 't Urkerbos (a beautiful camper place with all amenities just in front of the camping gate) about 3 km from the centre of Urk. A distance that can be perfectly covered by bike, but we do everything on foot.
But don't worry, tomorrow morning we drive back to the port. We will see if there is a spot available at the camper place. Now we enjoy the sun shining brightly until the evening.

Day 3
Once again we had a night of heavy rain showers. Fortunately we were standing on coarse gravel stones. The grass area was flooded. At 9.30am it stops raining.
As mentioned, after breakfast and the daily emptying of tanks and the like, we drive to the village of Urk.
Urk used to be an island, but after the reclamation of parts of the former Zuiderzee, which formed Flevoland, the island was connected to the mainland with a dike and Urk was no longer an island. Yet residents still say: we are 'on Urk' instead of 'in Urk'.
It is 10 am when we arrive at the Haven camper stopover, right in the centre of Urk. It is still full, but soon we are offered a place by departing campers.

So, it worked. After installing the camper we explore the village. There is still a great island feeling and we are greeted in a friendly manner by the local residents everywhere.
Keep in mind that Sunday is a day of rest for the still very religious Urks. It is best to plan your visit to the village during the week or on Saturday.
After walking around the working harbour, we walk through the old alleys ('ginkies') towards the fishermen's monument. These typical alleys give access to the back of the small houses. The fronts are then located on the parallel street.

We walk further, past the museum Het Oude Raadhuis, and arrive at the church on the sea, with the Urk fishermen's monument behind it. This is perhaps the most beautiful place in the village.
The image itself is a fisherman's wife looking out to sea from which her husband or lover should return. We stare out over the water for several minutes, a very peaceful moment.
The monument is a tribute to the fishermen who died at sea. There are more than 350 names on the stones surrounding the monument. We looked at the ages and found that the youngest were still children, barely 10 and 12 years old. When fishermen still die at sea, their names are added.

Day 4 and 5
Even though we were right in the centre of Urk (at the working harbor) and there was a lot of noise and traffic during the day, we had a quiet night.
We get back on the road and leave Flevoland. We enter North Holland via the province of Utrecht. Our destination is Alkmaar 118 km north. We arrive at the Alkmaar campsite around noon, where we book a place for 2 nights.
It is cloudy and there are still heavy gusts of wind. We keep it quiet for the rest of the afternoon and evening and stay in the warmth of the motorhome.
Alkmaar is known as thé cheese city of the Netherlands and today, day 5, is Friday, the day on which Alkmaar's main attraction takes place, namely the weekly cheese market on the Waagplein.
At the campsite gate we take the bus to Alkmaar station, from where we can walk to the center at our leisure.

The market is very popular at home and abroad and is very touristy. We experienced this immediately when we arrived at the Waagplein. The market starts at 10am and we were there at 10.15am. It was drumming among the masses, mainly German tourists. They stood in rows and marveled at the activities on the square. We were still able to get a seat in the stands, so we could still see something of the spectacle.

The market itself has an age-old tradition where traders trade their cheese since the year 1365! There are real market masters present who keep an eye on whether the cheeses are of good quality. There are 30,000 kilos of cheese on the market! The cheese girls happily walk past the people and sell bags of Beemster cheeses. The cheese carriers, with their white suits and colorful straw hats, walk back and forth on the square with their wooden berries (a berrie is a large platform on which 8 cheeses are transported). 2 cheese carriers hang the berrie on their shoulders to carry them and it can weigh more than 100 kilos!

After the price agreement for the cheeses (the balls are all Gouda cheese), the cheese carriers walk with the cheeses to the scales and then back. The “throwers” then throw the cheeses at each other to load them onto carts and leave the market.
At the end of the market, all tulips (with bulbs) that were among the cheeses were distributed free of charge to the spectators. The cheese market is a real spectacle that you must see when you are in the area!

It is now noon and time for lunch. After our meal we take a leisurely stroll around the old town, because Alkmaar has more to offer than just the cheese market. We stroll past the old houses with their gable roofs and stepped gables, the town hall, and there is a pleasant bustle in the Langestraat, the shopping street. If you want to experience more history, you can visit the Beer Museum or the Beatles Museum. Of course there is also the Cheese Museum on the Waagplein.

To rest our tired legs a bit, we board a tourist boat for a trip on the Alkmaar canals.
The water was high and the bridges were low, so care had to be taken when sailing under a bridge. We literally had to lie completely bent over so that our heads did not come into contact with the hard edge of the bridges. It was hilarious to see how everyone fell flat.
But it was fun on the water and we got a completely different view of the sights. We sailed past one of the six remaining “hofjes” (courtyard surrounded by small houses, often hidden behind a gate), namely the Wildemanshofje, located behind a beautiful building with a large statue of Hercules on the facade. This courtyard used to be intended for elderly widows and today only women live here.
On the way back to the campsite, by bus, we enjoyed our day.

Day 6
Today we are in Edam. You guessed it, cheese is once again in the spotlight. Edam cheese is known to everyone as the little red ball, but funny enough we didn't come across a single red ball in the whole of Edam. Traditionally, Edam has a yellow rind. The strange thing is that this cheese is not eaten much in the Netherlands itself, unlike abroad, so most of it is for export.
We install the motorhome at the Strandbad campsite, 30m from the Ijsselmeer. The weather is still a bit disappointing and the wind howls powerfully over the dark water, so powerful that we have to hold the door of the camper with both hands when opening it. During our entire stay at the campsite we have the company of four ducks, who come waddling every time I open the door. The fact that they got a bread crust a few times must have something to do with it.

In the afternoon we walk towards the old town. It is a beautiful walk along the canals with its typical bridges. The first one we encounter is the Pietersbrug, a wooden drawbridge, with a balance at the top, two arms with a heavy weight on one side.
After more than 2 km we reach the edge of the centre. The old cheese warehouses are located on the canal, from where the cheese was transported by water.

We soon arrive at the central location, the "Damplein". Most of the sights are located around here: the town hall, the old post building, the 15th century playground tower with its chimes, ... and the large cheese shop. This was overrun by many tourists, who had come especially from all corners of Europe (but mainly Germany) to buy cheese, but to taste even more. There was Edam, but the majority were Gouda cheeses in all flavors (cumin, pepper, green pesto, hot chili, truffle, lavender, etc.).

We were also tempted to take a bun with us, but we had already visited a branch of the store beforehand. This was located a little further on the Nieuwenhuyzepleintje and it was much quieter. We received a nice explanation about Edam cheese from the Volendam saleswoman. It is here that we purchased our stock of cheese.

Back to our tour: we continued walking along the nice streets, full of authentic houses. At the rear their boats were moored in the canals, where the water level was regulated by the servant lock.
A little further on we reach one of the oldest bridges in Edam: the Kwakelbrug. It is a narrow, wooden pedestrian bridge from the 18th century. It is also a drawbridge and the residents sometimes call it a seesaw bridge. There is a small shipyard next to the Kwakelbrug.
We stroll along the historic facades for a while, before returning to the campsite, to enjoy the terrace of the old postal building.

Day 7
It is and remains a dreary day; cloudy, wind and occasional drizzle. But we don't let the weather be a spoilsport and in the afternoon we take the motorhome to the island of Marken in the Ijsselmeer. Actually, it is no longer an island, as it is connected to the mainland by a dike and road.
We park the motorhome in the large central parking lot and take the time to see what the island has to offer. Here we still find the real old Holland!

The weather is kind to us; the wind almost disappeared and sometimes the sun broke through the clouds. We leave the parking lot via the Beatrix Bridge and start in the harbor area (ed.r. all bridges were named after a Dutch queen. The last bridge was named Maxima. In the future they will have to find a different solution for the Dutch queens, the islanders know neither). We walk past the really old houses and cottages built on stilts. These date from the time when the island was regularly flooded. But due to the embankment of the Ijsselmeer and the dikes around the island, flooding is a thing of the past. The usefulness of the poles disappeared and as a result living space was built under the houses, truly unique in their kind.

We walk further through narrow alleys and via the Wilhelmina Bridge we arrive in the "Kerkbuurt" (church neighbourhood). Once again one old house next to the other and even narrower alleys between the houses.
It's like we're walking in an open-air museum. Nothing is less true; the houses are all occupied and a few times a year even the traditional clothing is taken out of the wardrobe.

We leave the touristy part and walk to another authentic part of the island. The inhabitation of the island was founded by a monastic community. To protect against the water, hills (mounds) were constructed on which houses were built close together. The church in the Kerkbuurt is located on the highest point of the largest mound. In Marken, however, they say yard to a mound.
We walk past three built-up yards: Wittewerf, Grotewerf and Rozewerf.

Day 8
Welcome to Volendam. Once again we discover a gem, on to a day of authenticity. We place the motorhome 1.3 km from the centre at the camper park - Marinapark Volendam. A place with all amenities. Unlike the previous days (most of the campers were Germans), now it is the French who have the upper hand.
The original fishing village had many fishermen due to its favorable location on the water. The village is still known for its smoked eel. The population also differed from the rest of the province; They were not only largely Catholic, but also had their own costume and dialect. Occasionally you can still encounter someone wearing traditional clothing, unfortunately not us.
In the afternoon the sun breaks through the clouds and we walk towards the old port via the Hoogdijk and the windmill with its tulip field.

But the real old fishing life took place behind this harbor side. The crowds of tourists simply walk past and only pay attention to the shops and terraces. So do we, but we want to see more. In several places you will see stairs that lead to the lower area. We descend the stairs and end up in the Maze. In this oldest neighborhood of the village there are very nice, but above all authentic fishermen's houses. The houses are not built according to a clearly defined street pattern and we literally walk through a maze of streets, with original names such as: Doolhof, Oude Kom, het Dril, Havendijkje and Meerzijde. It is pleasant to walk there and, as mentioned, there are far fewer tourists.

Day 9
Monnickendam is located about 8 km from Volendam. The intention is to explore there too.
We follow the GPS coordinates and end up in parking lots in the middle of a walking area. No camper place to be found.
We look up the address and after many detours we find the harbor office. The entire area around the marina is being redeveloped, lanes have disappeared or been closed, others have been newly constructed. It's not difficult that the GPS didn't know what to do.
Finally, we reach the Waterland marina camper place. We have a nice spot with a view of the water.
After lunch we head towards the old town, which is about 800m from the camper place.
Just like Volendam, Monnickendam is located on the Markermeer, a small old fishing village with a history dating back to the Middle Ages. But only the Play Tower remains from this past. The tower contains the oldest still playing carillon in the world.

The centre is really small and you will find a number of houses with a special facade, but I find the visit a bit of a disappointment.
We still find a few idyllic spots on the water and in the vicinity of the wooden drawbridge.
There were hardly any tourists to be found there and there were not a single customer present in the few restaurants on the harbor. But he who seeks finds! In the Havenstraat we find a nice, beautifully decorated shop: De Koperen Vis. After a warming drink we return to the camper. The sun is shining and the wind has died down. We can enjoy another hour of peace and quiet.

Day 10
When you say Gouda, you immediately think of cheese. We are in this city because a traditional cheese market takes place here every week. Every Thursday morning, cheese is weighed according to old traditions and sold using the hand-clap process. Almost identical to the cheese market in Alkmaar that we visited last Friday.
It is Wednesday morning when we arrive at the only camper stopover in the city, namely the Klein Amerika parking lot, with the intention of spending the night there and visiting the cheese market on Thursday.
But the 30 planned places have all been taken (presumably all from Tuesday). No one was preparing to leave, which meant that they also intended to visit the market on Thursday. We and other motorhomes were able to park in another place, but in a short period of time there were already two inspections by enforcement with the announcement that overnight stays were not allowed in those places.
There was no other option than to explore the city, without the cheese market and then find another place to stay.

We walk into the old centre of the city. This historic part is not large and you can walk past the main sights in an hour. As in any historic city, the market is the center of all activity.
In the middle of the large market square you can visit the impressive town hall (when we were there, a wedding ceremony was taking place and the building was not accessible).

The Goudse waag (weighing house) is also located on the market. This antique building was previously used to weigh cheeses. Now you will find the tourist office there and above it the cheese and craft museum.
All around you will find numerous cafes and restaurants with large terraces. We also enjoyed lunch in one of those places, "the BarBier". A specialty shop with many beers. Nothing unusual for us, many beers are Belgian. You can even drink a Ghent strop there.
Gouda's best kept secret is also located on the market: the Kamphuisen syrup waffle factory. A secret passage in the store gives access to the factory. This visit is chargeable.
However, it is also fun to walk along the canals and in the small alleys around St. John's Church.

After our visit to the city we drive to a camper place about 7 km from Gouda. This on the Aantjes-Blokhuis dairy farm in Haastrecht. We pass the Streefland campsite: fully booked, and arrive at the camper site and receive the same message: fully booked. I went looking for the farmer anyway to ask for a place. He was very kind and willing, and it worked. We were able to park on the adjacent lawn and use electricity at the camper place (later in the evening another dozen campers arrived. The farmer initially did not want to use the field because the surface was not yet hard enough after the heavy rain of the past month).

Day 11
It is the last day of our search for the authentic Netherlands. In a photo promoting the Netherlands you will almost always find cheese, tulips or windmills. It is the windmills that get our attention today.
We are in Schiedam, where you will find the world's largest windmills. You see them appear everywhere above the roofs of the old city, not difficult with a height of up to 33 meters. The mills located on the canals were created by the city's jenever (gin) history. The malted grain used for the distilleries was ground in the mills.
We park the motorhome in the camper parking lot at Noordvest. You can also spend the night at that location.
20m from our camper we see the first mill: the Vrijheid. There are a total of six authentic windmills in the city.

We're going out but the weather is a real spoilsport. It is cold, raining and there is a strong northeasterly wind. Taking a photo of the mills does not go smoothly. An umbrella was necessary to prevent the camera from getting wet, but was difficult to control due to the strong wind. After spotting a number of windmills we walk towards the old city centre.

We didn't stay overnight at every place we visited. Below you will find the parking lots where we could park the motorhome:

Elburg - Parking lot De Oude Vos - Havenkade, Elburg
Marken - Central parking – Het Rietveld, Marken
Gouda - Official camper place Parking Klein Amerika - Klein Amerika 30 - GPS: n52.01185 o4.71576 - 8€/30pl - all amenities (! There are only 18 power connections 4A) - 300m to the centre
Schiedam - Parking Noordvest (CP) - Noordvest 40 - €7/6pl (max. 8m) - no facilities) next to the first mill - centre 200m

We conclude our discovery of Urk in the Old Bakery, with a coffee/tea, a delicious pastry and a pleasant chat with the bakers wife.

It is already past noon and on the advice of local residents we go to the restaurant in the back of the building in the working harbour. From the second floor we enjoy the view over the water and a delicious fish meal.

After lunch it is time to soak up a bit of history and visit the museum located in the Old Town Hall. We learn a lot about traditional costumes and Urk when it was still an island.
Through the museum we also have access to an old fisherman's house, furnished as it was in those days.

Marinapark Volendam - camper park - De Pieterman 1, Volendam - GPS: n52.48944 o5.05972 - 14€/36pl - all amenities included - centre 1.5 km - quiet camper place - person from the municipality will be received. Normally it is 20€ for 24 hours, but we only paid 14€ because we only stayed 1 night